Robotic medical instrument systems and associated methods utilizing an optical fiber sensors such as Bragg sensor optical fibers. In one configuration, an optical fiber is coupled to an elongate instrument body and includes a fiber core having one or more Bragg gratings. A controller is configured to initiate various actions in response thereto. For example, a controller may generate and display a graphical representation of the instrument body and depict one or more position and/or orientation variables thereof, or adjust motors of an instrument driver to reposition the catheter or another instrument. Optical fibers having Bragg gratings may also be utilized with other system components including a plurality of working instruments that are positioned within a sheath lumen, an instrument driver, localization sensors, and/or an image capture device, and may also be coupled to a patient's body or associated structure that stabilizes the body.

Robotic instrument systems and methods utilizing optical fiber sensors

Fiber optic cables and assemblies for routing optical networks closer to the subscriber. The fiber optic cables have a small-cross section yet robust design that is versatile by allowing use in aerial application with a pressure clamp along with use in buried and/or duct applications. Additionally, the fiber optic cables and assemblies have a relatively large slack storage capacity for excess length. Assemblies include hardened connectors such as plugs and/or receptacles suitable for outdoor plant applications attached to one or more ends of the fiber optic cables for plug and play connectivity.

Fiber optic cables and assemblies for fiber toward the subscriber applications

A medical instrument system (6) includes an elongate flexible instrument body (33) with an optical fiber (12) substantially encapsulated in a wall of the instrument body, the optical fiber including one or more fiber gratings (35A, 35B). A detector is operatively coupled to the optical fiber and configured to detect respective light signals reflected by the one or more fiber gratings. A controller is operatively coupled to the detector, and configured to determine a twist of at least a portion of the instrument body based on detected reflected light signals. The instrument may be a guide catheter and may be robotically or manually controlled.

Optical fiber shape sensing systems

According to one example of the invention an optical fiber comprises: (i) silica based, rare earth doped core having a first index of refraction n1; (ii) at least one silica based cladding surrounding the core and having a second index of refraction n2, such that n1> n2 with the following features, alone or in combination: said cladding includes 0.5 to 5 wt% F and 0.5 to 20 wt% B, said optical fiber has less than 8dB/km core background loss at a wavelength of 1280 nm. at least one of the core or cladding is doped with AI203 concentration is less than 2:1.

Optical fiber and method for making such fiber

A medical instrument system comprises an elongate instrument body (33) ; an optical fiber (12) coupled in a constrained manner to the elongate instrument body, the optical fiber including one or more Bragg gratings; a detector (15) operably coupled to a proximal end of the optical fiber and configured to detect respective light signals reflected by the one or more Bragg gratings; and a controller operatively coupled to the detector, wherein the controller is configured to determine a geometric configuration of at least a portion of the elongate instrument body based on a spectral analysis of the detected reflected portions of the light signals.

Fiber optic instrument sensing system

The present invention is directed to an optical fiber comprising a core and a cladding layer wherein at least one of the constitutional parameters thereof changes along the longitudinal direction of the optical fiber. In order to present a useful optical fiber wherein the occurrence of a Brillouin scattering is prevented, an optical fiber having altered constitutional parameters is found to be effective. The constitutional parameters mean the parameters which determine the constitution of the optical fiber and is capable of influencing the condition of electromagnetic wave transmitting therethrough such as light or acoustic wave. The constitutional parameters include diameter of the core, index of refraction of the core, diameter of the optical fiber, composition of the glass, residual stress of the core. Some examples are disclosed about their manufacturing process and the test results. Much improvement was measured, especially in the use for a single mode optical fiber.

Optical fiber having a core with a repeatedly changing constitutional parameter

A manufacturing method for erbium doped silica, having a soot formation process, in which a silica glass soot is deposited on a seed rod for forming a soot preform in a porous state on the seed rod, a dopant impregnation process, wherein the soot preform is impregnated with at least an erbium compound, and a preform formation process, wherein this soot preform impregnated with a dopant is heated and rendered transparent. The dopant impregnation process is provided with an operation in which the soot preform obtained in the soot formation process is dipped in a solution containing an erbium compound, an aluminum compound, and a phosphorus compound; this is then desiccated, and soot preform which is impregnated with the erbium compound, the aluminum compound, and the phosphorus compound is obtained.

Solution doping of a silica preform with erbium, aluminum and phosphorus to form an optical fiber

Erbium-doped silica optical fiber preform

Manufacturing method for erbium-doped silica glass optical fibre preforms

: For efficient operation of an Er-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) at 1.55 um band it is essential to maximize the pump intensity in the Er-doped region because of the three level system. A high NA structure of EDF is effective to reduce the mode field diameter (MFD) of the pump and to achieve strong pump intensity 21, and has resulted in excellent gain performance 3,4. In practical use, however, such small MFD fibers have a connection/splicing problem due to the mode field diameter mismatching. For example, approximately 1 dB splice loss is expected between an EDF with a 5 um MFD and a conventional dispersion shifted fiber (DSF) with a 8 um MFD. The smaller of EDF, the higher splice loss. The increase of splicing loss causes noise figure degradation in pre-amplifiers and decreasing of conversion efficiency in booster amplifiers. In this paper, we report the splicing loss less than 0.05 dB between an EDF with a small MFD and a conventional DSF. The MFD's have been adjusted by the thermal diffusion of core dopant after the splicing. We also describe the gain and noise characteristics of the EDFA with this adjusting technique.

Daiichirou Tanaka

Papers

Optical fiber having a core with a repeatedly changing constitutional parameter

Solution doping of a silica preform with erbium, aluminum and phosphorus to form an optical fiber

Erbium-doped silica optical fiber preform

Manufacturing method for erbium-doped silica glass optical fibre preforms

High-Efficiency Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier using Mode Field Diameter Adjusting Technique,