A small equipment used for connecting optical fiber cables together is often called as fiber optic adapter or fiber optic coupler. Although they may shape differently, they have the same function. A fiber optic adapter allows fiber optic cables to be attached to each other singly or in a large network, permitting many devices to communicate at once. According to different shapes and structures, fiber optic adapters can be classified in several types, such as FC fiber optic adapter, SC fiber optic adapter, ST fiber optic adapter, LC fiber optic adapter and so on. And this article will particularly introduce these four kinds of fiber optic adapters.
FC fiber optic adapter uses a metal sleeve to strengthen its outer structure and can be fastened by a turnbuckle. It also adopts the ceramic pins as its butt end. Therefore, FC fiber optic adapter is able to sustain a stable optical and mechanical performance for a long time. It can be divided into square type, oval type and round type in single-mode and multimode versions. FC fiber optic adapter is easy to operate but sensitive to dust, so it has been enhanced today by using spherical butt end without changing its external structure.
SC Fiber Optic Adapter
Covered with a rectangular shell, SC fiber optic adapter has the same configuration and size of the coupling pin cover as FC fiber optic adapter. From its structures, SC fiber optic adapter can be classified into simplex standard, duplex standard and shuttered standard. From its materials, metal and plastic are commonly used for SC fiber optic adapter. SC fiber optic adapter enables a high precision alignment with a low insertion, return loss and back reflection.
ST Fiber Optic Adapter
ST fiber optic adapter has a key snap-lock structure to ensure accuracy when connecting the cables together. The repeatability and durability of ST fiber optic adapter is improved by the metal key. With a precised ceramic or copper cover, ST fiber optic adapter can also keep a high optical and mechanical performance for a long time. It has two standards of simplex and duplex and uses the metal or plastic housing.
LC Fiber Optic Adapter
LC fiber optic adapter adopts the modular jack latch mechanism which is easy to operate. Using the smaller pins and sleeves, LC fiber optic adapter greatly increases the density of fiber optic connector. There are three types of LC fiber optic adapter in simplex, duplex and quad structures.
Applicable End Faces
Different fiber optic adapters supports different ends faces. PC (physical contact), UPC (ultra physical contact) and APC (angle physical contact) are the polish style used for fiber optic adapters. ST fiber optic adapter is only available with PC and UPC styles. But except ST, the rest three fiber optic adapters support all the polish styles. Moreover, the color of fiber optic adapters can be used to define different end faces of PC, UPC and APC. For example, as for SC and LC fiber optic adapters, there are cream, blue and green colors which correspond to PC, UPC and APC end faces.
Application
In order to help the signal transmission, fiber optic adapter is widely used for telecommunications system, cable TV network, LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), FTTH (fiber to the home), video transmission and instrument testing. It is no doubt that fiber optic adapter is of great help for network communications.
Conclusion
Fiber optic adapter provides convenience for fiber cable connections. FC, SC, ST, LC fiber optic adapters are parts of the adapter family and are widely adopted in practical use. Small device like fiber optic adapter really helps a lot for different applications in life, because it greatly improves the working efficiency.
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