JPS6270807A - Production of optical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To mass-produce connectors characterized by low loss and low price by using cavities formed on both the sides of the same positioning member to mold plugs to be opposed and coupled with each other. CONSTITUTION:Guide pins 4A, 4B and mold core pins 5A, 5B are inserted from both the sides of the positioning member 1 into through holes 7, 8 and resin is injected into the cavities 3A, 3B formed on both the sides of the positioning member 1 and molded to obtain opposed A and B type plugs 10A, 10B. Optical fiber cores 12A, 12B are inserted into respective plugs 10A, 10B and these plugs 10A, 10B are combined on the basis of a coupling guide pin 14 to attain coupling of the connector.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical connector that is attached to the ends of optical fibers and achieves mutual positioning and coupling.

(Prior Art) FIG. 6 shows an explanatory diagram of an example of a conventional optical connector manufacturing method.

A guide pin (24) and a molding core pin (0, 12) are attached to one side of the positioning member (21) placed in the mold (22).
After inserting the 5-seal φ) (25), resin was injected into the cavity (23) formed in the mold (22) and molded. In the drawings, (2G) is the main shaft portion of the molded core pin.

(Problem to be solved) In this case, the optical fiber connector is constructed by pulling out the guide pin (24) and the molding core pin (25) after the resin molding described above, and then inserting the optical fiber into the hole formed by the molding core pin (25). I inserted it into the machine, fixed it with adhesive, and polished it.

Therefore, when joining, the joining guide pin (24) is inserted into the hole formed by the guide pin (24), and the joining is done using this as a reference, but optical connectors manufactured using the same mold in this way also have different shapes when joining. Since one was rotated 180''' to connect to the other, the advantages of manufacturing with the same mold, i.e. the same positioning member, at least did not arise from the connection method.

Furthermore, for this reason, conventional optical funectors are designed and processed so that the axis of the positioning member is always aligned symmetrically with respect to the guide bin, so that the axis will not shift even if one side is rotated by +806 when combined. However, it is extremely difficult to process and measure the positioning member to make the absolute amount of eccentricity zero, and therefore it is extremely difficult to manufacture optical connectors for optical fibers with a core diameter of about 10 μm, such as ngle mode fibers. However, there was a problem that it could not be manufactured at low cost.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a low-loss, low-cost manufacturing method for optical connectors that takes advantage of molding in the same mold. The feature is that, when molding the two plugs to be coupled facing each other, resin molding is performed in cavities formed on both sides of the same positioning member placed in the mold.

(Example) FIG. 1 shows an explanatory diagram of an example of the method for manufacturing an optical connector of the present invention.

In the drawings, (1) is a positioning member placed in the mold (2), and as shown in the side view (A), left front view (B), and right front view (C) in Figure 2, the A-type The guide pin (4A) is provided with a surface (IA) forming a plug cavity (3A) and a surface forming a B-type plug cavity (3B).
4B) and through holes (7) and (8) into which molded core pins (5A) and (5B) are inserted. (3 &) (3B) are cavities for resin molding two plugs, namely A type plug (IOA) and B type plug (Ion) (see Fig. 3), which are connected to each other facing each other on both sides of the positioning member (1). , (4A) (4B) are the above A type plug (IOA), B
Guide bins (5A) and (5B) form insertion holes for optical fibers (5A) and (5B) form insertion holes (llA) for coupling guide pins (14) that serve as references when coupling mold plugs (+'OB). The molded core pin (skeleton) (eB) is the main shaft portion of the molded core pin.

When forming the plug, insert guide bins (4A) into the through holes () and (8) from both sides of the positioning member (1).
) (4B) and a molded core pin (5A>(511)), and by injecting resin into the cavities (3A) (3B) formed on both sides of the positioning member (1) and molding, the opposing A-types are formed. plug, type B plug can be obtained.

Plugs molded in this way do not need to be connected by rotating one side 180 @ as in conventional methods,
It has the characteristic that the position in the molded state is the same as the position when joined. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 5, the optical fiber cores (12A) (12B) are attached to each plug (IOA) (+011), and the coupling guide pin (
14), connector coupling is realized by combining an A-type plug (IOA) and a B-type plug (IOB).

In Figure 1, an A-type plug (IOA) and a B-type plug (IOB) can be molded at the same time, but it is not always necessary to connect the plugs molded at the same time; IOA), a B-type plug (10
B) can be combined.

In addition, the positioning member (1) shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is cut in the middle, divided into two parts, each placed in a separate mold, and optical connector plugs are formed independently using cavities (3A) and (3B). (IOA) (FOR) may be formed. Furthermore, after processing the positioning member (ri) into a long length in the axial direction, it is divided into multiple parts, for example, three, and each cavity (3A) (3B) is formed.
may be simultaneously formed by a plurality of divided positioning members. Fig. 3 shows the positioning member divided into two and cavities (3A) (3B) used for molding, and Fig. 4 shows the elongated positioning member (1') divided into three parts, with cavities (3A) facing each other on both sides. (3B) and shows a configuration diagram that can form an A-type plug and a B-type plug in which these face each other.

In addition, in the manufacturing example shown in FIG. 1, a method for manufacturing an optical connector using a guide bin and a molded core bin has been described, but of course, the coupling shape of the optical connector can be applied to a wide variety of other shapes. Directly instead of molded core pin 5
An optical fiber tape core such as a core may be set in a mold and molded. Furthermore, the guide bin and molding pin can be fixed by using grooves and pressing plates instead of through holes.

Note that it is convenient to handle A-type plugs and B-type plugs by molding them with letters such as A, B, etc. on the outer periphery of the plug so that they can be identified at a glance.

(Experiment example) As shown in Figure 1, cavities are provided on both sides of a positioning member placed in a mold, and two guide bins and an optical fiber insertion hole are formed from opposite directions of the positioning member. Five core bottles were inserted into the positioning member at a pitch of 0.3 m3. The thickness of the positioning member is 5
+11 m, and guide bins and molded core bins were inserted about 2.2 mm from both sides. Thereafter, resin was injected into the cavity and molded to obtain an A-type plug and a B-type plug. The molding was performed using epoxy/resin that can be molded at low pressure, and transfer molding was performed at a molding pressure of about 50 kHz/c♂.

S-core optical fiber tapes were attached to the resulting A-type plug and B-type plug, respectively, and the coupling loss was evaluated. Note that two guide bins were used for joining, and after joining, the metal bodies were fixed with clips.

The coupling loss of an optical connector using an S-core (, I-fiber) is 0.06 d on average at n = 100 when using a matching agent.
The average value was 0.27 dB, which was a very good value even for a five-core single mode fiber.

Incidentally, we also evaluated the coupling loss between A-type plugs and B-type plugs for reference, and found that the average was 0.
21 dB (n = 50), and an average of 1.48 dB (n: 50) with a five-core single mode fiber.

In this way, it was confirmed that the combination of the A-type plug and the B-type plug can realize a connection with significantly lower loss than the conventional combination of the same type plugs.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the method for manufacturing an optical connector of the present invention described above, by molding plugs to be coupled facing each other using cavities formed on both sides of the same positioning member, molding can be performed using the same mold. The advantages are fully demonstrated, and funecta with low loss and low cost can be produced in large quantities.

Also, according to the manufacturing method of the present invention, there are two types of plugs AB, but even if A and B are combined,
An optical connector that can realize a coupling loss equivalent to that of conventional optical connectors and can be used in an extremely wide range of applications can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of the optical connector manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a side view (a) and left and right front views (b) and (c) of the positioning member of FIG. 1. FIGS. 3 and 4 show configuration diagrams in which the positioning member is divided into two and three parts, respectively, and a cavity is formed using these parts. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the coupling of optical connectors obtained by the manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a conventional optical connector manufacturing method. 1... Positioning member, 2... Mold, 3A, 3B...
・Cavity, 4A, 4B...Guide pin, 5A, 5
B... Molded core bin, IOA, IOB... Optical connector plug. Figure 1, 5 Figure 3 Kaya 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a manufacturing method for an optical connector that is attached to the end of an optical fiber and achieves mutual positioning and coupling, when molding two plugs that are coupled facing each other in a mold, the same positioning member placed in the mold is used. A method for manufacturing an optical connector, characterized in that cavities formed on both sides are resin-molded. (2) The same positioning member is divided into a plurality of parts, each of which is housed in a separate mold, and the optical connector to be coupled facing each other is independently molded. Method of manufacturing optical connectors.