Long-term reliability of plastic split alignment sleeves for single-mode fiber-optic connectors

We examined the creep properties and hazard rates of plastic split alignment sleeves to ensure the long term reliability of optical fiber connections. It required a gauge retention force F-r of more than 200 gf to suppress the fluctuation in the insertion loss of a plastic sleeve. From ther fluctuation data, we estimated the time-to-failure t(f) at which the F-r value became 200 gf. We estimated the acceleration parameters, median life-times xi and hazard rates lambda by using the t(f) values based on the Weibull statistics. The xi values decreased rapidly with increasing temperature and relative humidity. Small lambda values of < 0.01 FITs and of 1 FITs were expected for 20 years in a normal atmosphere (25<degrees>C/50%RH) and in a more severe case of 25 degreesC/90%RH or 45 degreesC/50%RH.