JP3198039B2 - Optical fiber array component and method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber array component having a structure in which a plurality of grooves are formed in a pedestal in parallel, and an optical fiber is positioned in each of the grooves, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 are a plan view, a side view and a front view showing the structure of a conventional optical fiber array component 200. FIG. As shown in FIG.
1 is provided with an optical fiber strand arrangement section 202 and an optical fiber sheath arrangement fixing section 203, and this optical fiber strand arrangement fixing section 2
02 has a plurality of (here, four) grooves 204 formed in parallel. Each of the grooves 204 has a V-shape, is provided at a pitch P1, and inside each of the grooves 204 is an optical fiber element portion 205a, 205b, 205c, 205d.
Are fitted.

The optical fiber covering portion 206 covering the optical fiber portions 205a to 205d is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 3, it is positioned at the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion 203. The diameter d2 of the optical fiber coating portion 206 is larger than the diameter d1 of the optical fiber wire portion 205 by the thickness of the coating layer, and as shown in FIG.

[0004] As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, a block 208 is attached via an adhesive 207 to an optical fiber wire disposing portion 202 on which optical fiber wires 205 a to 205 d are mounted.
Are bonded and fixed, and the optical fiber coating portions 206a to 206
The optical fiber array is completed by bonding and fixing 6d to the optical fiber covering arrangement fixing section 203 with an adhesive 209. As described above, the conventional optical fiber array component 200 includes the pedestal 201 and the block 208, and the optical fiber array is obtained by arranging and fixing the optical fibers in parallel to the optical fiber array component 200.

However, the conventional optical fiber array component 20
According to 0, the pitch P1 of the groove 204 of the optical fiber wire disposing portion 202 cannot be set to the diameter d1 of the optical fiber wire portion because the optical fiber coating portion 206 exists, and the diameter P1 of the optical fiber coating portion d2 or more, and even if an optical fiber having a small diameter d1 of the optical fiber wire portion is used, the pitch P1 of the groove 204 is equal to the diameter d2 of the optical fiber coating portion.
It becomes difficult to manufacture narrower and higher-density optical fiber arrays. In particular, there is a problem that the size of the optical fiber array component and the size of the waveguide connected to the optical fiber array component increase with the arraying of the multi-core optical fibers.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-341158 discloses that a covering part of a plurality of optical fibers is tightly arranged and bundled in a hollow part in two layers, and the optical fibers of each layer are horizontally arranged in half. An optical fiber array is shown which is shifted by a pitch (relative to the diameter of the optical fiber coating) and the contact surface between the coatings is fixed with an adhesive. In this optical fiber array, the optical fiber strands are arranged in a row in close contact with the same plane.

[0007]

However, according to this optical fiber array, when the optical fiber is formed into two layers, it is necessary to stack and align the optical fiber core wires on two flat plates and temporarily fix them with a plastic tape. There is. Further, since it is necessary to first form the ribbon optical fiber into two layers, it is necessary to remove the plastic film, alternately mesh the optical fiber strands, and keep the horizontal core interval constant.
Furthermore, when the materials of the groove component and the substrate component are different, and when they are combined, high-precision processing is required. As described above, there are problems such as low productivity, high processing cost and high material cost, such as a complicated assembly process and a high level of adjustment work.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an optical fiber array component that can be mounted at a high density smaller than the diameter of the optical fiber coating portion without causing complexity, low productivity, high cost, and the like, and a method of manufacturing the same. It is intended to be.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a pair of pedestals of the same shape which are opposed to each other, and a plurality of optical fiber elements which are located on a first portion of the opposed surface. An optical fiber wire disposing portion formed with a plurality of grooves for arranging the wire portions, and an optical fiber coating portion provided on a second portion of the facing surface of the pair of pedestals and following the optical fiber wire portion. Comprising an optical fiber coating arrangement fixing part to be fixed,
It said plurality of grooves of the optical fiber arrangement section is disposed the optical fiber unit into with <br/> opposing grooves are formed on the same pitch between the pair of pedestals, before
In the optical fiber element disposing section, the optical fiber element section is located at the front.
The optical fiber coating arrangement is arranged in a row in the plurality of grooves.
The optical fiber coating portion fixed to the fixed portion is
Adhere to each other with adhesive etc.
Coupled to the body there is provided an optical fiber array part, wherein Rukoto.

[0010] According to this configuration, the optical fiber strand portion can be continuously arranged in an array in a state of being in close contact with the optical fiber strand disposition portion.
The optical fiber coating portion can be divided into two groups and arranged in close contact. Therefore, even when the diameter of the optical fiber coating portion is large, the optical fiber portion can be disposed in close contact,
It is possible to increase the density of the optical fiber array.

[0011] The number of the grooves of the optical fiber wire arrangement portion is formed at the same position of the first portion of the pair of pedestals by the number equal to the number of the optical fiber wire portions. The diameter is equal to or greater than the diameter of the optical fiber strand and equal to or less than the diameter of the optical fiber coating. According to this configuration, it is possible to increase the density of the optical fiber strand arrangement portion and make it compact.

[0012] Further, the optical fiber strand disposing portion is provided on the first pedestal of the pair of pedestals having an opposing interval smaller than the opposing interval of the second portion of the pair of pedestals having the optical fiber coating and fixing portion. Can be provided. In this configuration, the upper and lower optical fiber coating portions do not come into contact with each other, and the pair of pedestals can be bonded and fixed without any trouble.

Further, the present invention provides a method for etching or cutting a substrate such as a quartz substrate or a silicon substrate by etching or cutting to a diameter not less than the diameter of the optical fiber wire portion and not more than the diameter value of the optical fiber coating portion following the optical fiber wire portion. Forming a plurality of grooves at a pitch to form a plurality of optical fiber wires, and arranging the plurality of optical fiber wires; removing the grooves by performing etching or cutting on a predetermined area of the substrate; parts and optical fiber coating arrangement fixing unit for fixing the one having the optical fiber coating disposed fixing part and the optical fiber arrangement portion by dicing the substrate at a predetermined cutting line
Providing a pair of pedestals, each of said pair of pedestals provided
The optical fiber is inserted into the plurality of grooves of the optical fiber element arrangement portion.
While disposing the wire element portion, the pair of pedestals
The optical fiber is fixed to each of the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portions.
The covering part is fixed, and the
Fiber arranging part and optical fiber coating arranging fixing part
The optical fiber strands of the pair of pedestals are opposed to each other.
It is characterized that the placement parts are integrally connected by an adhesive etc.
A method for manufacturing a component for an optical fiber array is provided.
Monodea Ru.

According to this method, the groove of the optical fiber wire arrangement portion is processed by the process of manufacturing the semiconductor device, and similarly, a step for the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion is formed. Thus, the base can be manufactured accurately and easily, and a manufacturing method excellent in mass productivity can be provided .

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an optical fiber array component according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the optical fiber array component of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an optical fiber array of FIG. FIG. 4 is a front view of the component, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of the optical fiber array component of FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, this embodiment exemplifies an optical fiber array component using eight optical fibers.

The fiber array component according to the present invention is configured by combining two pedestals. As shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4, the plate-shaped pedestals 101 and 102 are arranged opposite to each other with the same dimensions, and each of the opposed surfaces has a plurality of (eight in this example) V-shapes. Are formed continuously and in parallel. The grooves 103 and 104 are provided symmetrically, and each of the opposing portions has an optical fiber
a, 107a, 106b, 107b, 106c, 107
c, 106d and 107d are fitted. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, pedestals 101 and 102 are formed with grooves 103 and 104.
Are provided, the optical fiber strand disposing unit 108, the optical fiber strand offset unit 109, and the optical fiber coating disposing and fixing unit 110 are formed.

The optical fiber strand offset section 109 and the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing section 110 are provided with pedestals 101 and 102.
Of the pedestal 10
On one side, optical fiber coating portions 112a, 112b, 112
c, 112d are provided, and optical fiber coating portions 111a, 111b, 111c, 111d are provided on the base 102 side. The optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d and the optical fiber coating portions 112a to 112d only intervene in the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion 110, and the optical fiber strand offset portions 109 have optical fiber strand portions 106a to 106d.
d, 107a to 107d.

The length L of the optical fiber portion interposed in the optical fiber offset portion 109 is, as shown in FIG.
The length is set such that a bending radius R that can ignore the bending loss caused by bending the optical fiber portion of this portion can be secured. In addition, the step t between the optical fiber wire disposing portion 108 and the optical fiber wire offset portion 109 is caused by the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d and the optical fiber coating portion 112.
a to 112d are set to values that do not make contact.

The assembling method of the above configuration will be described. First, the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111
d is removed over the length of the optical fiber strand disposing unit 108 and the optical fiber strand offset unit 109, and the optical fiber strands 106a to 106d and the optical fiber strand 107 are removed.
a to 107d are exposed. Next, the distal ends of the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d are bonded and fixed to the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion 110 of the pedestal 102 with an adhesive 113, and the distal ends of the optical fiber coating portions 112a to 112d are optical fibers of the pedestal 101. The adhesive is fixed to the covering arrangement fixing section 110 with an adhesive 114. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d and the optical fiber coating portions 112a to 112d are shifted and fixed by a distance d3 corresponding to the radius of the optical fiber coating portion.

Thereafter, the optical fiber strand offset unit 10
9 interposed between optical fiber portions 106a to 106d, 1
As shown in FIG. 1, 07a to 107d are bent at a bending radius R, sandwiched between the grooves 103 and 104 of the pedestals 101 and 102, and fixed by using an adhesive 115. With such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 3, the optical fiber strands can be arranged in close contact with each other without producing a gap between them, and a high-density optical fiber array component can be obtained.

Next, a method of manufacturing an optical fiber array component having the above-described structure will be described with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
This will be described with reference to FIG. First, as shown in FIG. 5, a substrate 301 made of disk-shaped quartz, silicon, or the like is prepared. A groove 302 for arranging the optical fiber is formed on the substrate 301 by etching (or cutting).
It is created as shown in FIG. Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the steps 303 and 304 are processed by etching (or cutting), and dotted lines 305a, 305b, 305c and 305 are formed.
By performing dicing at positions d, 305e, 305f, and 305g, pedestals 306a, 306b, and 306 are formed.
c, 306d, 306e, 306f are obtained, and 2
Equally spaced grooves 302 are formed on one pedestal.

Next, as shown in FIG.
The optical fiber strands 106a to 106d are positioned at every other groove 302 (or 306b or 306c), and the optical fiber strands 107a to 107d are positioned at the pedestal 306d (or 306e or 306f). 1
Position every other. In this state, the adhesive 113, 1
14, the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d and the optical fiber coating portions 112a to 112d are fixed to the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion 110.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the pedestals 306a and 306d face each other, and as shown in FIG. Is completed. Finally,
The front surface of the optical fiber array component shown in FIG. 3 is polished (or diced). FIG. 11 is a side view showing a modification of the optical fiber array component according to the present invention.

This optical fiber array component has the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d in the configuration shown in FIG.
A spacer 401 is provided between the optical fiber coating portions 112a to 112d and the adhesive 4
02. According to this configuration, the optical fiber coating portions 111a to 111d and 112a to 112d do not peel off from the pedestals 101 and 102 due to a force applied from the outside, and can be securely fixed.

[0025]

As is clear from the above, according to the optical fiber array component of the present invention, even when the diameter of the optical fiber coating is large, the optical fiber strand can be disposed in close contact,
It is possible to increase the density of the optical fiber array. Further, according to the method for manufacturing an optical fiber array component of the present invention, a pedestal can be manufactured accurately and easily, and a manufacturing method excellent in mass productivity can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an optical fiber array component according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the optical fiber array component of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the optical fiber array component of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of the optical fiber array component of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a shape of a material used for manufacturing the optical fiber array component of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a state where a groove is formed on the material of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a state where a step process is performed on the step of FIG. 6;

8 is a plan view showing a state in which optical fibers are fixed to each of the pedestals obtained by performing dicing or the like after the processing of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a side view showing a state where a pair of pedestals are arranged to face each other from the state of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a side view showing a state in which a pair of pedestals is bonded and fixed to FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a side view showing a modified example of the optical fiber array component according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a plan view showing the structure of a conventional optical fiber array component.

FIG. 13 is a side view showing the structure of a conventional optical fiber array component.

FIG. 14 is a front view showing the structure of a conventional optical fiber array component.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 102 Pedestal 103, 104, 302 Grooves 106a, 106b, 106c, 106d Optical fiber strand 107a, 107b, 107c, 107d Optical fiber strand 108 Optical fiber strand placement part 109 Optical fiber strand offset 110 Fiber coating arrangement fixing portions 111a, 111b, 111c, 111d Optical fiber coating portions 112a, 112b, 112c, 112d Optical fiber coating portions 113, 114, 115, 402 Adhesive 301 Substrate 303, 304 Steps 306a, 306b, 306c, 306d, 306e,
306f Base 401 Spacer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshinobu Kurosawa 5-1-1, Hidaka-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside the Opto-System Research Laboratories, Inc. (72) Inventor Noriaki Taketani Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture 5-1-1-1 Takamachi Inside Opto-System Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP-A-59-91411 (JP, A) JP-A-2-7010 (JP, A) Table 3 -501781 (JP, A) U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,058 (US, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02B 6/00-6/54

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical fiber strand arrangement comprising a pair of opposite pedestals of the same shape and located at a first portion of an opposing surface thereof and formed with a plurality of grooves for arranging a plurality of optical fiber strands. And an optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion provided on a second portion of the facing surface of the pair of pedestals and fixing the optical fiber coating portion following the optical fiber strand portion. It said plurality of grooves of the line placement portion, the allowed between the pair of pedestals disposed the optical fiber unit into the groove of <br/> facing with are formed on the same pitch, the optical fiber arrangement The part is the optical fiber element part
The plurality of grooves are arranged in a line and the optical fiber coating arrangement is provided.
The optical fiber coating portion fixed to the fixing portion is the pair of optical fibers.
Adhesive etc. mutually oppose between the pedestals
Optical fiber array part, wherein Rukoto coupled together. 2. The groove of the optical fiber element disposing portion,
The optical fibers are formed at the same position on the first portion of the pair of pedestals by a number equal to the number of the optical fiber strands, and the pitch between the grooves is equal to or greater than the diameter of the optical fiber strands. 2. The optical fiber array component according to claim 1, wherein the diameter is equal to or less than the diameter of the covering portion. 3. The optical fiber strand disposing portion includes a first portion of the pair of pedestals having an opposing interval smaller than an opposing interval of the second portion of the pair of pedestals having the optical fiber coating and fixing portion. 2. The optical fiber array component according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber array component is provided at a portion of the optical fiber array. 4. A plurality of grooves are formed on a substrate by etching or cutting at a pitch equal to or greater than the diameter of the optical fiber strand and less than or equal to the diameter of the optical fiber coating following the optical fiber strand. An optical fiber wire disposing portion for disposing an optical fiber wire portion, and an optical fiber coating disposing and fixing portion for fixing the optical fiber coating portion by removing the groove by etching or cutting a predetermined area of the substrate. Dicing the substrate with a predetermined cutting line to provide a pair of pedestals having the optical fiber wire disposition portion and the optical fiber coating disposition fixing portion, wherein the optical fibers of each of the provided pair of pedestals are provided; distribution of the optical fiber unit to the plurality of grooves of the strand placement portion
And fixing the optical fiber coating portion to the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion of each of the pair of pedestals, and the optical fiber wire arrangement portion and the optical fiber coating arrangement fixing portion of each of the pair of pedestals. Wherein the optical fiber element arrangement portions of the pair of pedestals are integrally joined by an adhesive or the like so as to face each other.