Patent ID: 8145026

Claim:
A reduced-size drop cable, comprising: a cable jacket, said cable jacket defining a longitudinal cavity; and a bend-insensitive optical fiber positioned within the longitudinal cavity; wherein said bend-insensitive optical fiber comprises a glass fiber and a primary coating surrounding said glass fiber, said primary coating possessing (i) an in situ modulus of less than 0.50 MPa and (ii) a glass transition temperature of less than −55° C.; wherein the bend-insensitive optical fiber has: at a wavelength of 1310 nanometers, a mode field diameter with nominal values of between 8.5 microns and 9.3 microns; a cable cutoff wavelength of no more than 1260 nanometers; a zero chromatic dispersion wavelength of at least 1300 nanometers and no more than 1324 nanometers; at the zero chromatic dispersion wavelength, a slope of no more than 0.092 ps/(nm 2 ·km); at a wavelength of 1550 nanometers, induced bending attenuation of (i) 0.03 dB or less for ten turns around a mandrel radius of 15 millimeters, (ii) 0.1 dB or less for one turn around a mandrel radius of 10 millimeters, and (iii) 0.5 dB or less for one turn around a mandrel radius of 7.5 millimeters; and at a wavelength of 1625 nanometers, induced bending attenuation of (i) 0.1 dB or less for ten turns around a mandrel radius of 15 millimeters, (ii) 0.2 dB or less for one turn around a mandrel radius of 10 millimeters, and (iii) 1.0 dB or less for one turn around a mandrel radius of 7.5 millimeters.