Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to optical fiber cables, interconnect assemblies including the optical fiber cables, and methods of manufacturing the interconnect assemblies.
Interconnect cable assemblies are typically used to connect servers and other hardware in data centers and other facilities. Due to industry trends of increasing speed, memory, and density of hardware in data centers, management and organization of correspondingly increasing numbers of optical fiber cables as well as complexity of the associated interconnections becomes more and more of an issue. Accordingly interconnect cable assemblies have been developed to help control and organize the optical fiber cables and interconnections in a data center. One such development includes harness cable assemblies.
A harness cable assembly is a particular type of interconnect cable assembly where one end of the harness cable assembly includes a multi-fiber connector that supports optical fibers extending through the harness cable assembly to the other end, which includes furcated legs each having local connectors that support subsets of the optical fibers. A jacket holds discrete subsets of the optical fibers together in modules so that the optical fibers may be efficiently routed together through the data center. Routing the cables together helps to minimize the volume of space used by the optical fiber cables and correspondingly helps to organize densely populated data centers and other facilities. However, conventional manufacturing of harness cable assemblies is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, which may suffer from low process yields.
Conventionally to manufacture a harness cable assembly, manufacturers first select a length of optical fiber cable. The cable typically includes a jacket surrounding buffer tubes that each include optical fibers. Within the jacket, the buffer tubes are tightly packed together to allow for a minimal jacket diameter, saving space and material costs. The buffer tubes of optical fiber cables are typically stranded. The manufacturers attach local connectors to the optical fibers of the buffer tubes, typically removing about three to seven meters (e.g., ten to twenty feet) of the cable jacket and feeding the optical fibers through an empty furcation tube. However, this approach only allows for a limited length of the harness assembly. In some such cases, the maximum length allowed by this method is about eight meters (e.g., twenty-five feet), because beyond about eight meters, friction generated by pushing the optical fibers through the furcation tube may break the fibers. Furthermore, the lengths of the furcated legs are not adjustable or customizable with the conventional method once local connectors are attached to the legs—thus ruining desired configurations of the legs, such as a precise staggering formations, if a local connector on any of the legs needs to be reworked (e.g., replaced, reattached, etc.) during manufacturing.
Accordingly, a need exists for an interconnect optical fiber cable assembly structure or manufacturing method that allows for longer cable assembly lengths. A need exists for an interconnect optical fiber cable assembly structure or manufacturing method that allows for adjustment of the leg lengths once local connectors are attached to the legs, if a local connector on any of the legs needs to be reworked during manufacturing. A need exists for an interconnect optical fiber cable assembly structure or manufacturing method that reduces time and manufacturing costs of producing the interconnect optical fiber cable, and thereby increasing process yields.