JPH05113519A - Optical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an optical connector in which optical connection is efficiently executed and whose assembling man-hour is reduced. CONSTITUTION:A connector main body 10 is provided with a conical hole 12 and a through hole 13 for inserting and fixing an optical fiber so that the hole 13 and the hole 12 may be coaxial and an optical fiber 16 is inserted and fixed in the hole 13 from the opposite side of the hole 12, then a lens 11 is inserted and fixed in the hole 12 so as to come in contact with the wall of the hole 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical connector. More specifically, the present invention relates to an optical connector that facilitates optical axis alignment between a lens and an optical fiber to improve optical coupling efficiency and facilitate assembly.

In recent information processing equipment, in order to cope with the enormous amount of information processing signals accompanying the increase in the amount of information, it is required to reduce the size, weight and power consumption of the equipment. Also, due to high-density mounting of wiring inside and between devices, it is becoming increasingly important to take measures against electromagnetic noise during high-speed transmission. As a method for solving these problems, multiplex transmission and parallel transmission by an optical signal have been proposed and implemented.

Further, in a backbone communication network used for a public line, an advanced information network combined with a LAN or the like making full use of a large computer is about to be realized, and the demand for optical coupling parts is increasing more and more. The present invention relates to an optical connector which is one of optical coupling parts.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional parallel optical connector is shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a housing made of epoxy resin, 2 is a parallel optical fiber array, and 3 is an optical fiber holding member provided with through holes at regular intervals. The optical fiber holding member 3 is resin-fixed to the housing 1 in a state where the optical fibers 4 of the optical fiber array 2 are aligned and held in the through holes. Further, in order to efficiently connect the optical fibers of the optical connectors to each other, the guide hole 5 is provided in the housing 1, and the guide pins 6 are used to align the optical connector 7,
7'can be joined together.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned conventional optical connector, since the optical fibers are directly optically coupled to each other, the core diameter for propagating the light of the single mode fiber is 10 μm, so that the light is efficiently coupled. In addition, the axis deviation of the optical fiber is required to be in the unit of micron, and the angle deviation is required to be within 1 degree. Further, polishing is necessary to prevent loss due to light scattered from the end face of the fiber. For this reason, it takes time to mold the housing, and a polishing step is required, which requires a large number of assembling steps and has a limit to cost reduction.

The present invention aims to realize an optical connector which can efficiently perform optical coupling and can reduce the number of assembling steps.

[0007]

In the optical connector of the present invention, a conical hole 12 is formed in a connector body 10 and an optical fiber is inserted and fixed so as to be coaxial with the central axis of the conical hole 12. Through hole 13 is provided, and the conical hole 1 is provided in the hole 13.
The optical fiber 16 is inserted and fixed from the opposite side of the lens 2, and the lens 1 is inserted into the conical hole 12 so as to be in contact with the wall of the conical hole 12.
1 is inserted and fixed.

In addition to the above, the connector body 1 is also provided.
0 is provided with the guide pin 20 or the guide holes 14 and 14 'so that the optical axes of the connector and the mating connector coincide with each other. In addition to that, a transparent substance 19 is filled between the lens 11 and the end face of the optical fiber 16. By adopting this configuration, it is possible to obtain an optical connector capable of efficiently performing optical coupling and reducing the number of assembling steps.

[0009]

In the optical connector of the present invention, the lens 11 is arranged in the conical hole 12, and the optical fiber 16 is inserted and fixed in the through hole 13 for inserting and fixing the optical fiber whose central axis coincides with that of the conical hole 12. As a result, the optical axes of the optical fiber 16 and the lens 11 always coincide with each other even if the size of the lens 11 varies. Therefore, the light emitted from the optical fiber 16 is efficiently incident on the opposing optical fiber through the lens.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a connector body formed of an opaque resin or the like. In the connector body 10, a conical hole 12 for holding a lens 11 and a central axis are the central axis of the conical hole 12. A through hole 13 for inserting and fixing an optical fiber, which is bored so as to match, and guide holes 14, 14 'for aligning when mating with a mating connector are provided.

Then, the through hole 13 for fixing the optical fiber is inserted.
From the opposite side of the conical hole 12, the optical fiber cable 1
A bare optical fiber 16 from which a part of the coating 5 is removed is inserted and fixed with an adhesive. At the same time, the silicon coating portion 17 and the cable coating portion 18 of the optical fiber are also connected to the connector body 1
It is fixed to 0.

On the other hand, in the conical hole 12, a transparent substance 1 having substantially the same refractive index as the optical fiber 16 and the lens 11.
9. For example, a transparent photocurable resin is injected, and a spherical or aspherical lens (a spherical lens in the figure) 11 is inserted on the transparent photocurable resin so as to be in contact with the wall of the conical hole 12. It is fixed by light curing.

The present embodiment thus constructed is used as shown in FIG. In the figure, A and B are the optical connectors of the present invention, and both are guide holes 14,
14 'and the guide pin 20 are positioned and abutted against each other, and further fixed by a clip or the like not shown.

The optical fiber 1 of the connector A on one side
The light emitted from 6 passes through the transparent substance 19, becomes parallel rays at the lens 11, enters the lens 11 of the other optical connector B, is focused, and further passes through the transparent substance 19 to be converged on the end face of the optical fiber 16 to be reflected. It is adapted to enter the fiber 16.

According to the present embodiment described above, when a lens, particularly a spherical lens, is used, the spherical core always coincides with the central axis of the optical fiber, so that the light beam of light is emitted in a stable direction and good optical coupling is achieved. The efficiency is obtained, and the optical axis of the lens and the optical fiber can be automatically aligned, which facilitates the assembly. Further, since the transparent material 19 having a refractive index substantially the same as that of the optical fiber and the lens is interposed between the lens 11 and the end surface of the optical fiber 16, the reflected light from the end surface of the optical fiber 16 is reduced, and the light emitting element for optical transmission is provided. As a result, it is possible to prevent the modulation characteristic from changing due to the return light from the end face of the optical fiber when a semiconductor laser is used. Further, even if the end surface of the optical fiber 16 is slightly rough, the transparent material 19 can reduce the light scattering from the end surface and improve the optical coupling efficiency. As a result, the time required for the polishing process can be shortened, and the number of manufacturing steps can be reduced.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a cross section of another embodiment of the present invention when viewed from above. This embodiment is a parallel optical fiber connector, and the figure shows a state in which two connectors A and B in which an optical fiber 16 and a lens 11 are arranged in an array are aligned and coupled by a guide pin 20.
Each optical coupling part has the same structure as in the previous embodiment, and the interval between adjacent optical fibers is about 250 μm. The present embodiment configured in this way has the same effect as the previous embodiment, and can increase the transmission capacity.

[0017]

According to the present invention, since the lens is arranged in the conical hole having the same central axis as the central axis of the optical fiber, the optical axis of the optical fiber and the optical axis of the lens always coincide with each other, so that the assembly is easy. Moreover, it is possible to efficiently perform optical coupling to the opposing optical fiber, and it is possible to realize an optical connector with extremely small optical coupling loss.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view as seen from the top, showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional parallel optical connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Connector main body 11 ... Lens 12 ... Conical hole 13 ... Optical fiber insertion / fixation through hole 14, 14 '... Guide hole 15 ... Optical fiber cable 16 ... Optical fiber 17 ... Silicon coating 18 ... Cable coating 19 ... Transparent Substance 20 ... Guide pin

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A conical hole (1) in a connector body (10).
2) and a through hole (13) for inserting and fixing an optical fiber are provided so as to be co-axial with the central axis of the conical hole (12), and the hole (13) is opposite to the conical hole (12). The optical fiber (16) is inserted and fixed from the side, and the lens (11) is inserted into the conical hole (12) so as to be in contact with the wall of the conical hole (12).
An optical connector characterized by being inserted and fixed. 2. The connector body (10) is provided with guide pins (20) or guide holes (14, 14 ') so that the optical axes of the connector body and the mating connector coincide with each other. 1 optical connector. 3. The lens (11) and the optical fiber (1)
6) The optical connector according to claim 1, wherein a transparent substance (19) is filled between the end faces.