About ceramic ferrule

Ceramic Ferrule Market Prospects

Optical fiber communication is a communication method in which light waves are used as information carriers and optical fibers are used as transmission media. Optical fiber communication technology is an important symbol of the world’s new technological revolution and the main transmission tool for various information in the future information society. It is also an important bridge for building modern communication networks.

On this “bridge”, there is an optical communication messenger who plays a unique and extremely important role. That is “ceramic ferrule”: a high-precision special ceramic component made of nano-zirconia ( ZrO 2 ) material through a series of formulations and processing. There is a microhole in the center to fix the optical fiber.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the optical fiber industry, the market demand for optical fiber ceramic ferrules has continued to grow. According to the “2020-2024 China Optical Fiber Ceramic Ferrule Market Analysis and Development Prospect Research Report” released by Xinsijie Industry Research Center, In 2019, the sales volume of my country’s optical fiber ceramic ferrules is about 4 billion. It is expected that with the increase in the number of 5G communication base stations in the future, the sales volume of China’s optical fiber ceramic ferrules is expected to maintain a growth rate of more than 15%, reaching 6 billion by 2022.

At present, the main manufacturers of optical fiber ceramic ferrules in the world are concentrated in China, Japan, Taiwan, China and other countries and regions. Among them, China has the highest output of optical fiber ceramic ferrules, accounting for about 96% of the global output of optical fiber ceramic ferrules. About 63% of them. It is expected that the demand for fiber optic ceramic ferrules will continue to rise driven by 5G. It is expected that the fiber optic ceramic ferrule industry will still maintain a growth trend in the next three years, and the industry has a good development prospect.

Ferrule Material Changes

Stainless steel: The earliest ferrule material used, but due to machining accuracy, wear resistance, aging performance, environmental adaptability and other reasons, it was basically eliminated.

Alumina: In the 1970s, it was replaced by other materials because the particles were about 15um and not easy to grind.

Glass ferrule: Due to poor processing accuracy and brittle materials, it cannot be applied in the field of connectors and turned to the field of fiber optic collimators. The advantage is that the thermal matching performance is close to that of glass materials such as optical fibers and lenses.

Molding: Developed due to the desire to reduce costs, but stagnated due to the inability to break through the index performance.

Nickel-based: New material application, but due to reasons such as high cost and poor performance, it failed to develop in the end.

ZrO ₂ ceramic ferrule: It has been widely used in the past two decades, with high processing precision, wear resistance, high hardness, good machinability, long service life, and can ensure good insertion loss and return loss.

The role and requirements of ceramic ferrule

• To ensure the connection of two optical fibers, the single-mode requires the axial deviation to be less than 1um, and the multi-mode requires the axial deviation to be less than 4um
• The product is wear-resistant and can be repeatedly inserted and removed
• The end is easy to process, and can be ground into a spherical surface and an oblique spherical surface
• The product is anti-aging and has a service life of more than 30 years. 5. The coefficient of thermal expansion and contraction of the material is small, and the environmental adaptability is strong