Lucent Technologies Inc.

At+t Corp.

Constance A Jankoski

Robert William Filas

James D Sinclair

A method and apparatus for providing a clean working area within an enclosure while simultaneously permitting open access to the working area from outside and also preventing any toxic substances from escaping the enclosure to contaminate a worker area. A higher pressure region within the enclosure near the aperture of the enclosure prevents dirt from entering and toxic materials from escaping.

Minienvironment for hazardous process tools

An electroless process has been developed to deposit nickel and gold onto optical fibers using aqueous chemistry. The key to the process is a sensitization of a surface of an optical fiber using a dilute aqueous stannous fluoride solution in absence of oxygen. Stannous fluoride solution is prepared by dissolving crystalline SnF.sub.2 in deionized water. Subsequent treatment includes immersion of sensitized optical fiber in a palladium chloride/HCl aqueous solution and commercially available electroless nickel and electroless gold solutions. The process is compatible with either chemical or fusion lensing operations by using a strippable polymer coating to selectively metallize near the fiber end. The solder joints to the metallized fiber are hermetic as determined by helium leak testing, and solder pull-test strengths typically range from 3-5 pounds, depending on the type of solder. This electroless plating process for metallizing optical fibers makes feasible the incorporation of soldered fiber into packages which might be otherwise prohibitively expensive or mechanically infeasible with the sputtered metallization. The process is useful for all lightwave components which require either hermeticity or high reliability optical fiber attachment.

Growing community of inventors

Branchburg, NJ, United States of America

Constance A Jankoski