Chapter 6: Scinece & Engineering Indicators 93
Optical Fibers
National technological positions in the broad and amorphous field of information technology have here been assessed through an examination of international patenting activity of optical fiber technology. Optical fibers are flexible, transparent fibers, usually made of extremely pure glass, and designed and manufactured to guide rays of light. Optical fibers have a
greater information-carrying capacity than copper wire: communications companies--anticipating future information demands--are increasingly replacing their copper wire transmission lines with new lines made of optical fiber. For this study, optical fibers were defined to include plastic fibers, optical fiber bundles, optical preforms, and integrated optical waveguides. The definition excludes optical fiber cables
and connectors, light sources and receivers, couplers, amplifiers, repeaters, and switches. The seven countries analyzed account for approximately 94.6 percent of total patent activity by all countries in this technology. (Click here for footnote 55.)
Footnote 55:
The trends discussed for optical fiber technology are estimates based on a sample of 4,930 patent records drawn from the population of 7,848 optical fiber patent records in the World Patents Index Latest database with priority applications in the
seven countries under study and basic patent publications from 1981 to early 1993. The 4,930 patent records include the entire population of optical fiber patent families with priority applications in the United States, West Germany, East Germany,
Great Britain, France, and South Korea; and a 43-percent sample of the patent families with a priority application in Japan. Therefore, data presented for Japan are estimates, while data presented for the other six countries are true population
figures.
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