ZBLAN and Exotic Fibers

Extremely high quality optical fibers with much lower attenuation and much wider wavelength range (spectrum window).

Updated: 2024-02-24

Created: 2018-11-01

Applications

  • Telecommunications.
  • Lasers for medical & scientific applications (photonics).
  • Military applications like night vision and infrared countermeasures.
  • Remote sensing payloads.
  • Thermal imaging.
  • Spectroscopy (imaging).
  • Radiation resistant data links.
  • Glass alloys.

Why & Solution

Making ZBLAN glass results in crystallization or the formation of tiny imperfections. Research has shown that it does not happen in microgravity.

Telecommunications sector is facing exponential growth in bandwidth transmission. With almost half of the population in the world not yet online and much higher bandwidth applications like 5G networks, 4K streaming and virtual reality applications still to come, the growth will not be slowing down any time soon. Current solution is to keep building new undersea cables.

Major advantages of ZBLAN are much lower attenuation (signal weakening) and much wider wavelength range. Lower attenuation would reduce the need for repeaters, which are also a security risk and increase latency. Wider wavelength range would allow the transfer of much more data through ZBLAN cable by using many lasers with different wavelengths. There is a large number of spacecraft, scientific, medical and defense equipment working in the infrared wavelength range.

In 2020, NASA selected further proposals from Made In Space, Apsidal and DSTAR Communications for glass and optics manufacturing in space:

  • Apsidal of Los Angeles is developing a Universal Glass Optics Manufacturing Module capable of processing various types of complex glass in space from which fibers, magnetic fibers, super-continuum sources, capillary optics and adiabatic tapers can be drawn. One of their key innovations is a custom Laser Doppler Sensor for real-time in-situ analysis and feedback control of the manufacturing process. Additionally, this technology is Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted to be adaptive to optimize production in a low-Earth orbit environment. The microgravity environment of space is needed because convection and sedimentation in development on Earth causes separation of complex glass elements creating crystallization, thus creating defects which reduce performance. Market areas for products from this module include specialty fibers for communications, medical diagnostics, remote sensing, X-ray optics, and laser processing.
  • DSTAR Communications of Woodland Hills, California, has established a team to create an external material processing platform on the International Space Station with autonomous, high throughput manufacturing capability. Markets for products manufactured by this facility include infrared optical fibers in medical and defense applications and ultralight solar arrays for commercial and military space platforms. The unique microgravity environment of space eliminates convection and sedimentation that occur on Earth, enabling the manufacture of premium quality materials and products with fewer defects and improved performance. In addition, the vacuum of space enables vacuum deposition in the same facility for improved reliability and improved functionality of the resulting products. The DSTAR Communications team includes partners FOMS of San Diego, California, Visioneering Space of Boise, Idaho, and Lunar Resources of Houston.
  • Made In Space will be developing a Glass Alloy Manufacturing Machine (GAMMA), an experimental system designed to investigate how glass alloys form without the effects of gravity-induced flaws. The microgravity environment of space is expected to enable much higher quality glass products by eliminating the Earth-based impacts of convection, sedimentation, and solute buildup, which lead to nucleation, or crystal-forming sites in the materials. This system could improve processes for commercial product development. Product applications include optical fiber, lenses, and optical devices across several market segments including telecommunications, sensors and laser technology industries.

Following its launch on July 14, 2022, two NASA-supported optical fiber manufacturing payloads arrived at the International Space Station on July 16 aboard a SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-25). The innovations will be used to demonstrate automated production of high-quality optical fibers in microgravity for use in applications on Earth. The payloads are Space Fibers 3 developed by San Diego-based FOMS, Inc. and the Orbital Fiber Optic Production Module (ORFOM) from Mercury Systems of Torrance, California.

Jeff Foust wrote in September 2022 that experiments in ZBLAN fiber production have yet to convert into commercial production and producing such fibers in space was turning out to be harder than expected. Apsidal’s De says a breakthrough is still possible with ZBLAN fiber, given enough effort. “Your successes sometimes come very suddenly,” he said. “You can see very large improvements come very quickly.”

Companies



DSTAR Communications page at Factories in Space

Create an external material processing platform on the International Space Station with autonomous, high throughput manufacturing capability.

Markets for products manufactured by this facility include infrared optical fibers in medical and defense applications and ultralight solar arrays for commercial and military space platforms. The unique microgravity environment of space eliminates convection and sedimentation that occur on Earth, enabling the manufacture of premium quality materials and products with fewer defects and improved performance. In addition, the vacuum of space enables vacuum deposition in the same facility for improved reliability and improved functionality of the resulting products.

The DSTAR Communications team includes partners FOMS of San Diego, California, Visioneering Space of Boise, Idaho, and Lunar Resources of Houston.

Space Enhanced Crystals (SPECS)

DSTAR Communications is developing space-enhanced crystals that could be commercially manufactured on ISS.

To meet NASA’s goal of commercial in-space production of materials with a level of quality and performance superior to that on Earth, DSTAR Communications Inc. proposes to develop Space-Enhanced Crystals (SPECS). This customer-driven development is based on initial sales of Minimal Valuable Products (MVPs). The technology uses the microgravity-driven enhancement of crystal formation in microgravity in combination with a set of novel process controls to establish commercially sustainable manufacturing on board of the International Space Station (ISS).

Phase I program is set to establish the feasibility of SPECS. Phase II program targets commercial crystal fabrication on ISS for the needs of the identified commercial customers. The program leverages a unique modular ISS manufacturing platform to maintain U.S. leadership in the area of commercial in-space production.


Flawless Photonics page at Factories in Space

Flawless Photonics is a startup founded in 2017 with registered trademark of FlawlessFiber™. Advanced in-space manufacturing company producing optical fibers LEO.

Flawless Photonics is pioneering the manufacturing and supply chain of next-generation optical fibers from space known as SpaceFiber™. Backed by issued United States patents to produce fiber in micro-gravity, SpaceFiber will have performance characteristics far superior to the absolute best fibers made on Earth today. Our technology is optimized for the unique requirements and rigors of space travel and tailored for installation and operation at the International Space Station’s commercial research lab 250 miles above the Earth.

Flawless Photonics, Inc. of Los Altos Hills, California, in partnership with the University of Adelaide, Axiom Space, and Visioneering Space has been selected for their proposal to develop specialized glass manufacturing hardware to process Heavy-Metal Fluoride Glasses (HMFG) in microgravity.

They say to be pioneering the first profitable supply chain in space starting with the world’s most perfect optical fibers that will outperform silica fibers by more than 10x for industries including lasers, sensors, medical devices, and data communications. Later they are planning to produce an exciting array of superior photonic glass products to meet the emerging demands of many industries and applications.

Advancing SpaceFiber Manufacturing in Microgravity Onboard the ISS

  • More than a dozen payloads representing diverse research areas will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard Northrop Grumman’s 20th Commercial Resupply Services mission contracted by NASA. The launch is planned for no earlier than January 29, 2024.
  • This investigation will leverage the space station to test microgravity-based glass drawing processes on a Flawless Photonics ZBLAN manufacturing platform. The project’s goal is to demonstrate the theorized benefits of manufacturing ZBLAN fibers in microgravity to effectively eliminate gravity-induced defects. By harnessing the unique environment of microgravity, Flawless Photonics aims to produce fibers that offer significantly enhanced performance for a wide range of applications, including advanced laser systems and telecommunications devices for both space and Earth applications.
  • IP:  Visioneering Space Corporation

Flawless Photonics Kicking Glass, SpaceNews, 2024-02-23


FOMS (Fiber Optic Manufacturing in Space) page at Factories in Space

FOMS (Fiber Optics Manufacturing in Space) is focused on optical fiber manufacturing in microgravity.

Have received a total of $873 000 from NASA SBIR Phase I and II programs to develop Space Facility for Orbital Remote Manufacturing (SPACEFORM). Phase I was meant to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from TRL3 to TRL5 and Phase II from TRL6 to TRL8. FOMS has also demonstrated fiber production on parabolic aircraft flights in 2014. In the end of 2017, FOMS expected to launch their payload capable of producting multiple kilometer of fiber by the end of 2018. It launched in 2019 and produced fiber. They also received an award from Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). FOMS holds a Trademark on SpaceFiber™. The NASA project funding was protested by Made In Space, which was dismissed.

Fiber Optic Manufacturing in Space (FOMS) Inc. presented the results Nov. 7 of its successful campaign to produce optical fiber on the International Space Station.

FOMS “successfully completed the calibration of the manufacturing hardware and demonstrated the first optical fiber manufacturing on orbit,” FOMS Principal Investigator Dmitry Starodubov announced at the 6th Workshop on Specialty Optical Fiber and Their Applications in Charleston, South Carolina. “The microgravity fiber demonstrated better uniformity than the fiber produced on the ground. This unique achievement is providing the basis for government and commercial utilization of our revolutionary space manufacturing platform.”

To produce optical fiber in orbit, FOMS created a suitcase size platform called Space Facility for Orbital Remote Manufacturing or SpaceFORM. FOMS sent two SpaceFORMs to ISS on a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo resupply flight in April. Astronauts helped install the platforms. The experiments were then monitored and controlled remotely by FOMS from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The experiment was returned by a SpaceX Dragon in June. NASA accepted delivery of the first optical fiber produced on orbit by FOMS on August 26.

Our equipment offers the following set of capabilities for fiber production in space:

Following its launch on July 14, 2022, two NASA-supported optical fiber manufacturing payloads arrived at the International Space Station on July 16 aboard a SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-25).


G-Space page at Factories in Space

G-SPACE Inc is a one-stop shop platform to design microgravity products for orbital microfabrication. The company offers services such as microgravity product design, optimization of the microgravity manufacturing process, and insights into customized market data for in-space manufacturing. If you are not sure where to start with microgravity and in-space manufacturing, the company will provide the most optimum starting point for microgravity fabrication at savings of 10X.

Design and test your materials, manufacturing processes and experiments before leaving the atmosphere using our AI-powered SaaS platform, ATOM™.

G-Space aims at developing the ability to identify, define, and optimize the precise operational spectrum for space manufacturing to ensure manufactured products are at their highest quality and performance.

G-Space’s long-term vision is to move polluting manufacturing off the surface of the Earth into its orbits.

G-Space, Inc. brings exclusively to the US market a suite of Heavy Metal Fluoride (ZBLAN, InF3, etc.) from our French partner Le Verre Fluoré.

MERCURIA is a market optimization engine uniquely constructed to provide estimates of addressable market sizes for in-space manufactured products with terrestrial demand. The software tracks product superiority, manufacturing process scalability and standardization, and sustainability opportunities (greenhouse gas emission, etc) along realistically constructed commercialization timelines for in-space manufactured products.

ATOM

NASA SBIR award in 2020 for Advanced Terrestrial to Orbital Manufacturing (ATOM) platform that builds on a terrestrial experimental technique, Gravity Elimination via Methods of Suspension (GEMS), enhanced through the addition of first-principles modeling, computational tools, and machine learning algorithms.

  • G-Space is the only commercial company that provides a tool in advanced material manufacturing that harnesses the effect of gravity on material stability and narrows down the optimized 0G manufacturing envelope. 
  • The main objective of this SBIR Phase I is to develop a conceptual design of GEMS and to complete the buildout and beta testing of the ATOM platform, including a data manager, analysis and reporting system.
  • The resulting platform will be validated using primarily in-house Heavy Metal Fluoride Glass data. In addition, the platform will be expanded to ingest selected material data from NASA’s Microgravity Database as well as an additional suite of high profit margin materials with potential for fabrication in a zero G environment.

Demo video for ATOM AI-powered SaaS Platform for accelerating in-space manufacturing by designing with gravity here on Earth.

NASA’s Physical Sciences Research Program has selected five ground-based proposals in response to the Physical Sciences Informatics System call for proposals. This program element is part of Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences - 2021 (ROSES-2021) solicitation. These five research projects, involving recognized experts in the fields of combustion science, complex fluids, fluid physics, informatics, and materials science, will use data contained in the PSI system and build on prior reduced-gravity research to advance fundamental research in the physical sciences.

ZBLAN IN-SPACE FIBER OPTICS MANUFACTURING

Raw Materials
A new product: ZBLAN (fluorozirconate) preforms for space manufacturing!
ZBLAN standard rods (⌀12.5mm, L=120mm) represent an exclusive new product, specifically designed for In-Space Manufacturing. Contact us for custom requirements.

Thermal Modeling For Fiber Drawing Automation
ATOM™ thermal modeling helps maintain optimal conditions for the fiber optics processing and manufacturing (including gravity correction) 

In-Space Monitoring of Fiber Drawing Process
ATOM™ analytics and customized computer vision algorithms ensure that the optimal regime for microgravity processing is maintained. They also offer the ability to monitor and correct promptly key fiber optics parameters (fiber diameter uniformity, concentricity, etc.) during the in-space manufacturing process. 
Quality Control and Validation (pre and post flight)
Provide best terrestrial manufacturing reference; inspection of a suite of fiber properties (attenuation, defects, etc.) and estimates of contributions (including gravity correction) that lead to loss of performance. 


Mercury Systems (Physical Optics Corporation, POC) page at Factories in Space

Mercury Systems is a technology company that makes the world a safer, more secure place. We push processing power to the tactical edge, making the latest commercial technologies profoundly more accessible for today’s most challenging aerospace and defense missions.

Physical Optics Corporation received a NASA SBIR project in 2016 for the amount of $125 000 to develop the Orbital Fiber Optic Production Module (ORFOM) from TRL2 to TRL4.

A microgravity manufacturing environment for optical fibers is believed to eliminate the defects in the manufacturing process that occur on Earth, leading to higher-quality fibers than can be produced on the ground. In April 2019, a fully functional engineering prototype designed and built by Mercury was launched into orbit for NASA.

Following its launch on July 14, 2022, two NASA-supported optical fiber manufacturing payloads arrived at the International Space Station on July 16 aboard a SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-25).



Revenue Estimation

One kilogram of ZBLAN yields 2.2 kilometers of ZBLAN fiber.1

Another source claimed that in theory a kilogram of preform can produce 3 km of fiber, but thickness not specified. 3

Articles by NASA state that one kilogram of exotic glass feedstock can be expected to produce from 3 to 7 kilometers of fibers in under an hour in microgravity. 3

Selling 2 km of fiber at $150 per meter would total to $300,000. Best case scenario woud be selling 3 km of fiber at $1000 per meter for a total of $3,000,000.

Cost Estimation

According to “Market Analysis of a Privately Owned and Operated Space Station” from 2017 by US Science and Technology Policy Institute, ZBLAN sells for $175 to $1000 per meter, depending on the quality of the fiber (ThorLabs, FiberLabs) .1

Another study set commercial market price for ZBLAN fibers at $150/meter to $300/meter and best quality exotic fibers from $300/meter to $3,000/meter. 4

Market Size Estimation

Fiber optic market
According to Grand View Research, the fibre optics industry had gross global sales of €4.7 billion in 2015. 5

Another study estimated the fibre optic market will expand at a CAGR of 10% during 2017-2023 and is anticipated to reach the valuation of €5.2 billion by the 2023. 6

According to IBISWorld, the revenue for the optical fibre and cable manufacturing industry is expected to increase 16.0% to $53.75 billion in 2018 and has been growing at an average annualized rate of 19.2%.7

ZBLAN market
According to “Market Analysis of a Privately Owned and Operated Space Station” published in 2017, the sales of ZBLAN form a very small part of the $3 billion market, but analyst estimated that ZBLAN might be able to capture sales of €260 million to €350 million annually, which would be 10 to 13 percent of the current market. They authors estimated that iff ZBLAN increases its market share by 1 percentage point per year over the next decade, by 2028 its share is likely to be in that range.1

Figure on slide 18 released by NASA Emerging Space Office in 2014 illustrates the potential market share for ZBLAN applications and sets the total at $20 billion.2

In 2006, ZBLAN fibre market was estimated to be $7.56 billion per year. NASA published news based on Kessler Market Intelligence: Spectroscopy $15 Million, Laser Surgery $25 Million, Imaging Fiber Bundle $15 Million, Telecommunications $7500 Million.8

In 1998, NASA estimated that the commercial potential for ZBLAN to be $2.5 billion a year in the communications industry.9

Earthly Solution Risk

Very high. Research published in 2018 by Teng-Cheong Ong et al. found that crystallization is suppressed when ZBLAN is cooled very rapidly.

NASA is licensing similar technology: " Combination of a vertical magnetic field and a rapid cool down from the crystallite melting temperature will ensure that no crystals are present in the preform after processing."

Risks

  • Market size (niche market)
  • Number of customers
  • Preform cost
  • Transmission loss versus cost
  • Patents

References

  1. Keith W. Crane et al. Market Analysis of a Privately Owned and Operated Space Station. IDA Science & Technology Policy Institute. Published in March 2017. Source

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  2. Ioana Cozmuta et al. Space Portal NASA Ames Research Center. Microgravity-Based Commercialization Opportunities for Material Sciences and Life Sciences: A Silicon Valley Perspective. Source

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  3. Ioana Cozmuta and Daniel J. Rasky. Exotic Optical Fibers and Glasses: Innovative Material Processing Opportunities in Earth's Orbit. Published in 2017 in New Space. Source

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  4. CMAPP: Commercial Microgravity Applications Pilot Project. Source

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  5. Fiber Optics Market Size, Grand View Research, 2018. Source

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  6. Fiber Optic Market Share, Market Research Future, 2018. Source

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  7. Optical Fiber and Cable Manufacturing Industry in China, IBISWorld, 2018. Source

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  8. ZBLAN Fiber market Prediction. Source: Kessler Market Intelligence, Newport, RI. Source

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  9. ZBLAN commercial potential, Dave Dooling, NASA, 1998. Source

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  10. FOMS reports high-quality ZBLAN production on ISS Source

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  11. Made In Space to Step Up Off-Earth Production of Valuable Optical Fiber Source

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