JPS6086514A - Method for connecting optical fibers - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To connect optical fibers efficiency for a short time by applying metallic coats to the outer peripheral surfaces of connected parts of two optical fibers, butting the connected end surfaces, fixing the optical fibers on a metallic substrate temporarily with alloy solder, and then adhering the optical fibers each other with matching adhesives. CONSTITUTION:The metallic coats 8 are applied to respective outer peripheral surfaces of the connection sides of the optical fibers 7 to be connected. The end surfaces of the obtained two metallic coat fibers 11, 12 are butted each other and also pushed against a V-shaped guide groove 13 formed on the metallic substrate 10 so that the optical axes of both the metallic coat fibers 11, 12 are matched each other. Under said state, respective metallic coats 8 of the metallic coat fibers 11, 12 are temporally fixed on the metallic substrate 10 with the alloy solder 16, 17 characterized by a short hardening time. The butted part of the two metallic coat fibers 11, 12 is filled with the matching adhesives 15, so that the two optical fibers 7 can be connected each other for a short time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for connecting optical fibers using a guide groove. Figure 1 (a) is a plan view, Figure 1 (b) is a front view, and Figure 1 (C) is a side view. In these figures, 1 is the board, 2 and 3 are C fibers, 4 is a guide groove with a 7-shaped cross section with high dimensional accuracy, 5 is a holding plate, and 6 is an optical fiber with a refractive index of 2 and 3 to reduce loss at the optical fiber connection. 〇The connection method used in this illustrated example is to first place the optical fibers 2 and 3 on the guide groove 4 of the substrate 1, and then attach the fibers 2 and 3 of each party to the guide groove 4 of the substrate 1. 3, and then place the presser plate 5 on top of them. Then, by pressing the presser plate 5 with a necessary pressure device and bringing the original fibers 2 and 3 to be interconnected into contact with the guide groove 4 of the substrate l, the mutual optical axes are aligned. ◎Next, the pressurized state A matching adhesive 6 is filled in the gap between the end faces of the original fibers 2 and 3, and around it, while maintaining the original fiber 2. When the optical fibers 2 and 30 are fixed to each other, the pressurizing device is removed.Through the above steps, the optical axes of the optical fibers 2 and 30 are aligned and interconnected.

By the way, as optical components come to be mounted on printed wiring boards in electronic devices, high-density mounting of optical components is increasingly required, just as in the case of electronic components. It is thought that it will become necessary to interconnect them. When the above-mentioned connection method is applied to the interconnection between optical components in such a case, the presser plate 5 cannot be held stably for several hours until the matching adhesive 6 completely solidifies.
1[+ pressure is required, and during this time the pressurizing device for pressurizing the holding plate 5 gets in the way, making it difficult to connect the IlIm original fibers to each other, resulting in a very long connection work time. occurs.

The present invention has been proposed in order to prevent the above-mentioned problems, and the original fiber is coated with a metal to form a metal coated fiber, and an alloy brazing material is used which takes a short time to solidify each metal coated fiber in advance. The metal-coated fibers are temporarily attached to the substrate, and then the metal-coated fibers on the substrate are bonded and fixed to each other using a matching adhesive.

A detailed explanation will be given below based on an example shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. In FIG. 2, 7 is the original fiber consisting of a core and a crand. 8 is a metal coating applied to the outer peripheral surface of the original fiber. 9 is a metal coated fiber consisting of the optical fiber 7 and the metal sheath 818.
Although the metal coating 8 is provided over the entire length of the optical fiber 7 in the "!Il embodiment, it may be provided only on the outer circumferential surface of the connection end side.

In Figure 3, lO is a metal substrate (gold Is substrate), 11 and 1
2 is the metal-coated fiber shown in FIG. 1, 13 is a guide groove with a V-shaped cross section with high dimensional accuracy, and 14 is a groove with a substantially U-shaped cross section that intersects with the guide groove 13 (hereinafter referred to as a U-groove). 15 is a so-called matching adhesive that serves as both a matching agent and an adhesive, and 16 and 17 are alloy brazing materials such as solder. 〇 To explain the optical fiber connection method based on the IJ diagram: First, The optical fibers 7 which are interconnected to each other are coated with metal on their surfaces to form metal-coated fibers 11 and 12.These metal-coated fibers 11° are brought into contact with the guide groove 13 of the substrate 10. In this case, the abutting portion of the -6 end face is located inside one U-groove 14°14. Then,
Each metal coated fiber 11. outside of both U grooves 14°14.
12 metal coatings are adhesively fixed to the metal substrate lO by alloy brazing fillers 16 and 17. Since there is UW4 at this time,
The molten alloy brazing filler metal 16, 17 does not flow to the abutting portions of the metal coated fibers 11, 12, and the end faces of the original fibers are not contaminated. Next, when the alloy filter 5 material 16 and 17 are solidified, remove the pressure device and use matching adhesive 15 to bond the metal coated fibers 11 and 1.
In this way, each metal coat 7 eyelid 1 is preliminarily bonded with the alloy brazing filler metal 16 and 17, which takes a short time to solidify.
1 and 12 are adhesively fixed to the substrate 10, the pressurizing device can be removed once the alloy brazing materials 16 and 17 have solidified, and there is no need to wait until the matching adhesive 15 has completely solidified. Therefore, even when interconnecting a large number of optical fibers at high density using a printed circuit board, etc., it is only necessary to wait a short time for the alloy brazing material 16,17 to solidify, and then proceed to connect adjacent optical fibers one after another. The working time for interconnecting fibers is reduced by New Year's Eve.

Note that if the alloy filler fillers 16 and 17 do not flow to the part where the metal-coated fibers 11 and 12 butt each other due to the viscosity of the alloy filler fillers 16 and 17 and the dimensions of the substrate, the U-groove is basically used. 14 is unnecessary. Also, the third
In the illustrated embodiment, the U-groove 14 is provided to prevent the flow of the alloy brazing filler metals 16 and 17, but instead of the U-groove 14, convex dams may be formed on the upper surfaces of both sides of the guide groove 130. The necessary functions can be satisfied.Furthermore, in places where there is a jacket for high-density optical seven-eye connection, such as on a printed wiring board, it is thought that a large force is unlikely to be applied to the optical fiber. Therefore, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the holding plate shown in the conventional example shown in FIG. Of course, it is also possible to attach a presser plate and adhesively fix it with the alignment adhesive 15. By doing this, the adhesion strength between the metal-coated fibers 11 and 12 can be strengthened. In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiments, the methods for applying metal coating between the front and rear surfaces of the optical fibers include vacuum evaporation, electrolytic plating, or melting. Known techniques such as metal coating are applied.

As explained above, in the connection method of the present invention, the outer peripheral surfaces of two optical fibers to be connected are first coated with metal to form metal-coated fibers, and then these metal-coated fibers are inserted into the guide groove of the metal substrate. The optical axes of both metal-coated fibers are aligned by pressing them against each other, and then, while maintaining the aligned optical axes, the metal coating of each metal-coated fiber is adhesively fixed to the substrate using alloy filter 5 material, and then alignment adhesive is applied. Since the metal-coated fibers are bonded and fixed to each other with an adhesive, the pressurizing device that presses the metal-coated fiber (optical fiber) into the guide groove is
Once the alloy filler metal has solidified, it can be removed without having to wait several hours for the matching adhesive to fully harden.
You can immediately move on to interconnecting adjacent source fibers. Therefore, when interconnecting a large number of optical fibers at high density, there is an advantage that the connection operation time is significantly shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

#I1 Figures (a), t, (b), and (c) respectively show connections made using the conventional connection method. XJ(a
) is a plan view, Fig. 1 (bl is a front view, 1st layer (C) is a side view, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the metal coated fiber applied to the present invention, and Fig. 3 (aL (b) t ( Fig. 3 (al) is a plan view, Fig. 3 (b) is a front view, and Fig. 3 (C) is a side view. ... Pressing plate, 7 ... Original fiber, 8
...Metal covering III, 9, 11, 12...
・Metal coated fiber, 10... Substrate, 13.
... Guide groove, 14 ... Groove (U groove), 15
...Matching adhesive, 16.17 ...Alloy brazing filler metal. [゛:Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Metal coating is applied to the outer circumferential surface of one source fiber on the contact lLI#l side to form a metal coated fiber, and then the end faces of these metal coated fibers are aligned;
Next, with the optical axes aligned, the metal coating of each metal-coated fiber is adhesively fixed to a metal substrate using an alloy brazing material, and then an alignment bonding agent is filled in the part where these two metal-coated fibers butt together. - A method for connecting original fibers, characterized in that these two optical fibers are interconnected. 2. In the method for connecting original fibers according to claim 1, the metal substrate is provided with one groove that intersects with the guide groove, and inside these two grooves Original fiber connecting method 03, characterized in that the abutting portions of the gold m-coated fibers are positioned and the metal coating of each metal coated fiber is brazed to the metal substrate outside the two grooves, In the method for connecting optical fibers described in Scope 1, the metal substrate is provided with two dams on the upper surface on both sides of the guide groove that intersect with the guide groove, and the inner side of these two dams is used as the metal substrate. A method for connecting optical fibers, characterized in that the metal coating of each metal coated fiber is brazed to a metal substrate on the outside of two dams, with the abutting portions of the metal coated fibers being positioned at.