Jul 13 2009
Morgan Technical Ceramics' Alberox business (MTC - Alberox) offers feedthrough technology for repeaters used in undersea fiber-optic cables. The feedthroughs can withstand high pressure and completely seal out seawater to a depth of 8,000 meters, where the cable may experience as much as 12,000 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure. The joints remain hermetic even in the cold temperatures found on the ocean floor, which can be as low as zero degrees Celsius.
The feedthrough technology provides an hermetic seal on both the incoming and outgoing side of the repeater. The basis for the seal is molybdenum-manganese (MoMn) refractory metallization which is applied to the ceramic and fired at high temperature in a hydrogen atmosphere.
"The ceramic-to-metal seal on MTC - Alberox's feedthroughs enable fiber optics to enter the repeater, while keeping out seawater," notes Steve Mueller, MTC - Alberox's Hermetic Seal Business Unit Manager. "Other methods, like simple epoxy, mechanical seals with elastomer o-rings, or glass seals, cannot withstand the ocean's low temperature or pressure as well as the Alberox feedthrough."
The undersea repeater feedthrough technology is used all over the world, and continues to be employed wherever undersea cables are installed.
In addition to repeaters for undersea fiber optic cables, MTC - Alberox supplies similar feedthrough products for lasers, aerospace temperature measuring and fire detection devices, the power industry, as well as X-ray and CT scanning machines.