Fiber Optic Pigtail: What Is It and How to Splice It?

Fiber optic pigtail is a optical fiber cable terminated with a factory-installed connector on one end, leaving the other end terminated. Hence the connector side can be linked to equipment and the other side melted with optical fiber cables. Fiber optic pigtail are utilized to terminate fiber optic cables via fusion or mechanical splicing.

 

 

Types of Fiber Optic Pigtail

1. By Fiber Type

Fiber optic pigtails can be divided into single-mode fiber and multimode fiber. Multimode fiber optic pigtails use 62.5/125 micron or 50/125 micron bulk multimode fiber cables and terminated them with multimode fiber optic connectors at one end. Single-mode fiber pigtail cables use 9/125 micron single-mode fiber cable and terminated with single-mode fiber connectors at one end.

 

2. By Connector Type

(1) SC Fiber Optic Pigtail

SC pigtail cable connector is a non-optical disconnect connector with a 2.5mm pre-radiused zirconia or stainless alloy ferrule. SC fiber pigtail is economical for use in applications such as CATV, LAN, WAN, test and measurement.

 

(2) FC Fiber Optic Pigtail

FC fiber pigtail takes the advantage of the metallic body of FC optical connectors, featuring the screw type structure and high precision ceramic ferrules. FC fiber optic pigtails and its related products are widely applied for the general applications.

 

(3) ST Fiber Optic Pigtail

ST pigtail connector is the most popular connector for multimode fiber optic LAN applications. It has a long 2.5mm diameter ferrule made of ceramic, stainless alloy or plastic. Hence SC fiber pigtails are commonly seen in telecommunications, industry, medical and sensor fields.

 

3. By Application Environment

(1) Armored Pigtail

The outer sheath of armored tail fiber is made of stainless steel tube or other strong steel. Armored fiber optic pigtails provide extra protection for the fiber inside and added reliability for the network, while reduce the unnecessary damage caused by rodents, construction work, weight of other cables.

 

(2) Waterproof Pigtail

Waterproof pigtail adopts stainless steel reinforced waterproof unit and armored outdoor polyethylene sheath design, which is very suitable for harsh environment such as communication tower cable TV and military. Waterproof pigtail cable boosts good toughness, tensile and reliable performance, facilitating the use in outdoor connections.

 

 

Fiber Optic Pigtail Splicing

The quality of fiber pigtail is typically high because the connecting end is attached in the factory, making it more accurately than a field-terminated cables. It can be attached to optical fibers by fusion or mechanical splicing. Given the access to a fusion splicer, you can splice the pigtail right onto the cable in a minute or less, which greatly speeds the splicing and saves significant time and cost spent on field termination. While for mechanical fiber optic pigtail splicing, it precisely holds a fiber optic pigtail and fiber patch cord together, the joint could be temporary or permanent, enabling light to pass from one fiber to the other. The extra slack allows for splicing errors to be corrected. Besides, selecting fiber pigtail assembly with reliable quality would made the splicing process way easier.

 

 

In a word, the fiber pigtail has the characteristic of low insertion loss, high return loss, good interchangeability and repeated insertion, so it is very convenient to use. In the process of using, the fiber optic pigtail should avoid looping as much as possible, which can reduce the attenuation of optical signal in the transmission process. High-quality pigtail cables, coupled with correct fusion splicing practices offer the best performance possible for optical fiber cable terminations.