JP2001343556A - Multicore optical collimator element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multicore optical collimator element that has short assembling time and is small-sized and inexpensive. SOLUTION: The element consists of an optical fiber holder 1 having a plurality of optical fiber holding holes 2 and an optical part holder 4 having a plurality of optical part holding holes 5. Optical fibers 3 are held in the optical fiber holding holes 2 while optical parts 6 are held in the optical part holding holes 5. In the exposed face 23 at the end face of the optical fiber in the holder 1 and the exposed face 24 at the optical part holding hole 4 of the part holder 5, guide holes 7, 8 are provided in both exposed faces 10, 11. With positioning and surface joining performed by fitting the guide pins 9 into the guide holes 7, 8, the plurality of optical fibers 3 and the optical parts 6 are optically coupled with each other. Since guide pins are fitted to the guide holes in joining the exposed face of the optical fiber to that of the optical part holding hole, the joining time is made shorter than that of a ferrule type element that needs welding or and working cost is reduced in comparison with a V-groove type that has difficulty in V-grooving.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inexpensive multicore optical collimator element having a short assembling time, a small size, and a low cost.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An optical collimator element has an end face of an optical fiber positioned at a focal point f of an optical component such as a lens or a concave mirror. As a result, the space can be transmitted efficiently. By the way, in such an optical collimator element, it is necessary to optically align the optical component and the optical fiber with high precision.
There is a groove type.

[0003] As shown in FIG.
The optical fiber 3 and the spherical lens 6 are each connected to a ferrule 20,
21 are held in holding holes 22 and 23, and both ferrules 20 and
21 are joined by a sleeve 26 to connect the joint surfaces 24 and 25
This is a method of fixing by welding.

In the V-groove type, as shown in FIG. 6, a V-groove 28 for an optical fiber and a V-groove 29 for an optical component are continuously formed in a V-groove substrate 27 in the longitudinal direction. 28 holds the optical fiber 3 and the spherical lens 6
It is a method of holding. In any case, the optical axes of the optical fiber 3 and the spherical lens 6 are aligned, and the end face of the optical fiber 3 is positioned at the focal point of the spherical lens 6.

[0005]

However, in the ferrule type, the ferrules 20 and 21 for the optical fiber 3 and the optical component 6 are fixed by welding, so that it takes a long time to assemble, and in particular, the sleeve 26 is used. There is a problem that the size in the height direction increases. On the other hand, the V-groove type
Since it is necessary to continuously process the V-grooves 28 and 29 having different sizes with high precision, there is a problem that the processing cost is high. An object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive optical collimator element having a short assembling time, a small size, and a small size.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
An optical fiber holding portion having a plurality of optical fiber holding holes and an optical component holding portion having a plurality of optical component holding holes, an optical fiber is held in the optical fiber holding hole, and an optical component is held in the optical component holding hole. The optical fiber end face exposed surface of the optical fiber holding portion and the optical component holding hole exposed surface of the optical component holding portion are provided with guide holes on the both exposed surfaces, and guide pins are fitted into the guide holes. The multi-core optical collimator element is characterized in that the plurality of optical fibers and the optical component are optically coupled to each other by positioning and surface bonding.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the optical component holding portion is formed of a material having an appropriate hardness and elastically deformable, and the optical component is elastically deformed by the optical component holding portion. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is held.
It is a multi-core optical collimator element of the description.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the optical component holding portion is divided into two in the length direction, and the optical component is held between the two divided bodies.
Or a multi-core optical collimator element according to 2.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the multi-core optical collimator element according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the optical component is a spherical lens.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is an explanatory cross-sectional view and a side view showing a first embodiment of the optical collimator element of the present invention. That is, in the optical collimator element of the present invention, the optical fibers 3 are respectively held in the plurality of optical fiber holding holes 2 (the interval C between adjacent holding holes) provided in the optical fiber holding unit 1, and the optical component holding unit 4 Each of the plurality of optical component holding holes 5 (the interval C between adjacent holding holes) is provided with a spherical lens 6.
Are held, and guide holes 7 (spaces B between adjacent holding holes) are provided one by one on the exposed surface 10 of the end face of the optical fiber 3 of the optical fiber holding unit 1 with the two optical fiber holding holes interposed therebetween, thereby holding the optical component. A guide hole 8 (an interval B between adjacent holding holes) is provided one by one on the exposed surface 11 of the optical component holding hole 5 of the portion 4 with the optical component holding hole 4 group interposed therebetween. In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 9 denotes a guide pin which is fitted into the guide holes 7 and 8 to position both joint surfaces.

FIG. 1 (b) shows the optical fiber holding section 1 and the optical component holding section 4 shown in FIG. 1 (a) by fitting guide pins 9 into guide holes 7 and 8, respectively. Exposed surface 10,
11 is a view showing a state in which the optical fibers 11 are joined, each of the plurality of optical fibers 3 and each of the plurality of spherical lenses 6 have the same optical axis, and the end surface of each optical fiber 3 is focused on the focal point of the spherical lens 6 (from the center of the spherical lens). Optical coupling is performed at a distance A) to the focal point.

As described above, in the multi-core optical collimator element of the present invention, the guide pin is fitted into the guide hole by joining the exposed surface of the optical fiber of the optical fiber holding portion and the exposed surface of the optical component holding hole of the optical component holding portion. Since the joint and the positioning are performed, the joining time is short and the size can be reduced as compared with the ferrule type which requires welding and a sleeve. Also, the processing cost is lower than the V-groove type, which is difficult to process.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, the optical component holding portion 4 is formed of a material having an appropriate hardness and elastically deformable. Is formed to be smaller than the outer diameter of the optical component 6.
Is such that the optical component holding hole 5 is elastically deformed and held in the optical component holding hole 5. According to the present invention, even if there is some variation in the outer diameter of the optical component 6,
The optical component 6 can be stably held. For the optical component holding portion 4, any material having an appropriate hardness and elastically deformable, such as a thermoplastic elastomer, an ionomer (IO), an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), or a natural rubber, can be used.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG.
After dividing, the central portion of one of the two divided bodies 12 and 13 on the dividing surface side is hollowed out to open a space for the spherical lens 6 to enter, and the spherical lens 6 is positioned there.
Is a method of uniting. According to the present invention, the ball lens 6 can be easily held at a predetermined position of the optical component holding hole 5 by dividing the optical component holding portion by the distance A from the end face of the optical fiber holding portion.

In the present invention, any optical component can be applied, but the effect is particularly large when a spherical lens is used.
Also, as shown in FIG. 4, by making the exposed surface of the end face of the optical fiber an inclined surface 14, the light emitted from the optical fiber 3 is reflected by optical components such as the spherical lens 6 and returns to the optical fiber 3, and It is possible to prevent the transmission efficiency from lowering.

[0016]

As described above, in the multi-core optical collimator element of the present invention, the surface joint between the exposed surface of the optical fiber of the optical fiber holding section and the exposed surface of the optical component holding hole of the optical component holding section is guided by the guide hole. Since the guide pin is fitted into the ferrule, the assembly time is shorter and the size can be reduced as compared with the ferrule type which requires welding and a sleeve. Also, the processing cost can be reduced as compared with the V-groove type in which processing is difficult. Further, the optical component holding portion is formed of a material having appropriate hardness and elastic deformation, and the optical component is held by elastically deforming the optical component holding portion, thereby stabilizing the optical component having a variation in dimensions. Can be held. Furthermore, the holding position of the optical component can be easily set by dividing the optical component holding portion into two at a predetermined position in the length direction and holding the optical component between the divided bodies. Therefore, an industrially remarkable effect is achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory cross-sectional view and a side view (a) showing a first embodiment of a multi-core optical collimator element of the present invention, and a cross-sectional view (b) in a state where optical coupling is performed.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a second embodiment of the multicore optical collimator element of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a multi-core optical collimator element according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a multi-core optical collimator element according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal and vertical sectional view of a conventional multi-core optical collimator element using a ferrule.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view and a side view of a conventional multi-core optical collimator element using a V-groove substrate.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 optical fiber holding portion 2 optical fiber holding hole 3 optical fiber 4 optical component holding portion 5 optical component holding hole 6 optical component (spherical lens) 7 guide hole provided in optical fiber holding portion 8 guide hole provided in optical component holding portion REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 9 guide pin 10 exposed surface of optical fiber end surface 11 exposed surface of optical component holding hole 12, 13 divided body of optical component holding portion 14 inclined optical fiber end surface exposed surface 20 ferrule for optical fiber 21 ferrule for optical component 22 holding optical fiber of ferrule Hole 23 Ferrule optical component holding hole 24 Ferrule optical fiber end surface exposed surface 25 Ferrule optical component holding hole exposed surface 26 Sleeve 27 V-groove substrate 28 Optical fiber V-groove 29 Lens V-groove

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber holding portion having a plurality of optical fiber holding holes and an optical component holding portion having a plurality of optical component holding holes, wherein an optical fiber is held in the optical fiber holding hole, The optical component is held in the hole,
The exposed surface of the optical fiber end face of the optical fiber holding portion and the exposed surface of the optical component holding hole of the optical component holding portion are provided with guide holes on the both exposed surfaces, and a guide pin is fitted into the guide hole. A multi-core optical collimator element wherein the plurality of optical fibers and the optical component are optically coupled to each other by positioning and surface bonding. 2. The optical component holding portion is formed of a material having an appropriate hardness and elastically deformable, and the optical component is held by elastically deforming the optical component holding portion. The multi-core optical collimator element according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The multi-core light according to claim 1, wherein the optical component holding portion is divided into two in a length direction, and the optical component is held between the two divided bodies. Collimator element. 4. The multi-core optical collimator element according to claim 1, wherein said optical component is a spherical lens.