EP0694174A4 - - Google Patents

Info

Publication number
EP0694174A4
EP0694174A4 EP94927434A EP94927434A EP0694174A4 EP 0694174 A4 EP0694174 A4 EP 0694174A4 EP 94927434 A EP94927434 A EP 94927434A EP 94927434 A EP94927434 A EP 94927434A EP 0694174 A4 EP0694174 A4 EP 0694174A4
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
fibers
fiber
surrounding
optical
coupler
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP94927434A
Other languages
English (en)
Other versions
EP0694174A1 (fr
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from US08/043,358 external-priority patent/US5459804A/en
Priority claimed from US08/169,512 external-priority patent/US5408554A/en
Application filed filed Critical
Publication of EP0694174A1 publication Critical patent/EP0694174A1/fr
Publication of EP0694174A4 publication Critical patent/EP0694174A4/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
    • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
    • G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
    • G02B6/26—Optical coupling means
    • G02B6/28—Optical coupling means having data bus means, i.e. plural waveguides interconnected and providing an inherently bidirectional system by mixing and splitting signals
    • G02B6/2804—Optical coupling means having data bus means, i.e. plural waveguides interconnected and providing an inherently bidirectional system by mixing and splitting signals forming multipart couplers without wavelength selective elements, e.g. "T" couplers, star couplers
    • G02B6/2856—Optical coupling means having data bus means, i.e. plural waveguides interconnected and providing an inherently bidirectional system by mixing and splitting signals forming multipart couplers without wavelength selective elements, e.g. "T" couplers, star couplers formed or shaped by thermal heating means, e.g. splitting, branching and/or combining elements

Definitions

  • couplers employed in distribution systems that require splitting in multiples of four e.g., 1X4, 1X8, 1X12, and 1X16 port configurations
  • the invention concerns fused fiberoptic couplers of the type formed from axially elongated, cylindrical fibers of transparent substance each having a circular transverse cross-section of preselected diameter.
  • the fibers include a central fiber and at least one ring of N surrounding fibers. At least some of the fibers are optical fibers that have a core and a surrounding cladding.
  • the coupler is formed by the processes of providing the fibers, assembling them into a structure in which the constituent fibers have a close- packed relationship to one another, and then heating and drawing the assembly of fibers.
  • an output power uniformity of about 1 ⁇ dB may be achieved with a probability of about 90%.
  • Improved output power uniformity relaxes the dynamic range constraints placed on the associated electronic circuitry, generally improves the performance of the overall optical system, and further allows the optical couplers to be employed in applications requiring better output power uniformity.
  • the reduction in the surrounding fiber diameter is preferably achieved by etching, drawing, preselection of a smaller diameter fiber (within the manufacturing tolerances) or a combination of these techniques.
  • the increase in the central fiber diameter is achieved, prior to fusion, by the addition of a material to the outer surface of the central fiber that has a refractive index that is greater than or about equal to the refractive index of the cladding surrounding the central fiber.
  • Certain preferred embodiments according to this general aspect of the invention include 1XM (M taking a value of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) and 1XN (N taking an integer value greater than 6) fiberoptic couplers characterized in that the sum of the diameters of the surrounding fibers is slightly less than the sum of diameters of a ring of N circles closely-packed about the central fiber in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the central fiber in a manner that provides, during manufacture, slight space in the ring of surrounding fibers to accommodate process-related shifts of the geometric relationship of the fibers to one another, so that, after manufacture a close-packed relationship of the fibers to one another is obtained.
  • Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the fiberoptic coupler of Fig. 1 taken along line 2-2.
  • Couplers of the invention can be made to have very little fusion of the optical materials, in which case the void regions are more pronounced and the fibers appear to retain more of their original boundaries. As the degree of fusion is increased the void regions become smaller and the boundaries of the individual fibers are reduced. Even though void regions may be present in any embodiment of the invention, the optical materials are considered to be fused into an essentially solid mass, which is referred to herein as a "unitary optical structure". Following the fuse-drawing process, the fibers that extend from the coupling region are bonded to a rigid, cylindrical substrate with an adhesive. The coupling region is suspended above the substrate.
  • the reduction in diameter of each of the fibers in the inner ring of surrounding fibers can be approximated by equation 2.
  • An approximate value for the reduction in diameter of each of the outer surrounding fibers can be similarly approximated by equation 2, as long as the fact that the effective diameter of the central fiber relative to the outer surrounding fibers is larger than the effective diameter of the central fiber relative to the inner ring of surrounding fibers is taken into account.
  • the invention applies to all unitary couplers in which there is a central fiber encircled by one or more layers of surrounding fibers. The fibers in each layer can be sized to leave enough spacing to allow close- packing of the fibers.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Optical Couplings Of Light Guides (AREA)
EP94927434A 1993-04-06 1994-04-05 Raccordement a fibres optiques Withdrawn EP0694174A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (5)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US08/043,358 US5459804A (en) 1993-04-06 1993-04-06 Fiberoptic couplers having spacer fibers that have no optical cores
US43358 1993-04-06
US169512 1993-12-17
US08/169,512 US5408554A (en) 1993-12-17 1993-12-17 Fiber optic coupling
PCT/US1994/003709 WO1994023319A1 (fr) 1993-04-06 1994-04-05 Raccordement a fibres optiques

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0694174A1 EP0694174A1 (fr) 1996-01-31
EP0694174A4 true EP0694174A4 (fr) 1996-02-14

Family

ID=26720329

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP94927434A Withdrawn EP0694174A1 (fr) 1993-04-06 1994-04-05 Raccordement a fibres optiques

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0694174A1 (fr)
AU (1) AU6700394A (fr)
WO (1) WO1994023319A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5351325A (en) * 1993-04-29 1994-09-27 Corning Incorporated Narrow band Mach-Zehnder filter
TW291539B (fr) * 1994-09-30 1996-11-21 Corning Inc
US6487351B1 (en) * 2000-11-06 2002-11-26 Schott Fiber Optics Fiber optic faceplate

Citations (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4497643A (en) * 1981-09-16 1985-02-05 Nobuo Kowata Optical fiber junction device and method of making the same
US4983195A (en) * 1990-01-04 1991-01-08 Corning Incorporated Method of making fiber optic coupler with longitudinal protrusions
DE4041436C1 (en) * 1990-12-21 1992-06-25 Siemens Ag, 8000 Muenchen, De Optical multi-purpose coupling - includes central fibre and outer fibres parallelly surrounding it which are inserted into capillary tube
DE4041438C1 (en) * 1990-12-21 1992-07-02 Siemens Ag, 8000 Muenchen, De Multi coupler with optical fibres sealed in glass capillary - has axial guide(s) on capillary inner wall, drawn together with fibres and capillary
GB2251957A (en) * 1990-11-29 1992-07-22 Toshiba Kk "Wavelength (DE) multiplex optical coupler"
JPH0651804A (ja) * 1992-07-29 1994-02-25 Toshiba Corp 適応型制御方法及び装置
JPH06128907A (ja) * 1992-10-19 1994-05-10 S Ii:Kk 斜材ケーブルの定着部
JPH06227707A (ja) * 1993-01-29 1994-08-16 Copyer Co Ltd 画像形成装置の原稿保護装置

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5015058A (en) * 1987-06-05 1991-05-14 The Commonwealth Of Australia Asymmetric fibre optic couplers and their fabrication
GB8906327D0 (en) * 1989-03-20 1989-05-04 British Telecomm A method of forming an optical fibre star coupler and a coupler so formed
US5175782A (en) * 1990-11-16 1992-12-29 Amp Incorporated Optical fiber coupler of improved signal distribution characteristics
US5268979A (en) * 1992-07-15 1993-12-07 Corning Incorporated Achromatic overclad fiber optic coupler

Patent Citations (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4497643A (en) * 1981-09-16 1985-02-05 Nobuo Kowata Optical fiber junction device and method of making the same
US4983195A (en) * 1990-01-04 1991-01-08 Corning Incorporated Method of making fiber optic coupler with longitudinal protrusions
GB2251957A (en) * 1990-11-29 1992-07-22 Toshiba Kk "Wavelength (DE) multiplex optical coupler"
DE4041436C1 (en) * 1990-12-21 1992-06-25 Siemens Ag, 8000 Muenchen, De Optical multi-purpose coupling - includes central fibre and outer fibres parallelly surrounding it which are inserted into capillary tube
DE4041438C1 (en) * 1990-12-21 1992-07-02 Siemens Ag, 8000 Muenchen, De Multi coupler with optical fibres sealed in glass capillary - has axial guide(s) on capillary inner wall, drawn together with fibres and capillary
JPH0651804A (ja) * 1992-07-29 1994-02-25 Toshiba Corp 適応型制御方法及び装置
JPH06128907A (ja) * 1992-10-19 1994-05-10 S Ii:Kk 斜材ケーブルの定着部
JPH06227707A (ja) * 1993-01-29 1994-08-16 Copyer Co Ltd 画像形成装置の原稿保護装置

Non-Patent Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
ARKWRIGHT J W ET AL: "MONOLITHIC 1 X 19 SINGLE-MODE FUSED FIBRE COUPLERS", ELECTRONICS LETTERS, vol. 27, no. 9, 25 April 1991 (1991-04-25), pages 737 - 738, XP000229481 *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 10, no. 180 (P - 471) 24 June 1986 (1986-06-24) *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 11, no. 207 (P - 592) 4 July 1987 (1987-07-04) *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 6, no. 112 (P - 124) 23 June 1982 (1982-06-23) *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 9, no. 177 (P - 375) 23 July 1985 (1985-07-23) *
See also references of WO9423319A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU6700394A (en) 1994-10-24
WO1994023319A1 (fr) 1994-10-13
EP0694174A1 (fr) 1996-01-31

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