CN116430522A - Manufacturing method of optical fiber collimator and optical fiber collimator - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a manufacturing method of an optical fiber collimator and the optical fiber collimator, which comprises the following steps: providing a lens blank, a glass tube and a capillary tube of a tail fiber; processing an incident end face of the lens blank to obtain a lens blank with the incident end face; the angle of the incident end face is determined according to an application scene; inserting a lens blank with an incident end face into a first end of a glass tube and fixedly connecting the lens blank; processing an emergent end face of the lens blank with the incident end face to obtain a connector of the lens and the glass tube; wherein, the focus of the emergent end face of the lens is positioned on the central axis of the connector of the lens and the glass tube; and inserting the capillary tube of the tail fiber into the second end of the glass tube and fixedly connecting the capillary tube to obtain the optical fiber collimator. The invention can reduce the point precision of the optical fiber collimator by eliminating the gap size error when the lens blank is assembled with the glass tube, thereby being capable of meeting the requirements of customers in batches, improving the qualification rate of products and reducing the production cost.

Description

Manufacturing method of optical fiber collimator and optical fiber collimator

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of optical fiber manufacturing, in particular to a manufacturing method of an optical fiber collimator and the optical fiber collimator.

Background

Fiber collimators are a common type of optically passive device. When the optical fiber collimator is used, approximately parallel light beams can be generated with low loss, and other optical elements can be inserted into the light beams, so that the complex optical structure and performance requirements are realized. The optical fiber collimator has very wide application, such as high-power laser, optical communication, optical fiber sensing, biomedical and other fields.

At present, a typical collimator manufacturing method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of designing capillary size parameters of a lens, a glass tube and a tail fiber, respectively processing, bonding one end of the lens and one end of the glass tube, and finally inserting the end of the capillary of the tail fiber into the other end of the glass tube to obtain a product of the optical fiber collimator. However, the point precision of the product produced by the method is easily affected by parameters (such as outer diameter, curvature radius, length, angle, material and the like) of the lens, the outer diameter of the capillary tube, the inner diameter of the glass tube and other mechanical dimensions, and the point precision of the product manufactured by the method is too high and is not easy to meet the requirements of customers. And as the device size requirement is smaller and smaller, the functions are more and more integrated, the point precision requirement of the optical fiber collimator is higher and higher, and the current product design and production mode are required to be optimized so as to further improve the point precision of the collimator.

The existing ways to improve the point accuracy generally include: compensating by adding a wedge or a wedge group between the tail fiber and the collimating lens or after the collimating lens or adding an outer sleeve to the collimator so that the emergent light is parallel to the outer sleeve; the tail fiber and the lens are axially staggered or the incidence angle of the tail fiber is changed; however, these methods add additional parts or use asymmetric structures, complicating assembly and greatly increasing cost.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a manufacturing method of an optical fiber collimator and the optical fiber collimator, and solves the problem that the product percent of pass is low due to the fact that the precision of the optical fiber collimator manufactured by the manufacturing method of the optical fiber collimator in the prior art is too high.

The manufacturing method of the optical fiber collimator comprises the following steps:

providing a lens blank, a glass tube and a capillary tube of a tail fiber;

processing an incident end face of the lens blank to obtain a lens blank with the incident end face; the angle of the incident end face is determined according to an application scene;

inserting the lens blank with the incident end face into the first end of the glass tube and fixedly connecting the lens blank with the incident end face;

processing an emergent end face of the lens blank with the incident end face to obtain a connector of a lens and a glass tube; the focal point of the emergent end face of the lens is positioned on the central axis of the connector of the lens and the glass tube;

and inserting the capillary tube of the tail fiber into the second end of the glass tube and fixedly connecting the capillary tube to obtain the optical fiber collimator.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, the lens blank is a cylindrical blank.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, the length of the lens blank is 2.7mm.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, the lens blank is made of N-SF11 material.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, the incident end face of the lens blank is processed to obtain the lens blank with the incident end face, and then the incident end face of the lens blank with the incident end face is coated.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, an included angle between the incident end face and the end face of the lens blank is 0-4 degrees, and the angle of the incident end face is determined according to the speed of a node in the optical link.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, the lens blank with the incident end face and the glass tube are bonded and fixed through an adhesive.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, before the capillary of the tail fiber is inserted into the second end of the glass tube and fixedly connected, the outer diameter of the capillary of the tail fiber is polished; wherein, the outer diameter tolerance of the polished capillary of the tail fiber is 1.05mm+0/-0.001mm.

In the method for manufacturing the optical fiber collimator, before polishing the outer diameter of the capillary tube of the tail fiber, one end face of the capillary tube of the tail fiber is processed to form an inclined end face, and the tail fiber capillary tube with the inclined end face is obtained; wherein the angle of the inclined end face is determined according to the requirements of insertion loss and recovery loss of the optical path.

A fiber optic collimator comprising:

the optical fiber collimator manufactured by the manufacturing method of the optical fiber collimator according to any one of the above technical schemes.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

the method of the invention can eliminate the gap dimension error when the lens blank and the glass tube are assembled by directly clamping the connector of the lens and the glass tube to process the emergent end face of the lens blank, and the method can reduce the point precision of the produced optical fiber collimator, thereby meeting the requirements of customers in batches, improving the qualification rate of products, reducing the production cost and having simple assembly of the whole structure.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of method steps of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the S100 step of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the step S200 of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the step S300 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of step S400 of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of step S500 of the present invention.

Reference numerals illustrate:

100. lens blanks; 101. lens blanks with an incident end face; 110. an incident end face; 120. an exit end face; 200. a capillary of the pigtail; 300. a glass tube; 400. a connector for the lens and the glass tube; 410. a central axis; 500. an optical fiber collimator.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail below in order to make the objects, technical solutions and effects of the present invention more clear and distinct. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "transverse", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", etc. indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings are merely for convenience in describing the present invention and simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In the description of the present invention, the meaning of "plurality" means at least two, for example, two, three, etc., unless specifically defined otherwise.

In the present invention, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally formed; can be mechanically or electrically connected; either directly or indirectly, through intermediaries, or both, may be in communication with each other or in interaction with each other, unless expressly defined otherwise. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to the specific circumstances.

In the present invention, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, a first feature "up" or "down" a second feature may be the first and second features in direct contact, or the first and second features in indirect contact via an intervening medium. Moreover, a first feature being "above," "over" and "on" a second feature may be a first feature being directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is level higher than the second feature. The first feature being "under", "below" and "beneath" the second feature may be the first feature being directly under or obliquely below the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is horizontally higher than the second feature.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "fixed" or "disposed" on another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. The terms "vertical," "horizontal," "upper," "lower," "left," "right," and the like are used herein for illustrative purposes only and are not meant to be the only embodiment.

At present, the common collimator manufacturing method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of designing the size parameters of the lens, the glass tube 300 and the capillary 200 of the tail fiber, respectively processing, bonding the lens with one end of the glass tube 300, and finally inserting the capillary 200 of the tail fiber into the other end of the glass tube 300 to obtain the product of the optical fiber collimator 500. However, in the manufacturing process of the product, tolerance factors of mechanical dimensions such as a lens (outer diameter, radius of curvature, length, angle, material, etc.), an outer diameter of the capillary tube, an inner diameter of the glass tube 300, etc. affect the point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500 after assembly, and the point precision of the product manufactured by the method is easy to be inconsistent with the requirements of customers. With the progress of the age, the point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500 is also required to be higher and higher, and thus, further optimization of the production process is required to improve the point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500.

Based on this, the present application provides a method for manufacturing an optical fiber collimator 500, which includes the following steps:

s100, providing a lens blank 100, a glass tube 300 and a capillary 200 of a tail fiber;

referring to fig. 2, the lens blank 100 is a green lens, wherein the lens blank 100 is a C-lens (C-lens) commonly used in the optical industry, and has low material cost, simple curvature processing technology, and certain performance advantages compared with the conventional G-lens. The glass tube 300 and the capillary tube 200 of the tail fiber are made of quartz glass or high borosilicate glass, and the quartz glass has the advantages of high temperature resistance, low expansion coefficient, good thermal shock resistance, chemical stability and electrical insulation property, can be penetrated by ultraviolet and infrared, and is ideal glass with excellent performance and is often used for an optical system.

S200, processing an incident end face 110 of the lens blank 100 to obtain a lens blank 101 with the incident end face; wherein, the angle of the incident end face 110 is determined according to the application scene;

referring to fig. 3, processing the incident end face 110 of the lens blank 100 specifically includes: the lens blank 100 is clamped by the clamping device, and the incident end face 110 of the lens blank 100 is ground, so that the incident end face 110 of the lens blank 100 is changed from a horizontal plane to an inclined plane, and the inclined plane forms a certain included angle with the horizontal plane. The angle of the incident end face 110 is determined by an application scene, and the application scene actually refers to selecting a proper angle according to the requirements of a client. For example, some customers require high spot accuracy of the prepared fiber collimator 500, some customers require low spot accuracy of the prepared fiber collimator 500, and the angles of the incident end face 110 of the lens blank 100 required for the fiber collimator 500 are different for different spot accuracy, so that the influence of the reflected light on the communication system can be eliminated to the greatest extent only when the proper angle is assembled.

S300, inserting the lens blank 101 with the incident end face into the first end of the glass tube 300 and fixedly connecting the lens blank with the incident end face;

referring to fig. 3 and 4, the first end refers to the position where the lens blank 100 is actually mounted after the size calculation inside the glass tube 300, that is, the lens blank 101 with the incident end face is mounted to fit inside the glass tube 300. It is noted that the inner diameter of the glass tube 300 is equal to the outer diameter of the lens blank 101 with the incident end face. In addition, in the present embodiment, the lens blank 101 with the incident end face may be glued and fixedly connected at a designated position screwed into the glass tube 300.

S400, processing an outgoing end face 120 of the lens blank 101 with the incident end face to obtain a connector of the lens and the glass tube 300; wherein the focal point of the exit end face 120 of the lens is located on the central axis 410 of the connection body of the lens and the glass tube;

in this embodiment, referring to fig. 5, since the existing lens, glass tube 300 and capillary tube 200 of the pigtail are processed separately, there is a certain error in the dimension during the processing, if the lens and glass tube 300 are processed separately first during the assembly, a certain error gap is generated between the lens and glass tube 300 during the assembly, so that the offset distance between the focal point of the exit end face 120 of the lens and the central axis 410 of the collimator after the product is molded is larger, the point precision of the assembled product is not easy to meet the requirements of the customer, and the inclination angle of the lens is easy during the installation. Therefore, the method firstly installs the lens blank 101 with the incident end face 110 into the glass tube 300 to obtain the connector of the lens and the glass tube 300, and finally, when the emergent end face 120 of the lens blank 100 is processed by clamping the outer diameter of the glass tube 300, the focal point of the emergent end face 120 of the lens blank 100 is ensured to be fixed on the central axis 410 of the connector of the lens and the glass tube 300, and the influence of the processing error size on the point precision of the product is reduced.

S500, inserting the capillary 200 of the tail fiber into the second end of the glass tube 300 and fixedly connecting to obtain the optical fiber collimator 500.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 6, the second end refers to the actual position of the glass tube 300 where the pigtail capillary 200 is mounted, but since the glass tube 300 is a cylindrical structure, the second end refers to the fact that the pigtail capillary 200 is mounted in the other opening of the glass tube 300, thereby obtaining the optical fiber collimator 500 after molding. It should be noted that, when the capillary 200 of An Zhuangwei fibers is in the glass tube 300, the capillary 200 of the tail fiber needs to be fixed, for example, by glue fixing.

Specifically, the lens blank 100 is a cylindrical blank.

In the present embodiment, the lens blank 100 is a cylindrical blank, so that the step of processing the lens blank 100 into a cylindrical shape is omitted, and the production cost is reduced; and can be fitted into the glass tube 300 with a better fit when the lens blank 100 is a cylindrical-shaped blank.

Specifically, the length of the lens blank 100 is 2.7mm.

In a preferred embodiment, wherein the length of the lens blank 100 is set to 2.7mm, the width (i.e., outer diameter) of the lens blank 100 is set to fit the inner diameter of the glass tube 300. Then, the length of the glass tube 300 is set to be 5.5mm, the outer diameter of the glass tube 300 is 1.4mm, the inner diameter of the glass tube 300 is 1mm, the tolerance of the inner diameter of the glass tube 300 is 0.005mm-0.015mm, the length of the capillary 200 of the tail fiber is 3.7mm, the outer diameter of the capillary 200 of the tail fiber is 1mm as the inner diameter of the glass tube 300, the tolerance of the outer diameter of the capillary 200 of the tail fiber is + -0.005 mm, and finally, the focal length and wavelength values of the lens blank 100 are set, the set values are input into Zemax software to obtain the maximum deviation of 0.0125mm, and the theoretical point accuracy range under the model is estimated to be 0 DEG-1.4 deg.

Notably, zemax is optical product design and simulation software, and after use, the dot precision of the product model size can be calculated theoretically, so that design iteration and repeated proofing are reduced, the time of product market introduction is shortened, and development cost is reduced.

Specifically, the lens blank 100 is a lens blank 100 made of N-SF11 material.

In the embodiment, the N-SF11 is optical special glass, the refractive index of the N-SF11 is close to 1.8, the refractive index is high, the Abbe number is low, the scattering power is high, and the glass is very suitable for applications requiring high scattering in the visible light range, and is also glass for C-lens main raw materials in optical communication.

In one embodiment, after the step S200, the method further includes:

and processing the incidence end face 110 of the lens blank 100 to obtain a lens blank 101 with the incidence end face, and then coating the incidence end face 110 of the lens blank 101 with the incidence end face.

The film coating of the lens is an antireflection film, which is also called an antireflection film, and the main function of the antireflection film is to reduce or eliminate reflected light of optical surfaces such as lenses, prisms, plane mirrors and the like, so that the light transmission quantity of the elements is increased, and stray light of a system is reduced or eliminated.

In one embodiment, the step S200 specifically includes:

the angle between the incident end face 110 and the end face of the lens blank is 0 to 4 degrees, and the angle of the incident end face 110 is determined according to the speed of the node in the optical link.

In this embodiment, the optical link refers to a line that is input to the optical receiver by the optical transmitter at high frequency and output by photoelectric conversion, and the allowable included angle range is obtained by writing each numerical value case when the included angle is 0 to 4 ° into the Zemax software and performing model calculation.

In one embodiment, the step of S300 specifically includes: the lens blank 101 with the incident end face and the glass tube 300 are bonded and fixed by an adhesive.

The binder is a guarantee of the bond strength between the abrasive and the matrix. Along with the development of the chemical industry, various novel adhesives enter the field of coated abrasives, so that the performance of the coated abrasives is improved, and the development of the coated abrasives industry is promoted. Besides sizing materials, the adhesive also comprises auxiliary components such as a solvent, a curing agent, a toughening agent, a preservative, a colorant, a defoaming agent and the like. The binders include synthetic resins, rubbers and paints, in addition to the most commonly used animal glues. The lens blank 100 is fixedly connected by being sleeved in the glass tube 300 through an adhesive.

Before the step of S500, the method further includes:

polishing the outer diameter of the capillary 200 of the pigtail before the capillary 200 of the pigtail is inserted into the second end of the glass tube 300 and fixedly connected; wherein, the outer diameter tolerance of the polished capillary 200 of the tail fiber is 1.005mm+0/-0.001mm.

In this solution, by adjusting the capillary outer diameter tolerance from 1.0±0.005 to 1.005+0/-0.001mm, so that the maximum radial offset of the manufactured final product optical fiber collimator 500 and the central axis 410 of the optical fiber collimator 500 is reduced from 0.01mm (capillary offset= (1.015-0.995)/2=0.01) to 0.0055mm (capillary offset optimization= (1.015-1.004)/2=0.0055), the radial total offset of the optical axes of the final product optical fiber collimator 500 and the lens blank 100 can be reduced by 0.017mm at maximum (total offset optimization=0.0125+0.0045=0.017), the total offset of the lens and the capillary can be reduced by about 0.017mm by the above means, and by substituting Zemax software into the size model, the point accuracy a, a≡0.6 ° which can be reduced by this means, the direction of the low accuracy a is completely random because the radial offset direction is not specific.

It should be noted that, since the angle of grinding of the incident end face 110 of the lens is 8 °, the direction and the magnitude of the intrinsic point precision are generally fixed orientations (the intrinsic point precision refers to the deviation of light generated by the incident end face 110 of the lens after the angle is introduced), the value of the grinding angle of 8 ° is input into the Zemax simulation software to calculate the theoretical intrinsic point precision B, b≡0.6 °, while the point precision a for reducing the total offset reduction is randomly oriented, when the offset direction of the angle a is the same as the angle B, the fixed angle error C affected by various factors except the angle a and the angle B is obtained, c=1.4-a-b=0.2 (random non-directivity), wherein, 1.4 ° is input from the model product value to the theoretical point precision calculated by the Zemax software, and the point precision range is obtained by taking the maximum value. It should be noted that the purpose of this calculation method is to obtain the angle range caused by other errors of the system under the worst loading, and the fixed point precision error caused by other factors except the above two factors is 0.2 °, so that when the preset grinding angle is 8 °, the point precision of the collimator is b±0.2°. Therefore, compared with the original maximum point precision of 1.4 degrees, the maximum point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500 produced by the method is 0.8 degrees, and the method effectively reduces the precision of the produced optical fiber collimator 500.

Since 0 ° to 4 ° are all possible, as a preferable embodiment, when the grinding angle of the incident end face 110 is adjusted to 4 °, the point accuracy B of the fixed orientation is about 0.25 °, and the point accuracy of the collimator is 0.25±0.2°.

As a more preferable embodiment, when the polishing angle of the incident end face 110 is adjusted to 0 °, the point accuracy of the fixed orientation is about B0 °, and at this time, the point accuracy of the collimator is 0±0.2°, and the actual output is 0 to 0.2 °.

It can be understood that the above values are all obtained by theoretical calculation through preset dimension values and then correspondingly input into a Zemax optical simulation software model.

Referring to fig. 6, before polishing the outer diameter of the capillary 200 of the pigtail, one end face of the capillary 200 of the pigtail is processed to form an inclined end face, so as to obtain a pigtail capillary with an inclined end face; wherein the angle of the inclined end face is determined according to the requirements of insertion loss and recovery loss of the optical path.

In this embodiment, by forming the end face of the capillary 200 of the pigtail into an inclined end face, the reflection of the optical path generated in the glass tube 300 is reduced in cooperation with the incident end face 110 of the lens.

A fiber collimator 500 comprising:

the optical fiber collimator 500 manufactured by the method for manufacturing an optical fiber collimator 500 according to any one of the above embodiments.

In this embodiment, the present application relates to an optical fiber collimator 500, which is manufactured by adopting a manufacturing method of the optical fiber collimator 500 according to any one of the above-mentioned embodiments, and the above-mentioned effects have been discussed, so that the discussion is not repeated.

In summary, the point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500 manufactured by the method is reduced from 1 degree to below 0.2 degrees, and the point precision of the optical fiber collimator 500 can be reduced by using the method to manufacture the optical fiber collimator 500, so that the influence of error gap size and other errors is greatly reduced, thereby enabling mass production and improving the product qualification rate and the processing efficiency.

Of course, the present invention can be implemented in various other embodiments, and based on this embodiment, those skilled in the art can obtain other embodiments without any inventive effort, which fall within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. The manufacturing method of the optical fiber collimator is characterized by comprising the following steps:

providing a lens blank, a glass tube and a capillary tube of a tail fiber;

processing an incident end face of the lens blank to obtain a lens blank with the incident end face; the angle of the incident end face is determined according to an application scene;

inserting the lens blank with the incident end face into the first end of the glass tube and fixedly connecting the lens blank with the incident end face;

processing an emergent end face of the lens blank with the incident end face to obtain a connector of a lens and a glass tube; the focal point of the emergent end face of the lens is positioned on the central axis of the connector of the lens and the glass tube;

and inserting the capillary tube of the tail fiber into the second end of the glass tube and fixedly connecting the capillary tube to obtain the optical fiber collimator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the lens blank is a cylindrical blank.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the lens blank has a length of 2.7mm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the lens blank is a lens blank made of N-SF11 material.

5. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber collimator according to claim 1, wherein after the lens blank is subjected to the incident end face processing to obtain a lens blank with an incident end face, the incident end face of the lens blank with an incident end face is coated with a film.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the angle between the incident end face and the end face of the lens blank is 0 ° to 4 °, and the angle of the incident end face is determined according to the speed of the node in the optical link.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the lens blank with the incident end face and the glass tube are bonded and fixed by an adhesive.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the polishing the outer diameter of the capillary of the pigtail is performed before the capillary of the pigtail is inserted into the second end of the glass tube and fixedly connected; wherein, the outer diameter tolerance of the polished capillary of the tail fiber is 1.005mm+0/-0.001mm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one of the end faces of the capillary of the pigtail is processed to form an inclined end face before polishing the outer diameter of the capillary of the pigtail, so as to obtain a pigtail capillary with the inclined end face; wherein the angle of the inclined end face is determined according to the requirements of insertion loss and recovery loss of the optical path.

10. An optical fiber collimator, comprising:

the optical fiber collimator manufactured by the optical fiber collimator manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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