JPH10206691A - Optical fiber connector, and assembling method for its and optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent impact during fitting of an optical connector from breaking the end face of a ferrule and improve its workability when it is attached to an optical fiber. SOLUTION: An optical fiber connector 1 comprises a ferrule 2 and FOP (Fiber Optical Plate) 20 bonded and fixed on the front surface of the ferrule. The ferrule 2 consists of silicon V groove substrates 5, 6 connected each other in which plural V grooves are formed in parallel. The optical connector is attached to an optical fiber, by bonding and fixing the FOP 20 on the front surface of the ferrule 2, coating optical adhesive agent on the top of the optical fiber 9 whose cut end is not polished, inserting the optical fiber 9 into an optical fiber hole 8', and contacting the cut end on the inner surface of the FOP 20 and bondexd and fixed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical connector and a method for assembling the optical connector and an optical fiber, and more particularly to protecting the front surface of the optical connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional optical connector 1 comprises, for example, a ferrule 2 and a cover 3 or a ferrule 2, a cover 3 and a pair of guide pins 4, as shown in FIG. The ferrule 2 is configured by stacking V-groove substrates 5 and 6 having a plurality of V-grooves formed in parallel on the inner surface thereof, and is housed in a rectangular cylindrical cover 3 made of plastic or the like. The V-groove substrates 5 and 6 are made of silicon, and a pair of V-grooves 7 for inserting or storing and holding the guide pins 4 at both ends of the inner surface thereof, and a plurality of V-grooves for storing and holding the optical fiber 9 therebetween. 8 are formed.

[0003] A guide pin insertion hole 7 'is formed in the ferrule 2 of one of a pair of connectors to be fitted together with the V-groove 7 overlapping. The ferrule 2 of the other connector has a guide pin 4 in its V groove 7.
Is stored and held. FIG. 5 shows a state where the optical connector 1 is attached to the end of the optical fiber cable 10. The assembly of the optical connector 1 and the optical fiber 9 in this case is performed as follows.

An adhesive is applied to the tip of the optical fiber 9 in the optical fiber cable 10 and housed in the V-groove 8 of the V-groove substrate 5, and the V-groove substrate 6 is bonded and cured thereon with the adhesive. The V-groove substrates 5 and 6 and the optical fiber 9 are integrally fixed. The side face of the integrated ferrule 2 (comprising the V-groove substrates 5 and 6) is covered with a rectangular cylindrical cover 3 for protection.

The front surface of the ferrule 2 is polished together with the optical fiber end surface. In the case of the optical connector shown on the right side in FIG. 5, a pair of guide pins 4 are press-fitted into the V-groove 7 from the rear side of the ferrule 2, for example. The boot 11 is put on the optical fiber 9 and the optical fiber cable 10 on the rear side of the ferrule 2.

[0006]

The conventional optical connector has a problem that silicon and an adhesive on the front surface (fitting surface) are broken and dropped due to an impact when the optical connector is connected to a mating optical connector. At the optical fiber cable laying site, an operation of integrally assembling the optical fiber terminal and the connector is performed. In this case, particularly, in the operation of polishing the front surface of the ferrule 2 together with the optical fiber end surface by setting a polishing machine at the site. However, there is a problem that the working environment is poor, the work is difficult to perform, a lot of manpower and man-hours are required, and the efficiency of the assembling work is significantly reduced.

The present invention solves these conventional problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical connector which is not damaged by an impact at the time of mating with a mating connector and has excellent workability when assembling at a cable laying site.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) An optical connector according to claim 1, wherein a ferrule having a hole for receiving and holding an optical fiber in a connector insertion / removal direction, and a FOP adhered and fixed to a front surface (a surface facing a mating connector) of the ferrule. (Fiber Optic
al Plate).

(2) In the invention of claim 2, in the above (1), the ferrule is formed by joining two silicon V-groove substrates having a plurality of V-grooves formed in parallel on the inner surface. (3) Claim 3 relates to a method of assembling an optical connector and an optical fiber, wherein an FOP is bonded and fixed to a front surface of a ferrule having a hole for accommodating and holding the optical fiber in a connector insertion / removal direction. An optical adhesive is applied to the tip of an optical fiber whose cut end face is not polished, inserted into the hole of the ferrule from the rear, and the cut end face is brought into contact with the FOP to be bonded and fixed.

[0010]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention.
The same reference numerals as in FIG. 5 denote the same parts. The optical connector of the present invention has a FOP (Fiber) on the front surface of the ferrule 2 in order to prevent breakage at the time of fitting the optical connector and to improve the workability of assembling the optical fiber and the optical connector.
r Optical Plate) 20 is adhered and fixed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the FOP 20 is an optical component obtained by bundling and stretching a large number of optical fibers and then thinly slicing the light. As shown in FIG. 4A, light input from one surface is directed only toward the core. Does not propagate. Therefore, FOP2
At 0, loss of light amount due to diffusion and crosstalk are suppressed. As shown in FIG. 4B, if the glass plate 23 is used instead of the FOP 20, the light emitted from the optical fiber 9 is diffused in the glass plate, and a loss occurs before the light enters the optical fiber of the mating optical connector. , And crosstalk also tends to occur.

The core 21 of the FOP 20 has a diameter of about 3 μm, which is smaller than a normal optical fiber core (about 10 μm for a single mode fiber core, about 50 μm for a multimode fiber core), and has a matrix structure. When the FOP 20 is bonded to the front surface of the ferrule 2, a precise alignment operation is not required. Ferrule 2
A hole 8 'for accommodating and holding the optical fiber 9 in the connector insertion / removal direction is formed as in the prior art. In the example of FIG. 1, the ferrule 2 is configured by joining V-groove substrates 5 and 6 made of silicon having a plurality of V-grooves 8 formed in parallel on an inner surface thereof.

According to the present invention, the assembly of a single connector that does not include an optical fiber can all be performed in a manufacturing plant as follows. The ferrule 2 is manufactured by bonding the V-groove substrates 5 and 6 with an adhesive. The front surface of the ferrule 2 is polished. The FOP 20 is bonded and fixed to the front surface of the ferrule 2.

If necessary, a pair of guide pins 4 are inserted into V-grooves 7 of the ferrule and guide pin insertion holes 20 of FOP 20.
Press into a. The ferrule 2 or the rectangular cylindrical cover 3 is put around the ferrule 2 and the FOP 20. The polishing of the ferrule 2 as described above is performed at a production line using, for example, an automatic polishing machine, unlike the case where the optical fiber cable is laid, so that the productivity can be sufficiently improved.

When the optical connector of the present invention is attached to an optical fiber at a site where an optical fiber cable is installed, as shown in FIG. 2, the optical connector 1 assembled at a factory is used.
(FIG. 2A), an optical fiber 9 coated with an optical adhesive 21 (having a refractive index matched to that of the optical fiber) from the back into the optical fiber hole 8 '(the cut end face of which is unpolished). And the cut end face is FOP20
It is only necessary to make contact with the inner surface of, and fix it by adhesion (Claim 3), and cover the boot 11 if necessary. Unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to polish the front surface of the ferrule 2 together with the end surface of the optical fiber, and the workability is extremely good.

When an optical connector is attached to an optical fiber cable in a manufacturing factory or the like, it can be done in the same manner as described above. However, since the use of a polishing machine or the like is easy,
In some cases, the front surface of the ferrule is polished together with the end surface of the optical fiber after the optical fiber is bonded and fixed to the hole of the ferrule 2 in the same manner as before, and then the FOP 20 is bonded to the optical adhesive (the refractive index is matched with that of the optical fiber). Can be used for bonding.

Although the FOP 20 requires a guide pin insertion hole 20a, the ferrules of a pair of optical connectors to be fitted insert the guide pin 4 of one connector into the guide pin insertion hole 7 'of the other connector. By doing so, the alignment can be performed with high accuracy, and the bonding of the FOP to the ferrule itself does not require much alignment accuracy.
The guide pin insertion hole 20a may be made larger than the diameter of the guide pin 4.

In the above description, the ferrule 2 is formed by joining the V-groove substrates 5 and 6 made of silicon. However, the present invention is not limited to this case, and the material of the ferrule is not silicon. Alternatively, they may be integrated without using two substrates.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the ferrule 2 can be protected by bonding and fixing the FOP 20 to the front surface of the optical connector. Therefore, there is no possibility that the ferrule is damaged by an impact when the optical connectors are fitted to each other. When the optical connector of the present invention is attached to an optical fiber at the site where the optical fiber cable is laid, the optical fiber coated with the optical adhesive is inserted into the optical fiber hole 8 'with the cut end surface of the optical fiber unpolished. It is only necessary to insert and fix it, and there is no need for an on-site polishing operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle sectional view for explaining a method of attaching the optical connector of FIG. 1 to an optical fiber.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the FOP 20 of FIG. 1, where A is a perspective view and B
Is an enlarged plan view of a portion P of A, and C is aa ′ of A.
Sectional view.

4A is a cross-sectional view showing a state of emitted light of the optical connector of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view showing a state of emitted light when a glass plate 23 is used instead of the FOP 20 of A.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional optical connector.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A ferrule having a hole for receiving and holding an optical fiber in a connector insertion / removal direction, and a front surface of the ferrule (a surface facing a mating connector).
(Fiber Optical)
(Plate). 2. The ferrule according to claim 1, wherein:
An optical connector comprising two silicon V-groove substrates having a plurality of V-grooves formed in parallel on an inner surface thereof. 3. A front end of a ferrule having a hole for receiving and holding an optical fiber in a connector insertion / removal direction.
Then, an optical adhesive is applied to the tip of the optical fiber whose cut end face is unpolished, and the cut end face is brought into contact with the FOP by inserting the cut end face into the hole of the ferrule from the rear. And assembling and fixing the optical connector and the optical fiber.