JP2892023B2 - Optical fiber coupler - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Industrial application field" The present invention is used for branching or coupling light between an optical fiber in an optical fiber ribbon and an optical fiber of a single optical fiber. The present invention relates to an optical fiber coupler.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one of optical fiber couplers used when coupling or splitting optical signals, a fusion-spliced part is formed by fusion-stretching a part of a plurality of optical fibers. Stretched optical fiber couplers are known. In order to fabricate this fused-stretch optical fiber coupler, first, the coating of the single optical fiber or the bare optical fiber is partially removed, and a coating removal portion where the bare optical fiber is exposed is formed. A plurality of optical fibers having a removed portion are arranged in parallel, a part of the optical fiber exposed from the coating removed portion is heated and fused, and further stretched to form a fused stretched portion.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, such an optical fiber coupler needs to perform fusion and stretching while aligning each stripped portion very accurately, and thus, for example, fabricating the stripped portion When making an optical fiber coupler by fusing and stretching two single optical fibers, the two single optical fibers are arranged in parallel, and the stripped portion and its vicinity are fixed with a precision jig. In addition, the fusion drawing is performed while fixing each optical fiber single fiber so as not to be shifted. For this reason, the workability is poor, the work requires skill, and the yield of high-performance optical fiber couplers is poor.

In addition, the two extra lengths (lead portions) of the two optical fiber couplers on each side of the optical fiber coupler manufactured in this manner are different from each other, which may be troublesome when performing extra length processing. there were.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical fiber coupler that can easily perform a fusion-stretching operation and can smoothly process an extra length of a lead portion.

[Means for Solving the Problems] As a means for achieving the above object, in the present invention, an optical fiber exposed by removing a coating of an optical fiber ribbon obtained by bundling a plurality of optical fibers in a tape shape; The optical fiber coupler was formed by fusing and stretching the optical fiber exposed by removing the coating of the single core wire to form a fused and stretched portion.

[Function] Since the optical fiber of the optical fiber ribbon and the optical fiber of the single optical fiber are fusion-stretched to form a fusion-stretched portion, an optical fiber other than the one used as a coupler is used for the optical fiber ribbon. The optical fiber coupler and the optical communication can be performed by the same optical fiber ribbon.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 12 denotes an optical fiber coupler. This optical fiber coupler
Reference numeral 12 denotes a coating 11 of the optical fiber ribbon 10 in which the four optical fibers 2 are bundled in a tape shape, and a part of the outermost one of the four optical fibers 2 is exposed. Optical fiber 2 exposed from the stripped portion
And the optical fiber 15 exposed by removing a part of the coating 14 of the single optical fiber 13 is fusion-stretched to form a fusion-stretched portion 5. This optical fiber tape core wire 10
The remaining three optical fibers 2 are used as ordinary optical communication fibers.

Various optical fibers such as a silica-based single mode optical fiber, a graded index type optical fiber, or a stress applying type polarization maintaining optical fiber generally used for optical communication are used as the optical fibers 2 and 15 described above. Can be used.

In the fusion-spreading section 5, one optical fiber 2 in the optical fiber ribbon 10 and the core of the optical fiber 15 of the optical fiber single fiber 13 approach each other, and the light Combination is possible. That is, the fusion-stretched portion 5
In this configuration, an optical signal propagating in one optical fiber 2 is branched into the other optical fiber 15 to split incident light or to combine a plurality of incident lights.

The optical fiber coupler 12 having the above configuration is manufactured as follows. First, a part of the coating 11 of the optical fiber ribbon 10 is removed by a predetermined length to form a coating removal portion where one optical fiber 2 is exposed as shown in FIG. On the other hand, a part of the coating 14 of the single optical fiber 13 is removed by a predetermined length to form a coating removal part where the optical fiber 15 is exposed.

Next, both ends of the two exposed optical fibers 2 and 15 are bound and fixed, and a part of the two optical fibers 2 and 15 is brought into a contact state. Next, the portion where the two optical fibers 2 and 15 are brought into contact is heated and fused by a high-temperature heating source such as an oxygen-hydrogen flame, and further stretched to form a fused stretched portion 5. By the above operation, the optical fiber coupler 12 shown in FIG. 1 is manufactured. The fusion-stretched portion 5 of the optical fiber coupler 12 manufactured as described above is reinforced by a method such as hardening with a synthetic resin as necessary.

The optical fiber coupler 12 of this example is formed by fusing and extending the optical fiber 2 of the optical fiber ribbon 10 and the optical fiber 14 of the single optical fiber 13 to form the fusion extending portion 5.
Since the optical fiber 2 other than the one used as the coupler is provided in the optical fiber ribbon 10, optical communication with the optical fiber coupler can be performed by the same optical fiber ribbon 10.

[Effect of the Invention] Since the optical fiber of the optical fiber tape and the optical fiber of the optical fiber single fiber are fusion-stretched to form a fusion-stretched portion, an optical fiber other than the one used as a coupler is used for the optical fiber tape. Since the optical fiber coupler is provided in the core, the optical fiber coupler and the optical communication can be performed by the same optical fiber tape.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an optical fiber coupler showing an embodiment of the present invention. 12 ... Optical fiber coupler 2,15 ... Optical fiber 10 ... Optical fiber tape core wire 5 ... Fused extension. 13 …… Single optical fiber

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshio Kikuchi 1440, Mukurosaki, Sakura-shi, Chiba Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd.Sakura Plant (72) Inventor Hirohisa Fujimoto 1440, Mutsuzaki, Sakura-shi, Chiba Prefecture Inside the Sakura Plant, Fujikura Electric Cable Co., Ltd. JP-A-1-120510 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G02B 6/28

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An optical fiber exposed by removing a coating of an optical fiber ribbon obtained by bundling a plurality of optical fibers in a tape shape, and an optical fiber exposed by removing a coating of an optical fiber single fiber. An optical fiber coupler formed by fusing and stretching to form a fused and stretched portion.