Patent Application
20240027707
The invention generally relates to optical cables interfaced with electronics and, more particularly, to protecting and sealing interfaced transceiver-active fiber optical cables for use in network systems requiring submersion in cooling environments.
Active fiber optical cables or optical fibers typically are available in two varieties: (1) an optical cable integrated into a transceiver; and (2) a mated combination of a transceiver and an optical cable. These systems are often used in advanced computing applications supporting data communications. Such applications have evolved in many instances to include servers submersed in cooling liquids, for example, dielectric oils, to provide efficient cooling. These transceiver-active fiber optical cable interfaces, however, may not be properly and protectively sealed for submersion in the cooling liquids and performance may be degraded. Moreover, there are not many submersible system providers for networking equipment. Finisar and Dell, for example, have all pursued the concept with limited success. Historically, this included using a Direct Attached Copper (DAC) cable to exit the submersible components, and then use a conversion to optical cable.
A three dimensional (3D) printed mold, such as a potting mold, and associated methods may be used for protecting and sealing transceiver-active fiber optical cable interfaces for submersion in liquids, such as cooling liquids, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Such transceiver-active fiber optical cables may be used as sub-components in networking systems, high performance computing applications, high end telecommunications applications, and data centers. The systems and methods disclosed herein for sealing and protecting may provide solutions or improvements for active fiber optical cables, including for custom active fiber optical cables. For example, the systems and methods may allow for sealed direct connections between electronics and optical infrastructure that may be submersed completely in cooling liquids along with the electronic networking component(s) or unit(s) (e.g., a network switch for a data center) requiring such submersion. These systems and methods advantageously do not require the conventional use of a patch panel outside the cooling liquid for optical/electronic (e.g., copper) conversion interfaces because prior fiber optical interfaces could not be submersed. Thus, hardware costs may be reduced.
The types of active fiber optical cables or optical fibers may be an optical cable integrated into a transceiver or a mated combination of a transceiver and an optical cable. Components involved with these systems and methods may include optical transceivers, active fiber optical cables, epoxy or other adhesives, room temperature (RTV) cooling oils, or other cooling liquids, and a potting mold that may be procured or created or manufactured by 3D printing, additive manufacturing (AM), or other techniques.
Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will be or become apparent to one of skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages are included within this description, are within the scope of the present disclosure, and are protected by the accompanying claims.
Aspects of the present disclosure may be better understood with reference to the following drawings, emphasis being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure.
In the description that follows, like parts are marked throughout the description and drawings with the same reference numerals. The drawings and components in the drawings might not be to scale and certain components may be shown in generalized or schematic form and may be identified by commercial designations in the interest of clarity and conciseness.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms “comprise” and/or “comprising,” if used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. If used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Using a mold, such as a potting mold, active fiber optical cables, including custom-designed active fiber optical cables, and connector components, and their interfaces with transceivers and their corresponding connector components, may be sealed and protected with adhesive materials, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The adhesive materials may be an epoxy or the like and provide a conformal coating(s). Other possible conformal coating or potting materials may be acrylic- or silicone-based. The finished transceiver-active fiber optical cable assemblies and their optical interfaces may be fully submersible in, and effectively sealed from, a cooling liquid, such as room temperature non-reactive (RTV) silicone, oil, or other cooling liquids. The mold may be procured or 3D-printed or additive manufactured (AM) and may be flexible and unique to the particular transceiver's footprint and optical cable. The mold or portions of the mold may alternatively be created or manufactured using other techniques, such as by injection molding, milling and/or drilling techniques, and/or the like.
The specific embodiments disclosed herein are merely exemplary. Many variations, modifications, equivalents, and/or alternatives may be made to or from those embodiments, and such variations, modifications, equivalents, and/or alternatives may be practiced in a manner or manners other than those specifically described herein without departing from the principles, spirit, and scope of the present disclosure. Specifically, it should be understood that the appended claims are not intended to be limited to those particular embodiments or forms disclosed, but rather also to cover all such variations, modifications, equivalents, and/or alternatives. Furthermore, any structures, components, apparatus, process, and/or method parameters, and/or sequences of steps disclosed and/or illustrated herein are given by way of example only and may be varied as desired unless specifically stated otherwise. For example, for any steps illustrated and/or described herein that are shown or discussed in a particular order, these steps do not necessarily need to be performed in the order illustrated or discussed. Moreover, the various exemplary structures, components, apparatus, processes, or methods described and/or illustrated herein may also omit one or more certain structures, components, apparatus, processes, methods, or steps described and/or illustrated herein or include additional structures, components, apparatus, methods, and/or steps in addition to those disclosed.
