SI Diamond to diamond-coat fiber for Army
Plasmatron Coating Systems Inc. (Moorestown, NJ), a subsidiary of SI Diamond Technologies (Houston, TX), was awarded a $600,000 contract by the Army Communications-Electronics Command (Fort Monmouth, NJ) for the development of a system to apply a diamond-like protective coating to optical fiber. Diamond-like coatings are scratch resistant and durable and provide fiber with a hermetic seal, as compared to water-absorptive plastic coatings. The system will be developed under the two-year contract and integrated into the fiber draw tower operated for the Army by CeramOptics (Enfield, CT). Engineers at the David Sarnoff Research Center (Princeton, NJ) will assist with adapting the system to a high-volume production facility, and Bellcore (Red Bank, NJ) is slated to characterize the coatings and explore possible commercial applications.