[ExI] Microsoft and optical fiber

[John Clark]

*Today fiber optic cables are made of thousands of hair thin fiber threads
made of solid glass,  the average one loses about half their light every 15
km, 20 km for the very best. A start-up company called  "Lumenisity", which
Microsoft bought in 2022, has invented a new type of tiny optical fiber
that is not completely solid but has a much more complex interior structure
made of a series of ever smaller offset cylinders. The cross section looks
like this:*

[image: image.png]


*This new design only loses half its light every 33 km, can transmit 1000
times more power than a solid fiber, has a wide frequency range, and
perhaps most important of all, can transmit a signal 45% faster than a
solid glass fiber. Normally in optical fibers light travels through glass,
which slows it down, but not in this case, that's because the glass just
confines the light, the fiber is mostly hollow so the light is actually
traveling in a vacuum; well almost, it travels through a gas at atmospheric
pressure. Microsoft believes it can mass produce this fiber at a
competitive price. *

*It's interesting, for years Microsoft had a reputation of being a stodgy
company but Apple was the fast moving creative one, but Microsoft embraced
AI early on and as a result it owns 49% of OpenAI, but for years Apple did
nothing in AI and is now playing catch-up. Microsoft is also a leader in
the race to build a Quantum Computer but Apple has ignored the entire
field. **As a result Apple is now the second most valuable company in the
world after Nvidia. **And now we have this which may revolutionize optical
communication. *

*The following article is from the September 1, 2025 issue of the journal
"Nature Photonics":*

*Broadband optical fibre with an attenuation lower than 0.1 decibel per
kilometre* <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-025-01747-5.pdf>

*Having said that I still like Apple products and I'm thinking of getting
an iPhone-17 Pro, has anybody got one? If so I'd love to hear what you
think about it.  *


*John K Clark*
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