JP2003057482A - Method and device for manufacturing glass compound body - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for easily join a glass compound body such as an optical waveguide type component. SOLUTION: Tips of two fibers such as optical fibers or rods are put close to each other and fused liquid of a joining material such as glass and resin is sampled by a fine amount in the space sandwiched between the tip parts; and the fusion liquid is applied to a specific position of the optical waveguide type component and cooled. For this method, a glass compound body manufacturing device equipped with a heater which controls the temperature of the tip parts of the fibers or rods is used. Consequently, glass to which thick-film formation technology by vapor-phase reaction cannot actually be applied can easily be joined with the optical waveguide type component.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a glass optical waveguide type component.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of optical communication and optical information processing, glass optical components such as optical fibers, planar lightwave circuits, and lens arrays play an important role. These are optical components with passive functions that have a refractive index distribution structure for confining or condensing light inside the glass, and are used among optical components with active functions such as light-emitting elements, optical amplification elements, and light modulation elements. Plays the role of connecting and branching.

Due to the demand for high-speed information processing and system miniaturization / economy, a technique for efficiently coupling / integrating these active optical components via passive optical components is required. Research on devices and hybrid planar lightwave circuits is underway. Since it is necessary to precisely match the optical axes of the optical components to each other, the ease of dimensional control and position control in the manufacturing process affects economic efficiency. It is relatively easy to bond and integrate optical components made of silica glass (optical fibers or planar lightwave circuits) and optical components made of multiple semiconductors, for which precise dimension control technology has already been established.

On the other hand, various proposals have been made to realize active optical functionality, which has been difficult to obtain with conventional optical components, with a novel glass material. Bi ₂ O ₃ based glass and chalcogenide based glass have ultra-high-speed optical switching characteristics utilizing nonlinear optical effects, optical fiber amplifiers using fluoride glass as a host have gain flatness, tellurite glass and Bi ₂ O ₂ Examples are that an optical fiber amplifier using O ₃ -based glass as a host has an ultra-wide band gain, and that poling-processed tellurite glass generates a second harmonic.

Unlike the silica glass which can be synthesized by the gas phase reaction, the glass as described here is synthesized by a classical melting process (the raw material powder is put in a crucible, melted and stirred, and then poured into a mold). (Hereinafter, these glasses are collectively referred to as "non-silica glass"). For non-silica glass, it is difficult to fabricate a planar lightwave circuit because a high-speed and economical thick-film formation technology has not yet been established, and optical fiber is the most realistic means of incorporating an optical waveguide. Is.

Therefore, in order to combine the above-mentioned non-silica glass optical component with the conventional silica glass optical component or to proceed with integration, it is necessary to form an optical fiber or to form a microstructure that does not have a waveguide structure. Will take the form of a simple bulk type chip.

In the case of a minute chip, it is processed into a glass piece having a size of millimeter to submillimeter and optically polished if necessary. In the case of an optical fiber, two types of glass having different refractive indexes so as to have a waveguide structure are melted, and a rod-shaped preform in which they are concentrically arranged is manufactured with high precision and subjected to drawing processing. In the first place, non-silica glass is inferior in stability to crystal precipitation during thermal processing as compared with silica glass, so precise temperature / time control is required.

As described above, in order to couple or integrate an optical component made of a glass composition to which the thick film forming technique cannot be practically applied to another optical waveguide type component, at a manufacturing stage before the coupling. With difficulty.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for easily bonding a glass, which is not practically applicable to a thick film forming technique by a gas phase reaction, to an optical waveguide type component, and to manufacture such an optical component. To provide a device for doing so.

[0010]

This problem can be achieved by collecting a minute amount of the melt of the bonding material, adhering the melt to a predetermined position of the optical waveguide type component, and then cooling it. For this purpose, the following two conditions must be met. 1. It has a mechanism to collect a necessary and sufficient amount of the melt of the bonding material in the space near the junction with the optical waveguide type component and fill the space. 2. The melt of the bonding material must be kept at a temperature at which it has fluidity during the period from collection to bonding. At least the vicinity of the joining point of the optical waveguide type component and the melt of the joining material are in an environment where they can be heated to such a temperature.

That is, the present invention comprises a first step of arranging the ends of two optical fibers close to each other, and a second step of entwining a part of the droplets of the bonding material in the space sandwiched between the ends. In the first step, at least one of both ends of the line segment forming the shortest distance between the two optical fibers is arranged so as to be located on the side surface of the optical fiber. Droplets are heated melts,
After the second step, the relative position of the two optical fibers is changed before the entwined melt of the bonding material is solidified, and the bonding is performed in the space sandwiched between the tips of the two optical fibers. An optical waveguide type component in which two optical fibers are joined by a joining material, which has a third step of holding a melt of the material and a fourth step of cooling the melt of the joining material thereafter. It is a method for producing a glass composite.

Further, according to the present invention, the first step of arranging the tips of two fibers or rods close to each other and the second step of entwining a part of the droplets of the bonding material in the space sandwiched by the tip portions. In the first step, at least one of both ends of the line segment that constitutes the shortest distance between the two fibers or rods is arranged so as to be located on the side surface of the fiber or rod, and in the second step, The droplet of the bonding material is a heated melt of the bonding material, and the relative position of the two fibers or rods is changed after the second step and before the melted melt of the bonding material is solidified. Then, the third step of holding the melt of the bonding material in the space sandwiched between the ends of the two fibers or rods, and then the melt of the bonding material in the space sandwiched between the two optical waveguides. And the fourth step of introducing by contacting The melt if the material is a fifth step two glass composite manufacturing method comprising the space between the optical waveguide from the optical waveguide device coupled with bonding material characterized by having a cooling.

The present invention is also the above-described method for producing a glass composite, characterized in that the entwined melt is heated in the third step. Further, the present invention is the above-mentioned glass composite body manufacturing method, characterized in that in the fourth step, the vicinity of the space sandwiched by the optical waveguides is heated.

Further, the present invention is provided with two driving devices capable of holding one fiber or rod and changing the position thereof, and the fibers or rods held by each of them are closest to each other at the tip portion thereof. Is arranged so that
In a glass composite manufacturing apparatus provided with a heater for controlling the temperature of the tip portion of a fiber or a rod, the heater has a mechanism for stably holding a droplet of a melt of a bonding material, and the driving device includes Change the position of two fibers or rods from the placement where at least one of the ends of the line segment that forms the shortest distance between them is on the side of the rod, to the placement where neither of the ends is on the side of the rod. And a mechanism for bringing the tip of the fiber or rod into contact with the droplet.

Further, the present invention is the above-mentioned glass composite manufacturing apparatus, wherein the fiber or rod is composed of an optical fiber made of glass. Further, the present invention is characterized in that the driving device has a mechanism for introducing the melt entangled with the tip portion of the fiber or rod into a space sandwiched between two optical waveguides. It is a composite body manufacturing apparatus. Further, the present invention is the above-mentioned glass composite body manufacturing apparatus, wherein the heating device is a resistor that generates heat when energized, and has a horizontal surface in a part thereof.

In the present invention, the heating device holds a fiber or a glass rod and can change its position, and a heating device for absorbing heat by being absorbed by the fiber or the rod or the droplet. The above-mentioned glass composite manufacturing apparatus is characterized by comprising a light source that emits a light beam and an optical component that guides the heating light beam from the light source to the tip of the fiber or rod. Further, the present invention is the above-described glass composite body manufacturing apparatus, which has a mechanism for changing the relative position of the heating device and the tip portion of the fiber or rod.

The optical waveguide type component must exist stably at a temperature at which the melt of the bonding material has fluidity. That is, it does not soften and deform, does not cause a chemical reaction with the melt of the bonding material, and does not cause damage due to thermal shock. As long as this condition is satisfied, the bonding material is not limited to the non-silica glass, but may be a polymer or resin that becomes fluid when heated. The composition of the optical waveguide component is not limited to silica glass, and may be non-silica glass. In the following description, the case where glass is used as the binding material is described, but the effect of the invention does not change even if the above-mentioned polymer or resin is substituted.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In an optical waveguide, the size of a core for confining light is about several μm in diameter, for example, 1 mm.
Considering the volume occupied in the section, when the diameter of the clad part that wraps the core is 10 times, it is about 7 × 10 ^-3 mm ³
Becomes A technique for handling such a minute amount of glass melt is required.

This is to prepare two optical fibers made of silica glass or two fibers or rods of the same size as the optical fibers.
It can be realized by arranging the tip portions of these fibers or rods close to each other and entwining the glass melt in the space surrounded by the tip portions of the fibers or rods. At this time, it is necessary that the side surface of the fiber or rod is in contact with the space filled with the glass melt as described later.

FIG. 1 shows an example thereof. The glass melt 3 is held by surface tension on a heater 4 placed horizontally and having a flat surface. Since the glass melt 3 has a flat portion on the heater 4, the shape of the droplet is kept hemispherical due to the effect of the surface tension, and is held stably. First, the first
As a process, two optical fibers 1 and 2 are arranged above it. As shown in FIG. 2 (1), the optical fiber 1,
The optical fibers 2 are arranged with their tips close to each other so that they are closest to each other near their tips.

Next, as a second step, as shown in FIG. 2 (2), a glass droplet is brought into contact with the vicinity of this tip, and the glass droplet shown in FIG.
Twist the melt as shown in. Specifically, Fig. 2 (2)
The heater 4 and the glass melt 3 are moved in the direction of arrow A1 to contact the tip of the fiber and immediately return to the original position. Then, the glass melt 3 remains in the space sandwiched between the fiber tips. According to this method, if the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 and the temperature of the melt are reproducible, the amount of the melt entangled becomes constant with good reproducibility.

In the method described above, it is necessary that the side surface of the optical fiber is in contact with the space filled with the glass melt. In other words, considering a line segment that constitutes the shortest distance between two optical fibers, at least one of both ends of the line segment needs to be on the side surface of the optical fiber. This will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, 2
The line segment that constitutes the shortest distance of the optical fiber of the book is shown by a dotted line.

In the case of (1), even if the tip of the fiber is brought into contact with the glass melt, the surface tension of the glass melt acts so that the surface area thereof is minimized. It is possible that the glass melt separates at both ends. When one of the dotted lines is on the side surface of the fiber as in (2), the glass melt wets an area larger than the area of the fiber cut surface, and can hold a larger volume of glass melt. When both ends of the dotted line are on the side surface of the fiber as in (3) or (4), a larger volume of glass melt can be held, and the glass to be held can be held by adjusting the distance between the fiber tips. The volume of the melt can be adjusted.

In the examples of (1) to (4), the two fibers were arranged on the same plane, but there is no limitation to this, and the fiber is placed at the twisted position as in (5). Even if is arranged, the melt can be stably held as long as the end points of the line segments forming the shortest distance between the two optical fibers are on the side surface of the optical fiber. Even when two optical fibers are in contact with each other, the above effect can be obtained if the contact is on the side surface of the fiber.

Next, as a third step, at the stage of FIG. 2C, the arrow B is drawn before the glass melt is cooled and loses its fluidity.
Move the optical fiber in the 1, B2 and B3 directions, and
When the glass melt is cooled and solidified in the fourth step, the optical fiber as the optical path type component and the solidified glass can be used as an optical component optically coupled.

Here, the heater 4 may have any function as long as it has a function of heating only the glass melt 3 and the tip portions of the optical fibers 1 and 2, and may be, for example, a resistor which generates heat when energized. Further, in order to avoid a chemical reaction between the glass heater 4 and the melt 3, it may be necessary to make the outer wall of the heater a substance such as platinum which is inactive to the glass melt.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4 (2), the surface area of the heater 4 is made larger than that of the glass melt 3, the glass melt is entangled with the tip of the optical fiber, and the heater is then heated. It is also effective to move 4 in the direction of arrow A2 so that the tip of the optical fiber and the glass melt are separated as shown in FIG. 4 (3). According to this method, the glass melt entangled at the tip of the fiber is arranged above the heater 4 and is efficiently heated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent vitrification due to cooling in the subsequent step of moving the fiber. .

Instead of using the heater 4, heat may be generated by irradiating light. As shown in FIG. 5, a glass rod 5 is arranged above the optical fiber 1 and the optical fiber 2 arranged in the same manner as in the previous example, and the condensing lens is arranged so that the heating light beam 7 is condensed at the tip thereof. Place 6 The heating beam 7 is most commonly a carbon dioxide gas laser, but may be any other beam as long as it has a wavelength that is absorbed by the glass rod 5 to generate heat.

In this arrangement, when the tip of the glass rod 5 is heated by the heating light beam 7, the tip is melted by the heat generation. By adjusting the energy of the heating light beam 7, the size of the droplet of the glass melt 3 can be limited within a certain range. At this time, since the glass rod 5 exists, the droplet of the glass melt 3 is stably held in the air against the gravity applied to itself.

In this case, in order to heat the tip of the optical fiber as needed, a heater 4 is arranged below the optical fiber 1 and the optical fiber 2 as shown in FIG. 6, or as shown in FIG. As shown, the heating light beam 9 may be irradiated so that the optical fiber generates heat. Such a device for heating the fiber tip is
When it becomes unnecessary to maintain the fluidity of the glass melt, heating is stopped and the glass melt is cooled and solidified. This is achieved by stopping the power supply to the heater or the heating light source, or moving the heater or the heating light beam so as to separate it from the area to be heated.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the device configuration. The two fiber fixtures 11 and 12 are arranged so that the tips of the optical fibers 1 and 2 fixed to them are arranged close to each other. The heater 4 includes an optical fiber 1,
It is arranged in the lower part of the space where the tip portion of the optical fiber 2 is arranged, and a part of the heater 4 has a portion capable of stably holding the glass melt 3.

The heater 4 comprises an optical fiber 1 and an optical fiber 2
It has a mechanism that can move in a direction (arrow A2 in the figure) perpendicular to the axial direction of the glass melt, so that the glass melt can be arranged immediately below the tip of the optical fiber or the heater can be arranged away from the glass melt. be able to. Further, the heater 4 can be moved up and down (arrow A1 in the figure), whereby the position of the glass melt 3 and the optical fiber 1 and the optical fiber 2 is adjusted, and the glass melt to the fiber tip portion is moved. The contact operation and the temperature adjustment for keeping the temperature of the glass melt entangled in the optical fibers 1 and 2 are possible.

Fiber fixing device 11 and fiber fixing device 12
Has a mechanism capable of moving in the axial direction of the optical fiber (arrows B1 and B3 in the figure) and in the direction perpendicular to the axis (arrow B2 in the figure), whereby the glass melt is entangled and between the fiber tips. The operation of holding the glass melt in the space can be performed.

FIG. 9 shows another example of the apparatus configuration. Instead of the heater 4 of the previous example, the heating light source 17 and the condenser lens 6 are arranged. Instead of the glass melt 3 of the previous example, the glass rod 5 held by the glass rod fixing device 15 is arranged above the tips of the optical fibers 1 and 2, and the heating light beam 7 emitted from the heating light source 17 is used. The tip of the glass rod 5 is melted by the injected energy to obtain a melt. At this time, the melt adheres to the glass rod 5 and is held stably. The heating light beam 7 may be used to heat the tip portions of the optical fibers 1 and 2, or another heating light source may be arranged and focused on the tip portions of the optical fibers. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, a heater may be arranged below the tip of the optical fiber.

In the above description, a method and a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing an optical component in which the optical fiber and the glass are joined by entwining the glass melt with the tips of the two optical fibers and then deforming the glass melt. As mentioned above, the object can be achieved also by introducing the entangled minute amount of glass melt into another optical component.

The other optical component in this case is composed of a space into which the glass melt should be introduced and an optical waveguide for guiding light into the space. As an example of this, consider a planar optical waveguide 10 partially having a void 13 as shown in the upper left of FIG. An optical waveguide 14 having an increased refractive index is provided inside the planar optical waveguide 10 and connected to the wall surface of the void 13. When the glass melt 3 entwined by the above-described method is attached to the entrance of the void 13, the glass melt 3 is introduced into the void 13 by a capillary phenomenon, and the glass melt 3 and the optical waveguide 14 are separated from each other. An optical connection can be obtained.

FIG. 11 shows an arrangement example. As the first step,
By arranging the tip portions of the two fibers 21 and the optical fiber 22 close to each other, arranging the glass rod 5 on the upper portion, and irradiating the heating light beam 7 whose tip is condensed by the condenser lens 6, A melt 3 is obtained. Next, as a second step, the glass melt 3 is brought into contact with the tip portions of the fibers 21 and the optical fibers 22 to entangle a minute amount of glass melt (FIG. 12).
(1)).

Further, as a third step, the tip of the fiber is irradiated with a heating light beam 9 through a separately prepared condenser lens 8 so that the glass melt melted up does not lose its fluidity (see FIG. 12 ( 2)) The two fibers are moved to the left and right (arrows B1 and B2 in the figure) to hold the entwined glass melt at the tip of the fiber (FIG. 12 (3)).

Next, as a fourth step, the held glass melt is attached near the entrance of the void 13 (FIG. 12 (4)), and the fibers are separated (FIG. 12 (5)). The adhered glass melt is introduced into the void 13 by the capillary phenomenon. Then, as a fifth step, the glass melt is cooled and solidified.

If the glass melt 3 is directly adhered to the gap 13 without entwining the glass melt with two fibers, the inconvenience as shown in FIG. 14 occurs. That is, when the energy injected from the heating light beam 7 into the tip of the glass rod 5 is large, the tip of the glass rod 5 bends under the influence of gravity, and it becomes difficult to control the position of the glass melt 3.

Further, since the amount of the glass rod 5 changing to the glass melt 3 is large, the entrance of the void 13 is blocked,
There is no escape area for the air pushed out by the capillary phenomenon, and the glass melt does not enter the void. If the energy injected from the heating light beam 7 to the tip of the glass rod 5 is reduced in order to avoid these, the amount of the glass melt may decrease and the amount of the glass melt introduced by the capillary phenomenon may become insufficient. . By entangling the glass melt with two fibers, it becomes possible to collect the glass melt with good reproducibility.

As another example, it is possible to consider two optical fiber pairs in which the end faces are arranged to face each other with air sandwiched therebetween. The glass melt can be filled in the space between the fibers 31 and 32 shown in FIG. 13 (1) by an operation equivalent to the procedure described in FIG.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the device configuration. The two fiber fixtures 11 and 12 are arranged so that the tips of the fibers 21 and 22 fixed to them are arranged close to each other. Fiber 21, fiber 2
The heating light source 17, the condenser lens 6, and the glass rod 5 held by the glass rod fixing device 15 are arranged above the tip of the glass rod 5, and the glass rod 5 is driven by the energy injected by the heating light beam 7 emitted from the heating light source 17. The tip of is melted to obtain a melt. At this time, the melt adheres to the glass rod 5 and is held stably. The heating light beam 7 may be used to heat the tip portions of the fibers 21 and 22, or another heating light source may be arranged and focused on the tip portions of the fibers.
Further, this heating light source may be used to heat the vicinity of the void in the planar optical waveguide 10.

In the case of a device in which the space between two optical fiber pairs is filled with the glass melt, the flat optical waveguide 10 and the optical waveguide fixture 20 shown in FIG. 15 are shown in FIG. 13 (1). Thus, the optical fibers 31 and 32 and the fixing device thereof are arranged.

In the above description, the fiber is only used for the purpose of collecting the glass melt, so that the object can be achieved if the rod-shaped component has the same shape. Also, the means for heating the glass melt has been described in the example of using a heating light beam, but as long as it does not violate the restrictions related to the spatial arrangement of the components, a heater by another means as described above may be used together. It is also possible to substitute. For example, after collecting the glass melt with the heater shown in FIG. 1, while carrying out heating to maintain the fluidity of the entwined melt, the tip of the optical fiber is transported to the vicinity of the void in the planar optical path. After that, the melted liquid may be attached to the voids.

In the drawings used in the above description, arrows for indicating the movements of the constituent elements are drawn, but the signs of the respective arrows have consistent meanings. That is, A
1 is a movement for entwining the glass melt held stably in the fiber tip, A 2 is a movement for moving the heater to keep the entwined glass melt warm, and A 3 and A 4 are
Movement to attach the entwined glass melt to another optical component,
B1, B2 and B3 are movements for changing the entwined melt into a desired shape.

The materials of the optical waveguide type components such as the optical fiber and the planar optical waveguide described here are stable even if they are heated to a temperature at which the introduced glass has fluidity.
(For example, it does not cause a chemical reaction, is resistant to thermal shock, etc.), and the stress caused by the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion from glass is assumed to be suppressed to the extent that it does not damage the glass or the optical waveguide type component. is there. Further, if it is necessary to totally reflect at the interface between the glass and the substrate, the refractive index of the optical waveguide type component needs to be lower than that of glass.

The optical waveguide type components such as the optical fiber and the planar optical waveguide described above are usually different in refractive index from the bonding material such as glass melt. At such an interface of substances having different refractive indexes, refraction according to Snell's law occurs, the traveling direction of light changes, and return light due to Fresnel reflection occurs. In order to reduce the return light, the light propagation direction and
It is often practiced that the angle formed by the normal to the end face of the optical waveguide type component has a value other than 0 degree. Accordingly, the traveling direction of light changes due to refraction. In the present invention, the optical axes of the two optical waveguide type components are shifted in advance, and by filling the glass melt, light is efficiently propagated from one optical waveguide type component to the other optical waveguide type component. Can be designed like.

In particular, if the two optical waveguide type components have the same refractive index, their end faces may be arranged in parallel. Also in the method and apparatus of the present invention, in order to obtain such an effect, the angle formed by the propagation direction of the light emitting end face of the optical waveguide type component and the normal line of the end face of the optical waveguide type component is a value other than 0 degree. Can be provided, or the optical axes of the two optical waveguide type components can be offset.

[0050]

Example 1 A piece of tellurite glass (composition: 80TeO ₂ -20 ZnO [mol%]) was placed on the upper surface of a platinum heater having a flat heating part, and droplets of the glass melt were formed by applying electricity. Obtained. Two pieces of the optical fiber cable from which the core wire was removed at one end were prepared, and each was fixed to the optical fiber fixing device.

First, as the first step, both fiber tip portions were arranged so as to come above the droplets. At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, when the vector in the direction of viewing the tip from the root of the fiber is considered, the angle formed by the two vectors is 180.
And the plane including the fiber end face is placed in such a positional relationship that it intersects with other fibers.

Next, in the second step, the heater was raised to bring the droplet of the glass melt into contact with the tip of the optical fiber and immediately separate it (FIG. 2 (2)). Then, as shown in FIG. 2C, the glass melt was entangled with the tip of the fiber. In order not to lose the fluidity of the entwined glass melt, heat it with a heater as shown in Fig. 4 (3),
In the third step, two optical fibers were pulled to the left and right in the meantime, and the fibers were moved so that the axial directions of the two fibers were on the same straight line. When the entangled melt was in a state of being held in the space between the end faces of the two fibers, as a fourth step, the heater was separated from the fiber and cooled. From the above, a glass composite in which the optical fiber and the tellurite glass were optically coupled could be obtained.

[0053]

As described above, the method for producing a glass composite according to the present invention is to collect a minute amount of glass melt with good reproducibility to provide an optical connection point with an optical waveguide type component. However, there is an effect that the connection between the both, which has conventionally been troublesome, can be easily realized. Further, the glass composite manufacturing apparatus of the present invention has an effect of enabling the optical joining work between the optical waveguide type component and the glass melt, which requires high temperature local heating, with a simple control mechanism.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout diagram illustrating the positional relationship between a heater, a glass melt, and two rods or optical fibers in the method and apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a process chart for explaining a procedure for minutely collecting a glass melt placed on a heater with two rods or optical fibers in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the positional relationship required when a minute amount of glass melt is sampled by two rods or optical fibers in the method and apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a process diagram showing a procedure of keeping the glass melt entangled by two rods or optical fibers in a heater according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a layout diagram for explaining the positional relationship in the case where a droplet of a glass melt is obtained by condensing a heating beam at the tip of a glass rod in the method and apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a process diagram showing a procedure of heating a rod or an optical fiber and a glass melt by using a heater and a heating beam together in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a process diagram showing a procedure of heating a rod or an optical fiber and a glass melt by using heating light beams of two systems together in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a layout view of an apparatus of the present invention when a heater is used.

FIG. 9 is a layout view of an apparatus of the present invention when a heating beam is used.

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of the method and apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a trihedral view (top) showing the shape of a planar optical waveguide having a void and a process diagram (bottom) illustrating how a glass melt is introduced into the void due to a capillary phenomenon.

FIG. 11 is a representation of the method and apparatus of the present invention.
It is a layout drawing explaining the positional relationship in the case of collecting the droplets of the glass melt by collecting the heating light beam at the tip of the glass rod and introducing it into the void in the planar waveguide.

FIG. 12 is a process diagram illustrating a procedure of a method of the present invention, in which a minute amount of glass melt is sampled with two rods or an optical fiber and introduced into a void in a planar waveguide.

FIG. 13 is a step for explaining a procedure in the method of the present invention, in which a minute amount of glass melt is sampled by two rods or optical fibers and introduced into a space sandwiched by another optical fiber pair. It is a figure.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a problem that occurs when the rod or the optical fiber used in the method and apparatus of the present invention is not used.

FIG. 15 is a layout diagram of a case where a planar waveguide is used in the device of the present invention.

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A first step of arranging two optical fibers close to each other, and a second step of entwining a part of a droplet of a bonding material in a space sandwiched between the front ends. In the step, at least one of both ends of the line segment that constitutes the shortest distance between the two optical fibers is arranged so as to be located on the side surface of the optical fiber. It is a heated melt, and after the second step, the relative position of the two optical fibers is changed before the melt of the entangled joining material is solidified, and the tips of the two optical fibers are changed. Holding the melt of the bonding material in the space sandwiched between the third
A method for producing a glass composite body comprising an optical waveguide type component in which two optical fibers are bonded with a bonding material, which has a step and a fourth step of cooling the melt of the bonding material. 2. A first step of arranging two fibers or rods so that the tips thereof are close to each other, and a second step of entwining a part of droplets of the bonding material in a space sandwiched between the tip portions. In one step, at least one of both ends of a line segment constituting the shortest distance between the two fibers or rods is arranged so as to be located on the side surface of the fiber or rod. The droplet is a heated melt of the bonding material, which is changed after the second step by changing the relative position of the two fibers or rods before the entangled melt of the bonding material is solidified. A third step of holding the melt of the bonding material in the space sandwiched between the ends of the fibers or rods of the book, and then bringing the melt of the bonding material into contact with the space sandwiched between the two optical waveguides. The fourth step of introducing, and then the melt of the bonding material in the space A glass composite manufacturing method comprising an optical waveguide type component in which a space sandwiched between two optical waveguides is bonded with a bonding material, which has a fifth step of cooling. 3. The method for producing a glass composite according to claim 1, wherein in the third step, the entwined melt is heated. 4. The method for producing a glass composite according to claim 2, wherein in the fourth step, the vicinity of the space sandwiched by the optical waveguides is heated. 5. A driving device that holds one fiber or rod and is capable of changing its position is provided, and the fibers or rods held by each of them are arranged so as to be closest to each other at the tip portion thereof. In the glass composite manufacturing apparatus including a heater for controlling the temperature of the tip portion of the fiber or the rod, the heater has a mechanism for stably holding droplets of the melt of the bonding material, and the driving device. Indicates that the position of two fibers or rods should be set such that at least one of the ends of the line segment that constitutes the shortest distance between them is on the side face of the rod, or neither end is on the side face of the rod. And a mechanism for bringing the tip of the fiber or rod into contact with the droplet. 6. The fiber or rod is comprised of an optical fiber made of glass.
An apparatus for producing a glass composite according to 1. 7. The drive device according to claim 5, wherein the drive device has a mechanism for introducing the melt entangled with the tip portion of the fiber or the rod into the space between the two optical waveguides. The glass composite body manufacturing apparatus according to claim 6. 8. The glass composite body according to claim 5, wherein the heating device is a resistor that generates heat when energized, and has a horizontal surface in a part thereof. Manufacturing equipment. 9. A driving device, wherein the heating device holds a fiber or a glass rod and can change its position,
6. A light source that emits a heating light beam that is absorbed by the fiber or rod or the droplet to generate heat, and an optical component that guides the heating light beam from the light source to the tip of the fiber or rod. 9. The glass composite body manufacturing apparatus according to claim 8. 10. The apparatus for producing a glass composite according to claim 5, further comprising a mechanism for changing a relative position between the heating device and the tip portion of the fiber or the rod. .