JPH05150137A - Optical parts housed in case and production thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce optical parts each housed in a case by preventing a break ing accident at the time of assembling and perfectly filling a tube with an adhesive so that the generation of bubbles is prevented. CONSTITUTION:A slit-shaped opening 10 is formed in a hollow cylindrical member 8 made of quartz glass over the full length in the axial direction. Optical demultiplexers/multiplexers 5 as optical parts are produced by heating, melt bonding and drawing. Each of the optical demultiplexers/multiplexers is parallel put in the cylindrical member 8 from the opening 10, an epoxy resin adhesive 6 is injected into a through hole 9 in the member 8 from the opening 10 so as to fill the member 8 and the adhesive 6 is cured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber element wire such as an optical branching / combining device or an optical demultiplexer / multiplexer element manufactured by heating and drawing an optical fiber element wire used in an optical fiber communication circuit. The present invention relates to an optical component housed in a case configured by integrally joining a delicate optical component element obtained by processing into a container and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a heat-stretching type optical branching / multiplexing device or an optical demultiplexing / multiplexing device is well known as a typical optical component obtained by processing an optical fiber. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an example of a processing method of the simplest 2 × 2 circuit branching / merging element of the conventional method, and FIG. 3 (a) is a view showing a state in which two optical fiber strands are heated and drawn. is there. The two optical fiber strands 13 and 14 from which the protective coatings 11 and 12 have been partially peeled off are arranged in parallel and closely. Then, by pulling the two optical fiber strands in the axial direction while heating with a heating source such as the gas burner 15, it is possible to thinly taper to both sides with the central heating portion 18 as the midpoint. Optical fiber strand 1
A light source and a power meter (not shown) are connected to both ends of 3 and 14, respectively, and in the case of a branching / merging unit, the stretching is stopped when the specified branching ratio is reached. Optical fiber strand 1
Transmission and reception of light between 3 and 14 is performed by the exuding component of light due to the evanescent effect of the stretched portion.

FIG. 3B is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state in which the 2 × 2 circuit branching and joining element of FIG. 3A is housed in a container and assembled. An ultraviolet curable UV resin adhesive 16 is applied to one surface of the extended portions of the optical fibers 13 and 14 in (a). Next, before heating and drawing, the hollow glass tube 17 previously covered with the two optical fiber coatings is shifted to the drawing part, and in that state, ultraviolet rays are irradiated to cure the adhesive 16 to complete the process.

[0004]

The above-described conventional assembling method has the following drawbacks. First, the outer diameter of the optical fiber is as small as 0.125 mmφ, and in particular, the outer diameter of the minimum portion of the stretched portion is about 0.02 mm. The frequency of breakage during handling is extremely high. Further, it was found from a test result that it was almost impossible to fill the glass tube with the adhesive 100% by the method of shifting the glass tube. It was also found that if air bubbles are scattered in the glass tube, it will cause a breakage accident with considerable efficiency due to repeated expansion and contraction of the bubble volume under repeated conditions of high temperature and low temperature. The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is housed in a case that prevents the occurrence of breakage accidents during assembly and allows 100% filling of the inside of the pipe with no room for air bubbles. To provide optical components. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an optical component housed in the case.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an optical component housed in a case according to the present invention is provided with a single slit opening in a hollow cylindrical glass such as quartz glass or superinver over the entire axial length. , An optical component element consisting of an optical fiber wire processed by peeling off the protective coating from the slit opening of the hollow cylindrical glass is inserted in parallel into the hollow cylindrical glass, and a PbO / B ₂ O ₃ system or the like is used. It is configured such that the low melting point glass powder is filled and melted by heating to integrally join the optical component element formed of the optical fiber element wire and the hollow cylindrical glass. Further, an ultraviolet curable UV resin adhesive or an epoxy resin adhesive may be used instead of the low melting point glass powder.

Further, the method of manufacturing an optical component housed in a case according to the present invention comprises a step of providing a single slit opening in a hollow cylindrical glass such as a quartz glass system or superinver over the entire axial length, and a slit of the hollow cylindrical glass. A step of inserting an optical component element composed of an optical fiber element wire processed by peeling a protective coating from the opening into the hollow cylindrical glass in parallel, and a step of filling an adhesive into the hollow cylindrical glass and curing the same. It consists of and.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of an optical component housed in a case according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 (a) is a vertical sectional view of the case. The quartz glass-based hollow cylindrical member 8 is provided with one slit opening 10 over the entire axial length.

FIG. 1 (b) is a front view of the optical branching / merging element. This optical branching / combining element 5 peels and removes the protective coatings 1 and 2 of two optical fibers, and heats a gas burner or the like in a state where the removed optical fiber strands 3 and 4 are closely contacted in parallel. It is produced by heating with a source and stretching by fusion while pulling from both ends. The light transmitted through the core of the optical fiber strand oozes into the fused clad portion of the fusion extending portion and enters the other core. By this phenomenon, that is, the evanescent effect, light can be branched and merged.

2A and 2B are views showing a state in which the optical branching / merging element of FIG. 1B is housed in the case of FIG. 1A. FIG. 2A is a longitudinal sectional view, and FIG. 2B is a sectional view taken along line AA. is there. The light branching / merging element 5 is inserted into the through hole 9 from the slit opening 10 of the hollow cylindrical member 8 in parallel with the slit. In this state, a bonding agent 6, for example, an epoxy resin adhesive is injected and filled from the opening 10 into the through hole 9 and then cured to complete. It is desirable that the bonding agents of the optical fiber strands have the same thermal expansion coefficient, but as a result of experiments, even when the epoxy adhesive is used, the single mode optical fiber, the light source wavelength is 1.3 μm millimeter, and the branching ratio is 50:50. , Temperature change + 80 ° C to +2
Even in the temperature cycle test of 5 ° C to -40 ° C, no damage or other abnormality of the optical fiber was observed.

In order to prevent damage to the assembly, after the above steps, the outer circumference of the hollow cylindrical member 8 is covered with a stainless steel pipe, or in the case of an optical fiber jacket cable, a known means is used for each shape application. A corresponding member can be added arbitrarily. In the above embodiments, an example in which an optical branching / combining device is housed as an optical component element has been described.
The case of accommodating other optical component elements is also included in the scope of the present invention. For example, the exposed optical fiber wire after peeling off the protective coating is heated and deformed by a gas burner while applying a force to compress it in the axial direction to form a spherical shape, or conversely under the same conditions as above. An optical fiber attenuator or the like formed in a constricted shape while being pulled in the direction. In addition, all optical component elements are those obtained by removing the protective coating of the optical fiber and subjecting it to a certain processing treatment. Further, the case where the epoxy resin adhesive is used as the bonding agent has been described.
A low melting point glass powder such as PbO.B ₂ O ₃ system may be filled and heated to melt and cure. Further UV curing type U
A V resin adhesive may be filled and irradiated with ultraviolet rays to be cured. In addition to the hollow cylindrical glass tube such as a quartz glass type, a superinver can be used as the hollow cylindrical container. This superimba has Ni, Cr 32%, Fe
Is composed of 64% and the other 4%.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, a hollow glass tube with slit openings is used as a container, and the protective coating is peeled from the opening of the hollow tube to process the optical fiber strand. Optical component element, such as, for example, after inserting the optical branching and confluencer element obtained by heating and drawing a plurality of optical fiber wires aligned in parallel and closely into the container, and then filling the container with a bonding agent to form an integrated container. It is composed.
Therefore, as compared with the conventional one in which the hollow cylindrical glass tube previously covered with the optical fiber coating is moved to the optical fiber strand extending section coated with the adhesive, the handling at the time of accommodation is simply performed. Since the stretched part is simply inserted in parallel with the slit opening of the glass tube, handling is simple and tensile stress is not applied to the stretched part of the optical fiber strand, so the stretched part of the optical fiber is damaged by handling. The possibility can be greatly reduced and the economic effect can be increased. In addition, it is possible to sufficiently supply and fill the bonding agent after accommodating the optical fiber extension portion. Therefore, since it is possible to surely perform the bonding while confirming the presence or absence of bubbles that are likely to occur in the bonded portion in advance, it is possible to eliminate the residual of the bubbles that have a decisive effect on the temperature environment resistance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of an optical component housed in a case according to the present invention, where (a) is a longitudinal sectional view of the case, and (b).
FIG. 4 is a front view of an optical branching / merging element.

2A and 2B are diagrams showing a state in which an optical branching / merging element is housed in the case of FIG. 1A, in which FIG. 2A is a vertical sectional view and FIG. 2B is a lateral sectional view.

FIG. 3A is a schematic view showing an example of a processing method of the simplest 2 × 2 circuit branch / merge element of the conventional method, and FIG. 3B is a container of the 2 × 2 circuit branch / merge element of FIG. 3A. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a state of being housed in.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 11, 12 ... Protective coating 3, 4, 13, 14 ... Optical fiber element wire 5 ... Optical branching / combining element 6 ... Bonding agent 8 ... Hollow cylindrical member 15 ... Gas burner 16 ... UV curable UV resin Adhesive 17 ... Hollow glass tube 18 ... Heating part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber obtained by providing a single slit opening in a hollow cylindrical glass such as quartz glass or superinver over the entire length in the axial direction, and removing the protective coating from the slit opening of the hollow cylindrical glass. The optical component element consisting of the optical fiber element wire and the optical component element consisting of the optical fiber element wire are inserted in parallel inside the hollow cylindrical glass, filled with a low melting point glass powder such as PbO.B ₂ O ₃ system, and melted by heating. An optical component housed in a case, characterized in that hollow cylindrical glasses are integrally joined. 2. The optical component housed in the case according to claim 1, wherein an ultraviolet curable UV resin adhesive or an epoxy resin adhesive is used in place of the low melting point glass powder. 3. A step of providing a single slit opening over the entire length in the axial direction of a hollow cylindrical glass such as quartz glass or superinvar, and a protective coating is peeled off from the slit opening of the hollow cylindrical glass for processing. It is housed in a case characterized by comprising a step of inserting an optical component element made of an optical fiber strand in parallel into the hollow cylindrical glass, and a step of filling an adhesive inside the hollow cylindrical glass and curing the adhesive. Method for manufacturing an optical component.