JPH0593815A - Optical fiber alignment device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an optical fiber aligning device capable of performing collective alignment of optical fibers of a multi-core tape fiber having a narrow fiber pitch interval. [Structure] The movable pieces 2 are independently and independently pushed by the piezoelectric elements 3, and each pushing piece causes a small displacement of each movable piece 2 to forcibly shift the axis of the optical fiber 4 mounted on each end face of the movable piece 2. Correct to.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is suitable for accurately aligning optical fibers in a plurality of optical fibers arranged in a row (hereinafter referred to as a multi-core tape fiber). The present invention relates to an optical fiber aligning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Bulk fusion splicing of multi-core tape fibers is
Conventionally, the optical fiber is placed on the fixed V-groove base for multi-cores, in which the V-groove for mounting and fixing the optical fiber is precisely machined in a straight line, and the outer diameter axes of the left and right optical fibers are almost aligned with each other. By control, the core axes of the left and right fiber cores were aligned.

[0003]

By the way, in order to reduce the connection loss during fusion of the optical fibers, it is necessary to perform an aligning operation for each core wire. However, the distance between the fibers to be fused is very small, and it is necessary to perform fine alignment on the order of microns in a short time and accurately, but this was difficult. Therefore, the present invention, in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks,
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber aligning device capable of aligning a multi-core tape optical fiber having a narrow pitch between optical fibers.

[0004]

That is, according to the present invention, a plurality of thin plate-shaped movable pieces having a thickness of about the outer diameter of an optical fiber on an inclined surface and having end faces smoothed are arranged in layers. By arranging one optical fiber in each of a plurality of sawtooth-shaped V-shaped grooves formed by the above method, fixing a piezoelectric element to each movable piece, and causing a slight expansion and contraction of these piezoelectric elements. It is configured such that the movable piece is finely moved so that the movable piece is aligned with the optical fiber of the opposite side arranged corresponding to each of the optical fibers.

[0005]

In the optical fiber aligning device of the present invention, the movable piece is microscopically pushed by the piezoelectric element, and the pushing force causes each movable piece to be slightly displaced, so that the optical fiber mounted on the end face of each movable piece. Forcibly correct the axis deviation of.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention. This aligning device comprises a base 1
And the movable piece 2 and the piezoelectric element 3. In the figure, reference numeral 4 indicates an optical fiber forming a multi-core tape fiber, and in this embodiment, a 4-fiber type is used. The base 1 is provided symmetrically so as to have an intersection angle of 90 degrees, has a tilt angle of 45 degrees, and has a pair of inclined surfaces 1a on which the movable piece 2 is arranged, and these inclined surfaces 1a
And a flat portion 1b for positioning the movable piece 2 which is formed in a continuous manner at the lower part of the optical fiber 4 and has an influence when the optical fibers 4 are fused by arc discharge or the like at the central portion, that is, thermal deformation or It is made of a ceramic material in consideration of prevention of elastic deformation and the like. And these inclined surfaces 1a
The movable pieces 2 are stacked in a stepwise fashion (however, only one is shown in FIG. 1), and the optical fibers 4 are positioned by the respective end faces of the movable pieces 2. Has been done. Further, the plane 1b is adapted to align the lower ends of the movable pieces 2 laminated on the inclined surfaces 1a, respectively, and the lowermost edge of each movable piece 2 is arranged in contact with each other as shown in FIG. Has become. In order to accurately position these optical fibers 4, the pair of inclined surfaces 1a and the flat surface portion 1b are subjected to high-precision surface processing, but the flat surface portion is not particularly required. In addition, the alignment work performed prior to the present fusion of optical fibers is performed in two directions, α and β, while observing the real and imaginary images of the optical fibers to be fused on a monitor. Because
The centering efficiency is highest when the directions α and β are orthogonal to each other by 90 degrees. Therefore, for the convenience of making both inclined surfaces orthogonal to each other as in this embodiment, the inclined surface 1a has the best inclination of 45 degrees. However, if the pitch of the optical fiber 4 becomes narrower, it is necessary to form the inclined surface with an inclination of, for example, about 60 degrees to correspond to the pitch interval.

The movable piece 2 is a thin plate-like member that produces a minute vibration by the pressing force from the piezoelectric element 3 and is elastically deformed.
It is made of a ceramic material in order to suppress the effects of thermal deformation and electric discharge as much as possible. That is, the structure is such that the layers are stacked in a stepwise manner. That is, the movable piece 2 of this embodiment is
As shown in FIG. 3, it is composed of first to fifth movable pieces 21 to 25. These first to fifth movable pieces (however,
The movable piece 25 is not shown.) As shown in FIGS. 4 to 7, stacked portions 21a to 25a mounted on the inclined surface 1a of the base 1 stepwise.
And the attachment portions 21b to 25b (25 which extend laterally downward from the laminated portions 21a to 25a and to which the piezoelectric element 3 is fixed).
a and b are not shown). Then, each of these laminated portions 21a to 25a has a surface and an end surface 21c, respectively.
-25c (25c is not shown) is surface-machined with high precision so as to form an angle of 90 degrees with each other, whereby the upper surface of each laminated portion 21a to 25a and the next movable next to it. The end face of one piece constitutes a 90 degree V groove as shown in FIG.

Although the movable piece of this embodiment has a simple flat plate shape as shown in FIG. 2, it is not particularly limited to this and, for example, as shown in FIG.
It may be formed in a substantially U-shaped cross section 2 '. That is, not only can such a cross-sectional shape reduce the friction caused by the contact with each other to move the movable piece independently and efficiently, but also, for example, alcohol for cleaning when the fiber is automatically fused. The function of reducing the surface tension of a liquid film (not shown) that prevents sliding between the movable pieces, which occurs when the liquid is sprayed, can be exhibited. The piezoelectric element 3 has a movable piece 21.
The stack-type elements fixed to the mounting portions 21b to 25b of each of .about.25 are used, and each movable piece 21 to 25 is independently and independently pushed according to the applied voltage. By expanding and contracting in the longitudinal direction (α) of the element, it is possible to forcibly correct the axis deviation of the desired optical fibers 4a to 4d. Therefore, according to this embodiment, only the desired optical fiber 4 can be precisely finely adjusted by the operation of the piezoelectric element 3 provided independently on each movable piece 2.

When aligning the optical fiber,
It is desirable to perform rough adjustment prior to this, but a jig such as the coarse moving member 10 shown in FIG. 9 is used for this. on the other hand,
As shown in FIG. 10, the jig is pressed from above by a jig such as the pressing member 14. That is, in this embodiment, with respect to each piezoelectric element 3 attached to each movable piece 2 ″, the coarse movement member 10 is locked to the lower end surface thereof, and the spring member 11 is attached to the upper end surface thereof. The coarse movement member 10 has screw holes 12a in which female threads are cut at the same pitch intervals as the piezoelectric element 3, and is fixed to the base (not shown) side. The support 12 and the screw 13 screwed into the screw hole 12a of the support 12.
Then, the coarse movement member 10 pushes the respective screws 13 against the elastic force of the spring material 11 from below, and locks the respective optical fibers 4 on the lower surface 14a of the pressing member 14 as shown in FIG. It is configured to make a pre-adjustment with coarse accuracy. In addition, the lower surface 14a of the pressing member 14 is subjected to high-precision plane processing.

[0010]

As described above, according to the optical fiber aligning apparatus of the present invention, each optical fiber of the multi-core tape fiber is provided with a movable piece laminated in a saw-toothed V groove. By independently actuating the piezoelectric elements fixed thereto, even if the optical fiber has a very narrow fiber pitch, it is possible to individually perform forced fine movements for alignment. This has the effect of making it possible to fully automate multi-center batch alignment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an optical fiber alignment device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a laminated state of movable pieces in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing a mounting state of the movable piece and the piezoelectric element in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a first movable piece in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a second movable piece in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a third movable piece in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a fourth movable piece in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a modified example of the movable piece in the optical fiber aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a jig or the like for rough adjustment performed prior to aligning the optical fiber.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory view showing the action of the pressing member and the movable piece used in the rough adjustment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 base 1a inclined surface 2 (21, 22, 23, 24, 25) movable piece 3 piezoelectric element 4 optical fiber

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Yoshizawa 1-1-6 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Shinichi Aoshima 1-1-6 Uchiyuki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph Phone Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of thin plate-shaped movable pieces (21, 22, ...) Laminated on an inclined surface (1a) having a thickness of about the outer diameter of an optical fiber and having end faces smoothed. One optical fiber (4) is arranged in each of a plurality of sawtooth-shaped V-shaped grooves formed by arranging the piezoelectric elements (3) on each movable piece (21, 22, ...).
Are fixed, and the piezoelectric elements (3) are caused to slightly expand or contract to finely move the movable pieces (21, 22, ...). An optical fiber aligning device, characterized in that it is configured so as to align the gap between and.