JPH0720642Y2 - Fiber optic rotating holder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to an optical fiber rotating holder.

[Conventional technology and its technical problem]

The optical fiber is an important element that plays a role as a path for optical communication, and the diameter of the jacket part is about 0.9mm.
It is common to provide a clad with a diameter of approximately 0.125 to 0.25 mm and form a single core with a diameter of 0.004 to 0.05 mm in the center of the clad, but inside, the polarization direction is defined. There is a so-called constant polarization fiber (panda fiber) having a plurality of cores. The core diameter of this constant polarization fiber is generally as small as 0.0004 to 0.0008 mm. To see the characteristics of this, let the laser light pass through the constant polarization fiber.
A method is used in which a lens is interposed in front, or a polarization-maintaining fiber is arranged so as to form a pair, and a change in the amount of light with the rotation of the core is measured by a power meter. Then, at that time, it is necessary to rotate the fiber in the circumferential direction with high accuracy while holding the constant polarization fiber.

A conventional rotary holder has been used as this means, but in the conventional rotary holder, a V groove is formed in an abutment, a half circumference of the jacket part is inserted therein, and the jacket part projecting from the surface of the abutment part. From above, it was held down by a spring or magnet type clamper, and the abutment was rotated in this state. This structure is a cantilever, and the cladding is not retained. For this reason, the rotation accuracy is extremely poor, and it has been impossible to rotate the fiber with a high accuracy of 1 to 2 μm. Therefore, when conducting a characteristic test of a polarization-maintaining fiber, it is necessary to perform a core alignment operation that is complicated, time-consuming, and time-consuming each time the fiber is rotated.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problems. The purpose of the present invention is to hold an optical fiber stably and rotate it with extremely high rotation accuracy. The object of the present invention is to provide a rotary holder of this type suitable for inspection and measurement of the above.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a support on a base, and mounts a rotating ring having a hole and a jacket hold mechanism for allowing the insertion of an optical fiber on the support. It is provided with a clad hold mechanism having a vacuum portion that sucks in the radial direction.

The clad hold mechanism has a support surface that is in contact with the outer periphery of the clad portion at two points in a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction,
A vacuum portion is provided at the boundary portion of the supporting surface. The support surface may be two walls forming a right-angled relationship, or may be configured as a V groove on an abutment.

〔Example〕

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a base, which is mounted on a stage (not shown) such as a tilt stage or an XYZ stage. Reference numeral 2 denotes a support vertically provided on the base 1, which has a ring shape or a similar shape, and is integrally formed with the base 1 or is separately formed as shown in the drawing, and the fixing screw 20 is provided. Are joined by.

Reference numeral 3 is a rotary ring which is rotatably fitted to the support body 2, and has a hole 32 which allows the optical fiber F to freely move on the inner diameter side. In this example, the rotary ring 3 is joined to the front ring 3a having a flange 30 in contact with one side surface in the width direction of the support body 2 at the rear end, the front ring 3a and the screw 33, and the other side surface of the support body 2 in the width direction. And a rear ring 3b having a flange 31 formed on the rear side so as to form an annular groove between the support arm and the rear end of the rear ring 3b, which extends toward the center of the hole 32 as shown in FIG. 3c is attached, and a support portion 34 into which the optical fiber F is fitted is provided at the tip of the support arm 3c. Also, a knob for rotating operation is provided on the outer periphery of the rear ring 3b.
3g is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, a rotation lock member 3e composed of a push screw is attached to an appropriate position of the support body 2, and a scale ring 3d having a scale 35 engraved on the outer peripheral surface thereof is relatively rotatable in the annular groove. It is embedded in. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a scale rotation lock member 3f made of a push screw whose tip reaches the outer peripheral surface of the rear ring 3b is attached to an appropriate place of the scale ring 3d.

Reference numeral 5 is a jacket hold mechanism, and the jacket hold mechanism 3 has a V
An abutment 5a provided with a jacket loading groove 50 formed of a shape,
The jacket charging groove 50 is provided with a clamper 5b that presses the exposed portion of the jacket portion f ₁ with an appropriate external pressure. The abutment 5a is fixed to the front part of the rotating ring 3 by a bolt 51, whereby the jacket hold mechanism 3 can rotate integrally with the rotating ring 3. In the embodiment, the abutment 5a is composed of two bodies, but it goes without saying that it may be made in one piece.

The number and structure of the clampers 5b are arbitrary and may be spring type as in the second embodiment described later, but in this embodiment,
The two clamp arms 52 are made of light alloy or plastic, and one end of each is pivotally supported by a pivot shaft 53, and the other end side is provided with an operation shaft 54 made of a magnetic material.
A magnet piece 55 is embedded in the abutment 5a and the operation shaft 54 is attracted to obtain a proper clamping force.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a clad hold mechanism provided on the base 1 in front of the jacket hold mechanism 5. The clad hold mechanism 6 has a support 6a having a width capable of supporting the clad portion f ₂ for a required length and having a height level substantially the same as the support 5a of the jacket hold mechanism 5. The support 6a has a support 6a. ,
₂ of the peripheral surface in the cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the clad part f 2.
It has supporting surfaces 60 and 61 that come into contact with points, and further, this contact surface 60 and
A suction part 62 leading to 61 and a guiding path for guiding the suction part 62 to the outside of the abutment
A vacuum portion 6b having 63 is provided.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the vacuum portion 6b,
(A) has shown the example. That is, the support surface
60 is composed of the upper surface of the abutment, and the supporting surface 61 is composed of the front end surface of the abutment 6c which is integral with the abutment or separate as shown in the drawing and which is screwed to form a vertical shape. From the lower end of the front end face of the protrusion 6c in the horizontal direction, for example, from 0.01 to 0.03 mm from the lower end in the horizontal direction, for example, a minute groove of about 0.01 to 0.03 mm is formed, the suction portion 62 of the groove-like of the guide path 63. The tips are in communication. (B) is another embodiment, the supporting surface 6
V-shaped or similar grooves are formed on the upper surface of the abutment 6a as 0 and 61, and a suction portion 62 having a slit shape or a plurality of holes is formed in the inner part of the groove and communicated with the guide path 63. In the case of the embodiment of (b), the protrusion 6c is omitted.

The conduit 6 is connected to an external negative pressure source 66 via a connector 64 and a conduit 65, and the conduit 65 or the negative pressure source 66 is provided with a control valve 67 for controlling the start and stop of the negative pressure and the magnitude of the negative pressure. It is designed to be controlled.

7 to 9 show a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the jacket hold mechanism 5
Are provided on the front and rear surfaces of the rotating ring 3, the clamper 5b is of a spring type, and the scale ring is not provided, which is different from the first embodiment.

The clamper 5b of this embodiment includes a frame-shaped main body 56 and a frame-shaped main body.
A guide shaft 57 that is fixed to an abutment or a rotary ring through the window hole 560 of the 56, and is interposed between the guide shaft 57 and the inner bottom surface of the frame-shaped main body 56, and the frame-shaped main body 56 is supported by the spring 5a. Compression spring 58 to be pressed against, and projected into the window hole from the upper part of the frame-shaped main body 56,
It has an operation screw 59 for lifting the frame-shaped main body 56 against the compression spring by screwing it in until it comes into contact with the guide shaft 57.

The other structure is similar to that of the first embodiment, and therefore, the same parts are allotted with the same reference numerals.

[Operation of Example]

The optical fiber rotation holder of the present invention is mounted on a tilt stage or the like with the base 1. To test the characteristics of an optical fiber such as a constant polarization fiber, arrange the lens A, the power meter B, etc. on the optical axis in front of the optical fiber rotation holder, peel off the jacket part f ₁ of the optical fiber F,
The clad portion f ₂ is exposed by the required length.

In the first embodiment, the optical fiber F is connected to the rotating ring 3
Through the hole 32, and the rear part is supported by the support arm 3c. At this time, the clamp arm 52 is tilted to open the clamper 5b, and the jacket portion f ₁ pulled out from the rotary ring 3 is fitted into the loading groove 50 of the support 5a. Then, the clad part f ₂ is guided to the front abutment 60, and the supporting surfaces 60 and 61 are used to
Point support.

Next, when the clamp arm 52 is tilted, the operating shaft 54 is attracted by the magnet piece 55 on the abutment side, so that the jacket portion f is held at a substantially good external pressure. Then, when the control valve 67 is operated next, the negative pressure from the negative pressure source 66 is passed through the conduit 65 and the conduit 63, and the suction unit
Since the suction portion 62 acts on 62 and the suction portion 62 is opened at the boundary portion between the support surfaces 60 and 61, the cladding portion f ₂ firmly contacts the support surfaces 60 and 61 by the suction force of the negative pressure. At this time, the two cores f ₃ and f ₃ of the clad part f ₂ are oriented in arbitrary directions.

If the rotation lock member 3e is loosened in this state, the rotation ring 3
Is released from the support 2. When the knob 3g is operated there, the rotary ring 3 rotates with respect to the support body 2 and the jacket holder mechanism 5 is fixed to the rotary ring 3, so that the jacket portion f ₁ held by the jacket holder mechanism 5 is also the same. Rotate at a rotation angle. Although the clad portion f ₂ is sucked by the negative pressure acting in the radial direction from the suction portion 62 as described above, the rotation is not hindered, and therefore the support surfaces 60, 61 are provided.
Rotates with vibration and vibration prevented. Clad part
Since f ₂ has high accuracy of circularity and cylindricity, and the jacket part f ₁ is rotated using this clad part f ₂ as a reference, it is possible to obtain a highly accurate rotation angle on the order of microns. In addition, since the suction force acts not only on the support surfaces 60 and 61, it has no relation to gravity, so it is reliable even if the entire holder is displaced by 90 degrees or 180 degrees and the phase is shifted. The clad portion f ₂ can be held and rotated.

The phase of the cores f ₃ and f _{3 in} the circumferential direction changes due to the rotation of the fiber, and the change in the amount of transmitted light is measured by the power meter B. When the peak of the amount of light appears, stop the rotation of the rotary ring 3, operate the rotary lock member 3e at that position to lock the rotary ring 3, and then loosen the scale rotary lock member 3f to rotate the scale ring 3d. Since it becomes free to rotate relative to the ring 3, if you rotate the scale ring 3d to align the zero point with the center of the support 2 and integrate the scale ring 3d with the rotary ring 3 again, this will be used as a guide next time. It is possible to easily measure the position of the conduction peak and the amount of light due to the core.

It is needless to say that the present invention can be used not only as a constant polarization fiber but also as a rotary holder for an optical fiber having a single core.

[Effect of device]

According to the present invention described above, it is possible to obtain an excellent effect that the optical fiber can be stably supported by the simple and compact structure and can be rotated with high accuracy without causing displacement or blurring.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, FIG. 3 is a partial cutaway front view, FIG. 4 is a rear view, and FIG. 5 is FIG. FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line V, FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view showing an embodiment of the clad holder mechanism in the present invention, FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a second embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 8 is a vertical side view of the same, and FIG. 9 is a partially cutaway front view. 1 ... Base, 2 ... Support, 3 ... Rotating ring, 5 ...
… Jacket hold mechanism, 5b …… Clamper, 6 ……
Cladding and holding mechanism, 6b ... Vacuum part, 32 ...
hole,

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location G02B 6/17 6/42 9317-2K

Claims (4)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A support 1 is provided on a base 1, and the support 2 is provided.
A rotary ring 3 having a jacket hold mechanism 5 is attached to the base, and a clad hold mechanism 6 having a vacuum portion 6b for attracting the cladding portion f ₂ from the radial direction is provided on the base in front of the rotary ring 3. Optical fiber rotation holder. 2. A utility model registration claim in which the clad hold mechanism 6 has support surfaces 60, 61 which contact the outer periphery of the clad portion at two points, and a vacuum portion is provided at the boundary portion between the support surfaces 60, 61. The optical fiber rotating holder according to item 1. 3. The support surface 60 is the upper surface of the abutment, the support surface 61 is the front end surface of the protrusion on the abutment, and the slit-shaped suction portion 62 is formed below the front end surface and the upper surface of the abutment. The optical fiber rotation holder according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the utility model registration including the formed one. 4. A utility model registration claim including a support surface 60, 61 formed as a V groove on an abutment, and a suction portion 62 communicating with the bottom of the V groove. The optical fiber rotation holder described in.