POSITIONING BLOCK, OPTICAL POSITIONING SYSTEM AND METHOD BASED ON POSITIONING BLOCK, AND FUNCTIONAL MODULE

Abstract

Provided are a positioning block, an optical positioning system and method based on a positioning block, and a functional module. The positioning system includes a bottom board with a horizontal upper surface and at least one backrest body having a straight positioning side, and several positioning blocks for carrying and positioning an optical assembly. A movable carrying board may be further added to the bottom board. Positioning of vertical direction is implemented by closely attaching the bottom of the positioning block to the bottom board or carrying board, and positioning of horizontal direction is implemented by attaching the side surfaces of the positioning block to the positioning sides of the backrest bodies. According to different light path designs, an optical functional assembly is carried on a square block for positioning; the center points of all optical assemblies are enabled to be at a same height through a connection structure, and a light emitting assembly enables emitted light to be parallel to the side surface and the bottom surface of the positioning block through mechanical adjustment, and the center points of other optical assemblies are at the same height as the emitted light. In this way, basically accurate positioning of an optical system can be achieved.

Claims

1. A positioning block for use in an optical positioning system, wherein the positioning block comprises a bottom surface, an upper surface for carrying an optical assembly, and at least one positioning side surface.

2. The positioning block of claim 1, wherein the positioning side surface includes two positioning side surfaces perpendicular to each other.

3. The positioning block of claim 1, wherein a magnet is embedded into the bottom surface.

4. The positioning block of claim 1, comprising four side surfaces perpendicular to the bottom surface, wherein a horizontal section is a rectangle.

5. The positioning block of claim 4, wherein the positioning block is made of a magnetic material and a magnet is embedded into the four side surfaces respectively.

6. The positioning block of claim 5, wherein positions of the four side surfaces for embedding magnets are off-centered to be at left or right side, and polar directions of different embedded magnets are same.

7. An optical positioning system based on a positioning block, comprising a bottom board with a horizontal upper surface, at least one backrest body and several positioning blocks for carrying and positioning an optical functional component, wherein the backrest body and the bottom board are fixed together or not, the backrest body has at least one straight positioning side, and the positioning block comprises a bottom surface, an upper surface for carrying an optical assembly, and at least one positioning side surface; the positioning side surface of the positioning block is attached to the positioning side of the backrest body.

8. The optical positioning system of claim 7, wherein the backrest body and the bottom board are fixed together, a carrying board is present on the bottom board, and a side of the carrying board is attached to the positioning side of the backrest body.

9. The optical positioning system of claim 7, wherein the bottom board is made of a magnetic material and a magnet is embedded into the bottom surface of the positioning block.

10. The optical positioning system of claim 8, wherein the carrying board is made of a magnetic material and a magnet is embedded into the bottom surface of the positioning block.

11. The optical positioning system of claim 7, wherein the backrest body has at least two positioning sides perpendicular to each other and the positioning sides perpendicular to each other are located on a same backrest body or different backrest bodies.

12. The optical positioning system of claim 11, wherein the positioning block has two positioning side surfaces perpendicular to each other.

13. The optical positioning system of claim 11, wherein the positioning block is a square block structure, the side surfaces of the square block are perpendicular to the bottom surface and attached to the positioning sides of the backrest body or the side surfaces of different square blocks, top surfaces of some or all of the square blocks carry the optical functional component, a horizontal section of the square block is a rectangle, and the horizontal sections of different square blocks are same in size or modular-designed into rectangles of different sizes.

14. The optical positioning system of claim 13, wherein the square block is made of a magnetic material and a magnet is embedded into the four side surfaces respectively.

15. The optical positioning system of claim 14, wherein the position of the four side surfaces of the square block is off-centered to be at left or right side, and polar directions of different embedded magnet are same.

16. The optical positioning system of claim 7 or 8, wherein the positioning block is closely attached to the bottom board or the carrying board by glue.

17. The optical positioning system of claim 13, wherein close attaching is achieved between square blocks, and between the square block and the bottom board or the carrying board by glue.

18. A method of positioning an optical system based on a positioning block, wherein vertical positioning is achieved by closely attaching the bottom portion of the positioning block to the bottom board or the carrying board, and horizontal positioning is achieved by closely attaching the side surface of the positioning block to the backrest body; according to different light path designs, an optical functional assembly is carried on a square block for positioning; the center points of all functional assemblies are enabled to be at a same height through a connection structure, and a light emitting assembly enables emitted light to be parallel to the sides and the bottom surface of the positioning square block through mechanical adjustment, and the center points of other optical assemblies have the same height as the emitted light.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the positioning block is a square block structure, the side surfaces of the square block are perpendicular to the bottom surface and attached to the positioning sides of the backrest body or the side surfaces of different square blocks, top surfaces of some or all of the square blocks carry the optical functional component, a horizontal section of the square block is a rectangle, and the horizontal sections of different square blocks are same in size or modular-designed into rectangles of different sizes; horizontal positioning is achieved by attaching the side surfaces of the square block to the backrest body and to the side surfaces of the adjacent square blocks.

20. The method of claim 18 or 19, wherein fixing is achieved between the positioning block and the bottom board or the carrying board and between the mutually-attached positioning blocks by magnetic adsorption.

21. The method of claim 18 or 19, wherein fixing is achieved between the positioning block and the bottom board or the carrying board and between the mutually-attached positioning blocks by glue.

22. An functional module based on a positioning block, comprising: a bottom board, or a carrying board, several positioning blocks as in of claim 1 on the bottom board or the carrying board, and an optical assembly carried on some or all positioning blocks; connection is achieved for the positioning block and the bottom board or the carrying board by magnetic adsorption or glue.

23. The functional module of claim 22, wherein the mutually-attached positioning blocks are connected by magnetic adsorption or glue.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] FIG. 1 is a top view of an embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0033] FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram of an embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0034] FIG. 3 is a top view of an embodiment 2-1 of the present invention.

[0035] FIG. 4 is a perspective diagram of an embodiment 2-1 of the present invention.

[0036] FIG. 5 is a perspective diagram of an embodiment 2-2 of the present invention.

[0037] FIG. 6 is a perspective diagram of an embodiment 3-1 of the present invention.

[0038] FIG. 7 is a perspective diagram of an embodiment 3-2 of the present invention.

[0039] In the drawings, numerals are described below: 1. positioning plate, 11. bottom board, 12 backrest body, 2. square block (positioning square block), 21. magnet, 3. carrying board, 4. collimator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0040] In combination with the accompanying drawings, the embodiments of the present invention are described below in details. In the descriptions, a positioning block, a positioning system and method and a functional module are described in the positioning system. The optical assemblies in the embodiments are, for example, collimators, but it does not mean the optical assemblies in the present invention are limited to the collimators. The present invention may be applied to all optical assemblies positioned using the technology of the present invention.

Embodiment 1-1

[0041] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, provided is an optical positioning system based on a positioning block. The system includes: a positioning plate 1 and two positioning blocks 2 for positioning. The positioning plate 1 consists of a bottom board 11 with a horizontal upper surface, and a backrest body with a straight inner side as positioning side. The square block 2 includes one bottom surface and one positioning side surface. The upper surface is used to carry an optical assembly which is a collimator in the present embodiment.

[0042] The positioning method of the positioning system in this embodiment is as follows: the bottom board 11 of the positioning plate 1 is used as a positioning reference of vertical direction (height), and the positioning side of the backrest body 12 on the bottom board 11 is used as a positioning reference of two horizontal directions. The bottom surface of the positioning block is attached to the upper surface of the bottom board 11 to realize positioning of vertical direction. The positioning side surface of the positioning block is attached to the positioning side of the backrest body to realize positioning of horizontal direction. Two positioning blocks 2 carry collimators 4 mutually coupled, and an optical axes of the collimator 4 are parallel to the positioning side surfaces of respective positioning blocks 2 and equally distant from it H=h (FIG. 1). The heights of the optical axes of the collimators 4 are set to be same. In this case, the optical axes of the two collimators 4 are positioned on a same horizontal straight line which is parallel to the bottom board and the positioning side of the backrest body. As seen from the drawing, the sizes and sectional shapes of the positioning blocks in the embodiment are not required to be consistent. The important is that the optical axis of the optical assembly is parallel to the positioning side surface of the positioning block and equally distant from the positioning side surface.

[0043] In order to achieve reliable attaching and positioning of the positioning block 2 and the bottom board 11, the bottom board 11 is made of a magnetic material, and a magnet (not shown) is embedded into the bottom surface of the positioning block 2, such that the positioning block is adsorbed fixedly onto the bottom board. Alternatively, the bottom board 11 may not be made of a magnetic material, and the positioning block 2 and the bottom board 11 are fixed together by glue. After fixing is performed using any one of the above methods, the backrest body may be removed or not removed (when the backrest body and the bottom board are not separable), so as to form the functional module of the present invention.

Embodiment 1-2

[0044] This embodiment does not have accompanying drawings and reference may be made be made to FIG. 5 of the embodiment 2-2.

[0045] In this embodiment, the backrest body and the bottom board are not separable. It differs from the embodiment 1-1 in that a movable carrying board 3 is added on the bottom board, and one side of the carrying board 3 is attached to the positioning side of the backrest body 12. The bottom surface of the positioning block 3 is attached to the carrying board 3.

[0046] In this embodiment, the positioning plate 1 is made of a non-magnetic material and the carrying board 3 is made of a magnetic material. In this case, the square blocks 2 and the carrying board 3 are adsorbed mutually to form one piece. The square blocks 2 are not adsorbed to the positioning plate, such that the carrying board 3, the square blocks 2 and the optical functional assembly can be easily removed from the positioning plate, so as to form an independent functional module. The positioning blocks 2 and the carrying board 3 may also be fixed together by glue, such that the carrying board 3, the square blocks 2 and the optical functional assembly can be easily removed from the positioning plate, so as to form an independent functional module.

Embodiment 2-1

[0047] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, provided is an optical positioning system based on a positioning block. The system includes a positioning plate 1 and several positioning blocks for positioning. The positioning plate 1 consists of a bottom board 11 with a horizontal upper surface, and mutually-paralleled backrest bodies 12 with straight inner sides. In the drawings, each square block 2 has a plane which is a square of same size, and the plane may also be modular-designed, namely, with a square with a minimum side length as a basic unit, the plane can be designed into a rectangle or square with a length or width being integer multiples of the minimum side length.

[0048] The square block 2 is made of a magnetic stainless steel or another magnetic material and integrally formed. A magnet 21 is embedded into each side surface of the square block 2. The magnet 21 is off-centered to be at left or right side, and polar directions of different magnets 21 are same (i.e. all are N pole or S pole externally).

[0049] The positioning method using the positioning system of the embodiment is as follows: the bottom board 11 of the positioning plate 1 is used as a positioning reference of vertical direction (height), and two side backrest bodies 12 on the bottom board 11 are used as a positioning reference of two horizontal directions. Positioning of vertical direction is implemented by closely attaching the bottom of the square block 1 to the bottom board 11, and positioning of horizontal direction is implemented by attaching the side surfaces of the square block 1 to the backrest bodies and mutually attaching side surfaces of adjacent square blocks. Because each side surface of the square block 2 is embedded with the magnet 21, adjacent square blocks 2 can be mutually adsorbed to achieve close attaching. Furthermore, because the magnet 21 in the side surface is not centered in the side surface but disposed staggeredly and the external magnetic poles of the magnets 22 are same, the square blocks can be normally adsorbed mutually when they are placed in a forward direction, thereby achieving close attaching.

[0050] The bottom board 11 and the backrest body 12 may also be made of a magnetic solid material, and a magnet is also imbedded into the bottom surface of the square block 2 (not shown). In this way, the square blocks may also be closely attached to the bottom board 11 and the backrest bodies 12 by use of magnetic adsorption.

[0051] According to different light path designs, an optical functional assembly of upper layer is carried on a square block 2 for positioning; the optical functional assemblies of upper layer enable the center points of all functional assemblies to be at a same height through a connection structure, and a light emitting assembly (for example, laser and collimator and the like) enables emitted light to be parallel to the side surface and the bottom surface of the positioning square block through mechanical adjustment, and the center points of other optical assemblies are at the same height as the emitted light. Further, by adjusting an optical fiber assembly, the light will not change its position and angle after passing through the assembly. In this case, light emitted from one light emitting assembly may smoothly enter the final optical functional assembly such as collimator and detector after passing through several optical assemblies. Various optical functional assemblies are designed such that relative to the upper surface of the square block, the light emitting or light incidence positions have the same height and the horizontal positions are also consistent. According to the requirements of light path, several square blocks carrying the optical functional assembly are placed at the corresponding positions of the square block array on the bottom board, so as to achieve basically accurate positioning of the optical system. Then, some fine adjustments are made to the optical functional assembly to achieve a desired accurate positioning (if required, some micro-adjustment mechanisms may be added to the square blocks to further improve the aligning accuracy and coupling efficiency.).

[0052] In this embodiment, a collimator 4 is taken as an example. FIG. 3 is a top view illustrating one collimator light path at the upper and lower rows respectively. FIG. 4 is a perspective diagram where the collimator of the lower row is removed from FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, there are three square blocks at the upper row, there is a pair of coupled collimators 4 located on the square blocks 2 of both ends, and the square block 2 in middle does not carry an optical functional assembly but serves to lengthen the light path. A pair of coupled collimators is fixed on two adjacent square blocks at the lower row. Seen from the FIGS. 3 and 4, the square blocks 2 have same width and are aligned and attached to each other, and the coupled collimators 4 are mounted at the same position of the square blocks 2 and disposed to be opposed to each other along a direction parallel to the sides of the square blocks 2. Therefore, the coupled collimators 4 naturally achieve horizontal alignment. With the connection structure, the coupled collimators 4 are also aligned for their center points in height direction (vertical).

Embodiment 2-2

[0053] As shown in FIG. 5, this embodiment differs from the embodiment 2-1 in that a movable carrying board 3 is added to the bottom board, and two sides of the carrying board 3 which are perpendicular to each other are attached to the backrest bodies 12. The bottom surface of the square block 2 is attached to the carrying board 3.

[0054] In this embodiment, the positioning plate 1 is made of a non-magnetic material and the carrying board is made of a magnetic material. In this case, the square blocks 2 and the carrying board 3 are adsorbed to each other to form one piece, and no adsorption is present between the carrying board 3 and the positioning plate. In this way, the carrying board 3, the square blocks 2 and the optical functional assembly can be wholly removed from the positioning plate to form an independent functional module.

Embodiment 3-1

[0055] As shown in FIG. 6, this embodiment differs from the embodiment 2-1 in that the square block 2 does not have magnet. The close attaching of the square blocks 2 is achieved by glue bonding. Further, the square blocks may also be closely attached to the backrest bodies and the bottom board by glue.

[0056] This embodiment is mainly used in a light path using a super-miniature optical functional assembly. The square block 2 required herein has a very small volume and therefore it is difficult to process another structure thereon. Of course, this structure may also be applied to the square blocks 2 of different sizes, and not limited to a very small size. The glue may be a degradable or dissolvable glue to facilitate secondary dismounting and reassembly. This structure will bring the following advantages: (1) material selection is freer and a metal or non-metal material which is difficult to deform and easy to process may be selected, such as aluminum alloy, quartz, mono-crystalline silicon and porcelain; (2) after being fixed with glue, the bonded square blocks may be wholly removed from the positioning plate 1 to form an independent small module; or, the positioning plate 1 and the square blocks 2 which are bonded to form a large piece and the light path form an independent small module entirely.

[0057] The carrying and pre-alignment of the optical functional assembly are same as the embodiment 1-1. FIG. 6 is also described with the coupled collimators 4 as an example, as in FIG. 5 and is same as the embodiment 1-1. Therefore, no redundant descriptions are made herein.

Embodiment 3-2

[0058] As shown in FIG. 7, this embodiment differs from the embodiment 3-1 in that a movable carrying board 3 is added to the bottom board and two sides of the carrying board 3 which are perpendicular to each other are attached to the backrest bodies 12. The bottom surface of the square block 2 is attached to the carrying board 3. Glue bonding is performed between the square blocks 2 and between the square block 2 and the carrying board. After fixing is performed with glue, the carrying board 3, the square blocks 2 and the optical functional assembly can be removed wholly from the positioning plate to form an independent functional module.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

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FREE TEXT OF SEQUENCE TABLE

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