RIC® Cylinders

Compared to the direct  OVD deposition on a core rod, using the RIC process allows for the core rods to have a lower initial cladding. While direct deposition is a wet process, the RIC process is a dry process. The core rod’s cladding layer is preventing defects to affect the light guiding core. For the OVD process, this protective inner cladding needs to be sufficiently thick to prevent the diffusion of Hydrogen into the core, which would result in unwanted attenuation. As the RIC process is using electric furnaces to collapse the cylinder onto the core (more details  here ) there is a very limited risk of Hydrogen contamination and the core rod’s undoped portion can be thinner.

As the core rods usually are stretched from a mother core rod, the fiber equivalent per deposition machine can be increased, if the core takes up a larger portion of the mother preform.