CN116165749A

CN116165749A - Optical fiber coupler and manufacturing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN116165749A
Application number: CN202211580242.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王建强; 杜永建; 郭征东; 黎雨欣; 智健
Original assignee: Orte Photonics Co ltd
Current assignee: Orte Photonics Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-12-09
Filing date: 2022-12-09
Publication date: 2023-05-26

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical fiber coupler and a manufacturing method of the optical fiber coupler. The optical fiber coupler includes: coupling tube and pipe. The coupling tube includes a coupling optical fiber, a substrate, and a protection tube. The coupling fiber has a coupling segment. The substrate is provided with a coupling groove, and the coupling section is arranged in the coupling groove. Both ends of the coupling section are fixedly connected with the base plate. The protection pipe is sleeved outside the base plate and the coupling section. The pipe cover is located the outside of coupling pipe, and the both ends of protection tube all are equipped with the shadowless glue, and the both ends of pipe all are equipped with the sealant. The optical fiber coupler has the advantages of simple structure, convenient assembly and high production efficiency.

Description

Optical fiber coupler and manufacturing method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of optical fiber communication devices, in particular to an optical fiber coupler and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

The optical fiber coupler is a transmission device used in an optical fiber communication network, has a function of redistributing optical power or optical wavelength of an input signal, and is widely used in the fields of optical communication, EDFA and the like. Along with the continuous development of 5G communication technology, the competition of the optical communication industry is also more and more intense, and the production technology of optical communication components needs to be further optimized to control the production cost and improve the competitiveness.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to an optical fiber coupler that overcomes one or more of the problems of the prior art, and at least provides a useful choice or creation.

The technical scheme adopted for solving the technical problems is as follows:

an optical fiber coupler, comprising: a coupling tube and a circular tube;

the coupling tube comprises a coupling optical fiber, a substrate and a protection tube, wherein the coupling optical fiber is provided with a coupling section, the substrate is provided with a coupling groove, the coupling section is arranged in the coupling groove, two ends of the coupling section are fixedly connected with the substrate, the protection tube is sleeved on the outer sides of the substrate and the coupling section, the round tube is sleeved on the outer side of the coupling tube, shadowless glue is arranged at two ends of the protection tube, and sealing glue is arranged at two ends of the round tube.

The optical fiber coupler provided by the invention has at least the following beneficial effects: the substrate can provide a mounting and fixing foundation for the coupling optical fibers, so that the coupling segments can be fixed in the coupling grooves and packaged in the protective tube to form the coupling tube. The shadowless glue is arranged at the two ends of the coupling tube, so that the end part of the coupling tube can have a specific refractive index, and the parameter performance of the coupling tube is ensured. The circular tube is sleeved outside the coupling tube to protect the coupling tube, the sealing glue at two ends can isolate the inside and the outside of the circular tube, and foreign matters enter the circular tube to influence the coupling tube. The optical fiber coupler has the advantages of simple structure, convenient assembly and high production efficiency.

As a further improvement of the technical scheme, the inner diameter of the circular tube is matched with the outer diameter of the protection tube, and the circular tube is sleeved on the outer side of the protection tube in a clearance fit manner. Through the technical scheme, the sizes of the circular tube and the protection tube are correspondingly arranged, so that the coupling tube can be directly inserted into the circular tube, and the installation is convenient. After the assembly is completed, the protection tube and the round tube do not have excessive relative shaking. The assembly process is very convenient, need not to twine or smear the protection tube outer wall, also need not to pack between protection tube and pipe.

As a further improvement of the technical scheme, the substrate and the round tube are ceramic products. Through the technical scheme, the substrate made of the ceramic material has high heat resistance and can normally work in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment. Compared with a round tube made of glass, the ceramic material has high hardness, is not easy to crack or degum, and can greatly improve the yield of impact resistance test and the service life in high-temperature and high-humidity environments.

As a further improvement of the technical scheme, the two ends of the round tube are respectively provided with an end head and a drying block, the sealant is arranged on the outer side of the end head, and the drying block is arranged on the inner side of the end head. Through above-mentioned technical scheme, adopt the drying block to absorb the inboard moisture of pipe, improve the dampproofing performance of product. Compared with moistureproof powder, the moistureproof powder is more convenient to assemble by adopting the blocky dry blocks, and can reduce the production cost. The end can carry out the bearing to the sealant for the better embedment of sealant is in the pipe. The end can also separate the sealant and the drying block, so that the mutual influence is avoided.

As a further improvement of the above technical solution, the coupling optical fiber further has an incident section and an emergent section connected to two ends of the coupling section, respectively, and the incident section and the emergent section pass through the shadowless glue, the drying block, the end head and the sealant at two ends respectively and extend outwards.

As a further improvement of the technical scheme, the optical fiber coupler further comprises a steel pipe, the steel pipe is sleeved on the outer side of the round pipe, protective glue is arranged at two ends of the steel pipe, and the incident section and the emergent section respectively penetrate through the protective glue at two ends and extend outwards. Through above-mentioned technical scheme, protect the pipe through the steel pipe, the protection glue at steel pipe both ends can be fixed the incident section and the emergence section of coupling optic fibre, can also protect the steel pipe both ends.

The invention also provides a manufacturing method of the optical fiber coupler, which comprises the following steps:

step S1: the coupling section of the coupling optical fiber is arranged in the coupling groove of the substrate and is fixed by glue;

step S2: sleeving a substrate and a coupling optical fiber into a protective tube, treating the position of the short fiber, and then filling and sealing and curing shadowless glue at two ends of the protective tube;

step S3: sleeving the protection tube into the circular tube, sequentially plugging the end part of the circular tube into the drying block and the end head, and filling and sealing the sealing glue;

step S4: the round tube is sleeved into the steel tube, and protective glue is filled and sealed at the two ends of the steel tube.

The manufacturing method of the optical fiber coupler provided by the invention has at least the following beneficial effects: the coupling optical fiber is integrated into a coupling pipe through the substrate and the protection pipe, and the coupling pipe, the round pipe and the steel pipe are sleeved layer by layer to realize sealing isolation and protection of the coupling pipe. The end of the circular tube is provided with the drying block and the sealant, so that foreign matters can be prevented from entering and absorbing internal water vapor, and the coupling tube can work in a high-temperature high-humidity environment. The steel pipe is arranged on the outermost layer, so that a good physical protection effect can be achieved. The manufacturing method of the optical fiber coupler is convenient to operate, low in assembly difficulty, low in production cost and high in product competitiveness.

As a further improvement of the above technical solution, in S2, after the shadowless glue is filled, curing is performed by irradiation with ultraviolet light. Through the technical scheme, the shadowless glue can be solidified only after being irradiated by the ultraviolet lamp, so that the encapsulation operation at the two ends of the protection tube is more convenient, the encapsulation quality can be adjusted at any time, and the operable time of the encapsulation process can not be limited.

As a further improvement of the technical scheme, one or two through holes are preset in the drying block and the end, and in S3, the corresponding end parts of the round tubes are respectively plugged according to the preset number of the through holes in the drying block and the end, and the incident section or the emergent section of the coupling optical fiber penetrates out of the through holes. Through the technical scheme, the drying block and the end head can be sleeved on the end part of the circular tube along the optical fiber strip of the coupling optical fiber, and the incident section and the emergent section of the coupling optical fiber can penetrate out of the drying block and the end head to extend while the drying block and the end head can be plugged in the corresponding positions of the circular tube.

As a further improvement of the above technical scheme, in S4, the protective glue is poured into the end of the steel pipe from inside to outside, so that the protective glue is encapsulated into a cone shape with a thick inner end and a thin outer end. Through the technical scheme, the conical protective adhesive can fix the incident section and the emergent section of the coupling optical fiber, and avoid the occurrence of abnormality caused by excessive bending of the optical fiber strip.

Drawings

The invention is further described below with reference to the drawings and examples;

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a fiber optic coupler provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a fiber optic coupler provided by the present invention;

fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the fiber coupler provided by the present invention.

In the figure: 100. a coupling tube; 110. coupling an optical fiber; 111. a coupling section; 112. an optical fiber strip; 120. a substrate; 130. a protective tube; 140. a shadowless glue; 200. a round tube; 210. sealing glue; 220. drying the blocks; 230. an end head; 300. a steel pipe; 310. and (5) protective glue.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein the accompanying drawings are used to supplement the description of the written description so that one can intuitively and intuitively understand each technical feature and overall technical scheme of the present invention, but not to limit the scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that references to orientation descriptions such as upper, lower, front, rear, left, right, etc. are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, are merely for convenience of description of the present invention and to simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, if there is a word description such as "a plurality" or the like, the meaning of a plurality is one or more, and the meaning of a plurality is two or more, and greater than, less than, exceeding, etc. are understood to not include the present number, and above, below, within, etc. are understood to include the present number.

In the description of the present invention, unless explicitly defined otherwise, terms such as arrangement, installation, connection, etc. should be construed broadly and the specific meaning of the terms in the present invention can be reasonably determined by a person skilled in the art in combination with the specific contents of the technical scheme.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the optical fiber coupler of the present invention makes the following embodiments:

an optical fiber coupler, comprising: coupling tube 100 and round tube 200.

In this embodiment, the coupling tube 100 and the circular tube 200 are both cylindrical. The coupling pipe 100 and the circular pipe 200 are coaxially arranged with the axis extending in the left-right direction.

The coupling tube 100 includes: the optical fiber 110, the substrate 120, and the protection tube 130 are coupled.

The coupling optical fiber 110 includes a coupling section 111, and an incident section and an exit section respectively connected to left and right ends of the coupling section 111. In this embodiment, the incident section is disposed on the left side of the coupling section 111, and the exit section is disposed on the right side of the coupling section 111. Taking the waveguide type standard coupler as an example, the incident section has a single fiber rod 112 extending leftwards, and the exit section has two fiber rods 112 extending rightwards.

The substrate 120 has a coupling groove. The coupling section 111 of the coupling fiber 110 is disposed in the coupling groove. The two ends of the coupling section 111 are fixedly connected with the substrate 120 through glue. In this embodiment, the substrate 120 is a ceramic product. Both ends of the coupling section 111 are fixedly connected with the substrate 120 by 353ND epoxy glue.

The protection tube 130 is sleeved outside the substrate 120, and the two ends of the protection tube 130 are respectively provided with a shadowless glue 140. In this embodiment, the protection tube 130 is a silica gel product. The shadowless glue 140 is also called UV glue, photosensitive glue and ultraviolet light curing glue, and is an adhesive which can be cured only by ultraviolet light irradiation. In other embodiments, the protection tube 130 may be made of heat shrink tube or glass.

The protection tube 130 has a cylindrical shape, and the coupling tube 100 has a cylindrical shape. The outer diameter of the protection tube 130 is matched with the inner diameter of the circular tube 200, so that the circular tube 200 can be coaxially sleeved outside the coupling tube 100 in a clearance fit manner.

The left and right ends of the circular tube 200 are provided with sealant 210. The sealant 210 can seal the pipe orifices at the two ends of the circular pipe 200, and the position of the coupling pipe 100 is isolated from the outside. The round tube 200 is made of ceramic. The sealant 210 is an epoxy resin adhesive. The use of the ceramic round tube 200 can avoid the occurrence of cracking and degumming. Compared with the round tube 200 made of glass, the ceramic round tube 200 has small possibility of breakage caused by huge impact when in impact resistance test, and can effectively avoid the condition of product failure caused by impact resistance test.

Referring to fig. 2, in a further embodiment, the two ends of the circular tube 200 are further provided with a drying block 220 and a tip 230. The tip 230 is in the shape of a thin sheet and is disposed perpendicularly to the axial direction of the round tube 200. The edge of the tip 230 abuts against the inner sidewall of the circular tube 200. The opposite sides of the two ends 230 are taken as the inner side, and the opposite sides are taken as the outer sides. The drying block 220 is disposed inside the tip 230, and the sealant 210 is disposed outside the tip 230.

The drying block 220 and the coupling pipe 100 are disposed between the two ends 230 of the circular pipe 200. The coupling pipe 100 is sleeved with the circular pipe 200, and the two drying blocks 220 are respectively arranged at two axial ends of the coupling pipe 100. In this embodiment, a gap is left between the dry block 220 and the coupling tube 100. In other embodiments, two of the dry blocks 220 may abut against both ends of the coupling pipe 100 in the axial direction, respectively. The dry block 220 is in a block shape, the block-shaped dry block 220 can be directly put in during product assembly, which is more convenient and quick, and in other embodiments, the dry block 220 can be formed by stacking dry powder.

The incident section and the emergent section respectively pass through the shadowless glue 140, the drying block 220, the end 230 and the sealant 210 at two ends of the coupling tube 100 and extend to the outside. The drying block 220 and the tip 230 are provided with a number of through holes consistent with the number of the optical fiber rods 112 of the incident section and the exit section. The optical fiber strip 112 is inserted into the through holes of the drying block 220 and the end head 230, and the shadowless glue 140 and the sealant 210 are molded around the optical fiber strip 112 of the coupling optical fiber 110 in the potting process.

In a further embodiment, the fiber optic coupler further comprises a steel tube 300 having a cylindrical shape. The coupling pipe 100, the round pipe 200 and the steel pipe 300 are sequentially sleeved with each other to form a multi-layer sleeve structure with the coupling pipe 100 inside and the steel pipe 300 outside. The steel pipe 300 is coaxially sleeved outside the round pipe 200. The inner diameter of the steel pipe 300 is matched with the outer diameter of the circular pipe 200, so that the inner side wall of the steel pipe 300 is in clearance fit with the outer side wall of the circular pipe 200. Both ends of the steel pipe 300 are provided with protective glue 310. The protective gel 310 is an elastic material product.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, the outer side of the circular tube 200 is not provided with a steel tube 300. The circular tube 200 is the outermost layer of the optical fiber coupler, and protective glue 310 may be disposed at two ends of the circular tube 200. The sealant 210 is disposed in the nozzles at two ends of the circular tube 200, and the protective glue 310 is disposed outside the nozzles at two ends of the circular tube 200.

The invention also provides a manufacturing and assembling method of the optical fiber coupler, which comprises the following steps:

first, the coupling section 111 of the coupling fiber 110 is disposed in the coupling groove of the substrate 120 and fixed by glue adhesion.

Specifically, the left and right ends of the coupling section 111 are adhered and fixed to the substrate 120 by 353ND epoxy glue, so that the coupling optical fiber 110 can be connected to the substrate 120 to form a whole. The 353ND epoxy adhesive is a double-component thermosetting epoxy resin, can be used for encapsulation and protection, and is used as an adhesive for metal, glass, ceramic and most plastics, has the advantages of long operation time (up to 4 hours), excellent optical performance, easy operation, easy penetration into optical fiber bundles and the like, and is an ideal adhesive for fixing optical fibers.

The refractive index 1.5600 of the 353ND epoxy glue after solidification molding can reach more than 50% for 5000 angstrom wavelength and more than 95% for 9000 angstrom wavelength.

Then, the substrate 120 and the coupling optical fiber 110, which are integrally bonded, are inserted into the protection tube 130, the short fiber position is treated, and then the shadowless glue 140 is filled in both ends of the protection tube 130.

Specifically, the stub position refers to the intersection position of the incident section and the coupling section 111. In the coupling section 111, two optical fiber strips 112 are coupled to each other, wherein an end portion of one optical fiber strip 112 protrudes out of an end portion of the coupling section 111, i.e. is a short fiber. And the short fiber position is processed, so that the influence of the optical signal leakage on the effect of the optical fiber coupler is avoided.

The shadowless glue 140 must be cured under the premise of irradiating the glue solution by ultraviolet rays, and the principle is that the photoinitiator or photosensitizer in the shadowless glue 140 generates active free radicals or cations after absorbing ultraviolet rays under the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays, and initiates chemical reaction of monomer polymerization and crosslinking, so that the adhesive is converted from liquid state to solid state in a few seconds. The shadowless glue 140 has high bonding strength and high curing speed, and greatly improves the encapsulation efficiency of the end part of the coupling tube 100.

The two ends of the protection tube 130 are encapsulated by using the shadowless glue 140, and the refractive index requirements of the two ends of the coupling tube 100 can be met. For the convenience of ultraviolet irradiation to cure the shadowless glue 140, the protective tube 130 is generally made of transparent materials such as glass, transparent grade varieties in Polyetheretherketone (PEEK), or transparent Polystyrene (PHB), polystyrene (commonly called "benzene-penetrating"), high-strength organic glass (polymethyl acrylate), poly-terephthaloyl-p-phenylenediamine (polyarylene ester), and the like. The polyether-ether-ketone is a functional polymer material, can be blow-molded into transparent pipes, can be rolled into plates with different thicknesses, and can be used for producing high-strength transparent plastic parts with different shapes in an injection molding mode by using an injection molding machine with high screw diameter ratio.

Next, the protection tube 130 is inserted into the circular tube 200, and the end of the circular tube 200 is sequentially inserted with the dry block 220 and the tip 230, and the sealant 210 is encapsulated.

The outer diameter of the protection tube 130 is in clearance fit with the inner diameter of the circular tube 200, and the coupling tube 100 can be directly inserted into the circular tube 200 when assembled. After the assembly, the protection tube 130 and the round tube 200 do not have excessive relative shaking. The assembly process is very convenient, and the outer wall of the protection tube 130 is not required to be wound or smeared, and the filling between the protection tube 130 and the circular tube 200 is not required. The sealant 210 can largely isolate the inside and outside of the round tube 200. The drying block 220 can absorb a small amount of moisture entering the circular tube 200, so as to avoid affecting the normal use of the coupling tube 100. The end 230 can support the sealant 210 and separate the sealant 210 from the dry block 220, thereby facilitating the potting of the sealant 210.

Corresponding to the number of the optical fiber strips 112 of the incident section and the emergent section, the drying block 220 and the end 230 are provided with a plurality of through holes. In this embodiment, the number of the optical fiber strips 112 of the incident section and the exit section is one and two, and the number of the through holes of the drying block 220 and the end 230 corresponding to the left side is one, and the number of the through holes of the drying block 220 and the end 230 corresponding to the right side is two.

Finally, the round tube 200 is sleeved into the steel tube 300, and the protective glue 310 is encapsulated at the two ends of the steel tube 300.

The steel pipe 300 can protect the round pipe 200. The outer diameter of the round tube 200 is in clearance fit with the inner diameter of the steel tube 300, and the round tube 200 can be directly inserted into the steel tube 300. The protective glue 310 is encapsulated from the end of the steel pipe 300 from inside to outside, so that the protective glue 310 is encapsulated into a cone shape with a thick inner end and a thin outer end, and the optical fiber strip 112 extending outwards from the protective glue is not easy to bend excessively to cause abnormality. The protective glue 310 may be made of silica gel or rubber, and is formed at two ends of the steel pipe 300.

In the description of the present specification, reference to the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "illustrative embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made herein by one having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. An optical fiber coupler, characterized in that: comprising the following steps: a coupling tube and a circular tube;

2. The fiber optic coupler of claim 1, wherein: the inner diameter of the circular tube is matched with the outer diameter of the protection tube, and the circular tube is sleeved on the outer side of the protection tube in a clearance fit manner.

3. The fiber optic coupler of claim 1, wherein: the substrate and the round tube are ceramic products.

4. The fiber optic coupler of claim 1, wherein: the sealing glue is arranged on the outer side of the end head, and the drying block is arranged on the inner side of the end head.

5. The fiber optic coupler according to claim 4, wherein: the coupling optical fiber is also provided with an incident section and an emergent section which are respectively connected with the two ends of the coupling section, and the incident section and the emergent section respectively penetrate through the shadowless glue, the drying block, the end head and the sealant at the two ends and extend outwards.

6. The fiber optic coupler of claim 1, wherein: the optical fiber coupler further comprises a steel pipe, the steel pipe is sleeved on the outer side of the round pipe, protective glue is arranged at two ends of the steel pipe, and the incident section and the emergent section respectively penetrate through the protective glue at two ends and extend outwards.

7. The manufacturing method of the optical fiber coupler is characterized by comprising the following steps of: the method comprises the following steps:

s1, arranging a coupling section of a coupling optical fiber in a coupling groove of a substrate and fixing the coupling section by glue;

s2, sleeving the substrate and the coupling optical fiber into the protective tube, treating the position of the short fiber, and filling and sealing shadowless glue at two ends of the protective tube;

s3, sleeving the protection tube into the circular tube, sequentially plugging the end part of the circular tube into the drying block and the end head, and filling and sealing the sealing glue;

s4, sleeving the round tube into the steel tube, and filling and sealing protective glue at two ends of the steel tube.

8. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber coupler according to claim 7, wherein: in S2, after the shadowless glue is filled, curing is performed by irradiation of a UV lamp.

9. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber coupler according to claim 7, wherein: one or two through holes are preset in the drying block and the end, and in S3, the ends corresponding to the round tubes are respectively plugged according to the preset number of the through holes in the drying block and the end, and the incident section or the emergent section of the coupling optical fiber passes through the through holes.

10. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber coupler according to claim 7, wherein: in S4, the protective glue is poured into the end part of the steel pipe from inside to outside, so that the protective glue is encapsulated into a cone shape with thick inner end and thin outer end.