JPH03210511A - Optical fiber connecting member - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily fix optical fibers and to attain highly accurate positioning by providing optical fiber holes with clearances, forming a notched part on a part of the holes to expose the optical fibers and pressing the optical fibers by a pressing member. CONSTITUTION:The optical fiber holes to be positioning guides for the optical fibers B are formed by V-shaped grooves 1a formed on a groove base 1 and an upper base 2 joined on the surface of the base 1 and the holes are provided with clearances for the optical fibers B to be inserted into the holes. The notched part 3 is formed on a part of the holes to expose the fibers and the pressing member 4 presses the fibers B on the notched part 3, so that the fibers B are pressed in the bottom direction of the grooves 1a and accurate positioning can be attained. Consequently, the optical fibers B can easily be fixed and their highly accurate positioning can be attained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an optical fiber connecting member for positioning and fixing optical fibers and realizing coupling in optical communications.

(Conventional technology and problem to be solved)? ＼ °1 FIG. 2(a) is an explanatory diagram of an example of a conventional optical fiber connecting member. The optical fiber (B) exposed by removing the end coating layer of the optical fiber (21) is placed on the base (21).
) A capillary made of glass etc. fixed on top (22)
are inserted from both sides of the capillary (22), and are butt-fixed within the capillary (22).

In an optical fiber connecting member using such a capillary, in order to insert the optical fiber (B), use a capillary that has a clearance of about 2 to 31 cm with respect to the outer diameter of the optical fiber (about 1251 cm). There is a need. Therefore, the optical fibers have a degree of freedom in position within the capillary within the clearance range, and when the optical fibers are butted together, there is a maximum of 2
An axis misalignment of ~3 mm can occur. Single-mode optical fibers, which are currently the mainstream in optical communications, have a core diameter of approximately 9#■, and dispersion-shifted optical fibers, which are expected to be in high demand in the future, have an even smaller core diameter of approximately 7#■. For this reason, an axis misalignment of 2 to 3 #■ at the connection portion results in a connection loss of approximately 2 dB (dispersion-shifted optical fiber).

FIG. 2(0) is an explanatory diagram of another example of a conventional optical fiber connecting member. V groove (23m) for optical fiber arrangement on the top surface
The optical fiber (B) is placed abutting against the V-groove (23m) of the grooved substrate (23) in which the optical fiber (B) is formed, and is fixed by pressing with a plate-shaped pressure member (24) from above.

In this way, the optical fiber connecting member with grooves positions the optical fiber by contacting two points with the V groove.
The problem of axis misalignment as described above does not occur. However, since the top surface of such a V-groove type optical fiber connecting member is open, the optical fiber tends to move easily when the optical fiber is installed.
Particularly when connecting multi-core optical fibers, it is very difficult to match all the fibers accurately.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides an optical fiber connecting member that solves the above-mentioned problems, and its feature is that a clearance is provided in the optical fiber hole that serves as a positioning guide for the optical fiber. A notch is exposed in a part of the optical fiber hole, and after the optical fiber is inserted, the optical fiber pressing member presses the optical fiber at the notch, thereby realizing positioning of the optical fiber. There is a particular thing.

(Function) In the above-described optical fiber connecting member of the present invention, C. By creating a clearance in the optical fiber hole that serves as a positioning guide for the optical fiber, the insertion work of the optical fiber is facilitated.

Precise positioning can also be achieved by providing a notch in a part of the optical fiber hole and exposing the optical fiber, and pressing the optical fiber with a pressure member at the notch.

Furthermore, it is important to reduce the gap between the butt end faces of optical fibers to 10 m or less when connecting optical fibers in order to reduce connection loss. The extrusion structure has the effect of reducing the gap between the end faces.

(Example) Figure 11 shows a specific example of the optical fiber connection member of the present invention: ρ' FIG.

Optical fiber holes, in which optical fibers (B) with a diameter of 125-■φ are arranged at 250 mm, are formed on the V-groove (11) formed on the groove substrate (1) and on the upper substrate (
2), and the optical fiber hole has a clearance for the optical fiber (B) inserted therein. The upper substrate (2) has a notch (3) at the optical fiber coupling point of this hole, and the groove (13) on the groove substrate (1) is exposed at this portion.

When connecting the optical fiber (B), the optical fiber pressing member (4
) pressurizes the optical fiber (B) at the notch (3), so that the optical fiber (B)
is pressed toward the bottom of the groove (13), achieving precise positioning.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of another specific example of the optical fiber connecting member of the present invention.

This optical fiber connecting member is of a type that is connected using two guide bins. The top substrate (
12) are joined to form an optical fiber hole,
The optical fiber (B) of the optical fiber core (mu) is inserted into the hole. The upper substrate (12) has a notch (13) on the coupling end surface, and the optical fiber (B) is exposed in this portion. The two coupling guide pins (15) are located on the V-groove for guide bins formed on the grooved substrate (11), and the vertically variable member (14)
It is pressed downward in the groove and fixed in position.

Such a connecting member is connected to the pressure member lower housing (18).
The pressurizing member upper housing (1B) is mounted from above. The pressure member upper housing (16) has a pressure spring (17) projecting diagonally downward.
The pressurizing part (17m) provided at the tip of the pressurizing spring (l) is connected to the notch (13) of the upper substrate (12).
The exposed optical fiber (B) is pressurized and fixed. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the optical fiber (B) is fixed so as to be pushed out toward the joint end by the action of the pressure spring (17). In addition, by configuring the part of the pressurizing part (17m) that contacts the optical fiber (B) with an elastic material,
All optical fibers can be reliably pressurized without damaging the optical fibers (B), especially when connecting multiple optical fibers at once.

When the optical fiber connection member described above was combined with an optical connector (19), a single mode optical fiber was connected, and the connection loss was evaluated, n = 10 for a secondary 4-core tape fiber, a total of 40. It was confirmed that the average connection loss was 0.34 dB and the maximum was 0.79 dB, which was good for the core connection.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the optical fiber connecting member of the present invention, it is possible to easily attach an optical fiber and to perform highly accurate positioning.

Furthermore, by having the optical fiber pressing member act to push out the optical fiber in the direction of the coupled end face, the gap between the end faces of the optical fiber becomes smaller, and an increase in connection loss can be prevented.

Furthermore, by using an elastic material such as rubber at the contact part of the pressure member with the optical fiber, the optical fiber will not be damaged, and all multi-core optical fibers will be securely connected, especially in the case of multi-core connection. It has the effect of pressurizing.

As described above, the optical fiber connecting member of the present invention is easy to work with and has excellent connection accuracy, and is extremely effective especially when used for emergency connections.') Figure 1 shows the optical fiber connecting member of the present invention. It is an explanatory view of an example of an integrated body of members.

FIGS. 2(A) and 2(0) are both explanatory diagrams of conventional optical fiber connecting members.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of another specific example of the optical fiber connecting member of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the forward pushing action of the pressure member in this embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Groove board, 2...Upper surface board, 3...Notch part,
4... Pressure member, 11... Groove substrate, 12... Top substrate, 13... Notch, 14... Vertically variable member, 15... Guide bin for coupling, 1B...・Pressure member upper housing, 17
... Pressure spring, 18 ... Pressure member lower housing,
19...Optical connector.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an optical fiber connecting member that positions and fixes optical fibers and realizes coupling, the optical fiber hole that serves as a positioning guide for the optical fiber has a clearance, and a notch is provided in a part of the optical fiber hole. What is claimed is: 1. An optical fiber connecting member characterized in that the optical fiber is exposed, and after the optical fiber is inserted, the optical fiber pressurizing member presses the optical fiber at the notch to realize positioning of the optical fiber. (2) The optical fiber connection according to claim (1), wherein the optical fiber hole is a triangular hole formed by a V-shaped groove on the grooved substrate and an upper substrate bonded thereon. Element. (3) The optical fiber connecting member according to claim (1), wherein when the pressing member presses the optical fiber, it has the function of pushing out the optical fiber in the coupling direction.