Ferrule assembly, method for manufacturing a ferrule assembly and optical fiber fixing mold

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a low loss ferrule assembly having prefabricated optical fibers, a low loss ferrule assembly having prefabricated optical fibers manufactured according to the method and an optical fiber fixing mold for manufacturing the ferrule assembly, wherein a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly comprises: disposing both ends of a plurality of optical fibers within a plurality of grooves at both ends of an optical fiber fixing mold, such that the plurality of optical fibers maintain a specific distance therebetween; disposing the plurality of optical fibers within a housing, and causing the plurality of optical fibers to be fixed relative to the housing, wherein the housing is of a split type; cutting and polishing the optical fibers at a first side of the housing. The solution provided by the present disclosure implements the ferrule assembly of the high-precision optical fiber connector with low costs. The method is simple and effective and has great use value.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly, comprising: disposing fiber cores of a plurality of optical fibers within a plurality of grooves at each of two ends of an optical fiber fixing mold, such that the plurality of optical fibers maintain a specific distance therebetween; disposing the plurality of optical fibers within a housing positioned within an opening of the optical fiber fixing mold, the opening being positioned between the grooves of one of the ends and the grooves of the other of the ends, and causing the plurality of optical fibers to be fixed relative to the housing; and cutting and polishing the optical fibers at a first side of the housing.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein disposing the fiber cores includes: disposing a plurality of cladded optical fibers having a cladding layer into a fixture; stripping off the cladding layer at both ends of the plurality of cladded optical fibers to expose the fiber cores; disposing the fixture into the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold; and applying a tensile force at both ends of the plurality of optical fibers, such that the optical fibers are drawn straight within the grooves on opposite sides of the opening.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: generating the plurality of grooves in the optical fiber fixing mold through nanometer etching, such that the plurality of grooves maintain a specific distance therebetween, wherein the plurality of grooves are V-shaped grooves or U-shaped grooves.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein disposing the plurality of optical fibers within a housing includes: disposing guide elements at two sides of the plurality of optical fibers; removing the fixture, and mounting the plurality of optical fibers and guide elements in the housing; filling a curable body into a gap between the plurality of optical fibers and the housing; curing the curable body through ultraviolet irradiation, such that the plurality of optical fibers are fixed relative to the housing; and removing the guide elements.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein filling a curable body includes: filling the curable body into the gap between the plurality of optical fibers and the housing by injection or by using a capillary phenomenon.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the curable body is epoxy resin.

7. A high-precision ferrule assembly, wherein the ferrule assembly is manufactured according to a method of claim 1.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the housing is a split type housing.

9. A method of manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly, comprising: inserting a plurality of optical fibers into at least one optical fiber hole of a housing; positioning fiber cores of the plurality of optical fibers into a plurality of grooves at each of two ends of an optical fiber fixing mold, such that the plurality of optical fibers maintain a specific distance therebetween, and such that the housing is positioned within an opening of the optical fiber fixing mold, the opening being positioned between the grooves of one of the ends and the grooves of the other of the ends; causing the plurality of optical fibers to be fixed relative to the housing; and cutting and polishing the optical fibers at a first side of the housing.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the grooves are provided on two opposite sections of the optical fiber fixing mold on opposite sides of the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold; the method further including: applying a tensile force to both ends of the plurality of optical fibers, such that the plurality of optical fibers are drawn straight within the grooves on both of the two opposite sections.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising: generating the plurality of grooves in the optical fiber fixing mold through nanometer etching such that the plurality of grooves maintain a specific distance, wherein the plurality of grooves are V-shaped grooves or U-shaped grooves.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein causing the plurality of optical fibers to be fixed relative to the housing, includes: filling a curable body in a gap between the plurality of optical fibers and the housing; and curing the curable body through ultraviolet irradiation, such that the plurality of optical fibers are fixed relative to the housing.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein filling a curable body, includes: filling the curable body into the gap by injection and/or by use of a capillary phenomenon.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the curable body is epoxy resin.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the housing is an integral type housing.

16. A method, comprising: providing a mainboard, the mainboard including pairs of aligned grooves on opposite sides of an opening of the mainboard; positioning optical fibers in the grooves on both of the opposite sides of the opening; positioning a ferrule housing in the opening such that portions of the optical fibers are positioned within the ferrule housing; applying a tensile force to the optical fibers in the grooves on both of the opposite sides of the opening; fixing the optical fibers relative to the ferrule housing; and cutting the optical fibers at a first side of the ferrule housing.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the fixing the optical fibers includes injecting an adhesive into the ferrule housing and curing the adhesive.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the housing is a split-type housing, and the method includes connecting portions of the ferrule housing to each other about the optical fibers.

19. A method, comprising: providing a mainboard, the mainboard including pairs of aligned grooves on opposite sides of an opening of the mainboard; positioning portions of optical fibers in a ferrule housing; positioning the ferrule housing in the opening; positioning other portions of the optical fibers in the grooves on both of the opposite sides of the opening; applying a tensile force to the optical fibers in the grooves on both of the opposite sides of the opening; fixing the optical fibers relative to the ferrule housing; and cutting the optical fibers at a first side of the ferrule housing.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the fixing the optical fibers includes injecting an adhesive into the ferrule housing and curing the adhesive.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the housing is an integral-type housing.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising inserting guide elements into the housing on opposite sides of the optical fibers.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising positioning the guide elements in aligned guide element grooves defined by the mainframe on both of the opposite sides of the opening, the aligned guide element grooves being sized differently than the aligned grooves.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Through the detailed description of the non-restrictive embodiments with reference to the following drawings, other features, objectives and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent.

(2) FIG. 1 illustrates an optical fiber fixing mold for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure;

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure;

(4) FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a flow of for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure;

(5) FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a further method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure;

(6) FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a further flow for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure;

(7) FIG. 6 illustrates a split type housing according to the present disclosure; and

(8) FIG. 7 illustrates an integral type housing according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(9) In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments below, reference is made to the attached drawings that constitute a part of the present disclosure. The attached drawings illustrate specific embodiments that can implement the present disclosure by way of examples. The example embodiments do not aim to exhaustively disclose all embodiments of the present disclosure. It can be understood that other embodiments can be utilized without deviating from the scope of the present disclosure, and structural or logic modifications can be made. Therefore, the following detailed description is not restrictive and the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the attached claims.

(10) As used herein, the term “includes” and its variants are to be read as open-ended terms that mean “includes, but is not limited to.” The term “based on” is to be read as “based at least in part on.” The term “one embodiment” is to be read as “at least one embodiment.” The term “a further embodiment” is to be read as “at least one further embodiment.” Definitions related to other terms will be provided in the following description.

(11) To cover the shortage of production and manufacture field of optical fiber connectors, the present disclosure recommends a simple and effective method for manufacturing a high precision ferrule assembly. The basic idea of the method is causing optical fibers in the ferrule assembly to maintain a specific distance therebetween by a plurality of grooves in the optical fiber fixing mold, and then fixating the optical fibers inside a housing of the ferrule assembly via a curable body. As the groove of the optical fiber fixing mold is made by nanometer etching, the distance between the grooves can keep at a very high precision, which greatly reduces machining error of the ferrule assembly of the optical fiber connector. We will explain the present in details below.

(12) While introducing a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly, we will first introduce an optical fiber fixing mold 100 for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly. As shown in FIG. 1, the optical fiber fixing mold 100 comprises a mainboard 102 having an opening 104 in the middle. In some embodiments, the mainboard 102 and the opening 104 are rectangular shaped.

(13) A first section 102-1 and a second section 102-2 of the mainboard 102 comprise slots 106 disposed equidistantly, and a plurality of grooves 106 of the first section 102-1 and a plurality of grooves 106 of the second section 102-2 are respectively aligned, such that when both ends of the optical fiber are placed on the grooves 106, the optical fibers can maintain a specific distance therebetween. In a specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fiber placed in the grooves 106 respectively are: a cladding layer-removed bare fiber core and a fiber core with a cladding layer. In another specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fiber placed in the grooves 106 are cladding layer-removed bare fiber cores.

(14) To maintain the inter-optical fiber distance at a higher precision, the grooves are made by nanometer etching technology, so the distance between the grooves has an extremely high precision. In some embodiments, the distance between the grooves 106 is set according to the fiber core distance required by the ferrule assembly specification, i.e., the error of the distance between a plurality of grooves complies with the precision requirement for inter-optical fiber distance in the ferrule assembly. In some embodiments, the grooves 106 are U-shaped grooves or V-shaped grooves.

(15) In some embodiments, the optical fiber fixing mold 100 also comprises a fastening member (not shown) for pressing a bare fiber core or a fiber core with a cladding layer onto the mainboard 102, which assists the optical fiber fixing mold 100 to firmly hold onto the optical fiber.

(16) In some embodiments, the first section 102-1 and the second section 102-2 of the optical fiber fixing mold 100 also comprise two pairs of guide grooves 108 respectively disposed at two sides of the plurality of grooves 106. The guide grooves 108 are used for locating positions of guide elements, such that the located guide elements can align the housing with the optical fiber fixing mold 100. The guide grooves 108 can be U-shaped grooves or V-shaped grooves.

(17) The method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly using the above optical fiber fixing mold 100 according to the present disclosure will be introduced in details. FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure.

(18) As shown, both ends of a plurality of optical fibers are placed within a plurality of grooves 106 at both ends of the optical fiber fixing mold 100 at step 205, such that the plurality of optical fibers maintains a specific distance therebetween. Because the grooves 106 are made by nanometer etching, the optical fibers can be accurately located through the grooves. The grooves are U-shaped grooves or V-shaped grooves.

(19) At step 210, the plurality of optical fibers is disposed in the housing, such that the plurality of optical fibers is fixed relative to the housing. Specifically, the optical fibers located via grooves can be fixated in the housing of the ferrule assembly through a curable body, so as to ensure that the position of the optical fiber in the ferrule assembly has a higher precision, wherein the housing is a split type and can be split into an upper part and a lower part as shown in FIG. 6. The upper part and the lower part can form an integral housing through a latching member in the housing.

(20) At step 215, the optical fibers at a first side of the housing are cut and polished. To be specific, the optical fiber at an interface port of the fiber core is clipped and the optical fiber at the clipped side is polished, so as to generate a high-precision ferrule assembly.

(21) Steps 205, 210 and 215 will be further elaborated through a specific embodiment with reference to FIG. 3.

(22) At step 301, a plurality of optical fibers having a cladding layer is cut out according to a specific length, wherein the length can be set based on the dimension of the optical fiber fixing mold, for example, the length is at least greater than a length of the mainboard of the optical fiber fixing mold. In some embodiments, the optical fiber having a cladding layer has a diameter of 200 μm.

(23) At step 302, a plurality of optical fibers having a cladding layer is placed in a fixture. This step mainly functions as preliminarily locating distance between optical fibers and maintaining the optical fibers by the fixture, to facilitate moving the optical fibers. To be specific, a middle portion of the plurality of optical fibers having cladding layer is clamped by the fixture, such that the optical fibers are fixated at a spacing distance. It can be appreciated that the spacing distance between the optical fibers has certain errors as the precision of the fixture is not high enough. In some embodiments, the distance is 0.25 mm.

(24) At step 303, at least strip off a cladding layer of a cut and polished end in both ends of the plurality of optical fibers to expose a fiber core. Specifically, a cladding layer of at least one of the both ends of the plurality optical fibers is stripped off, such that the fiber core exposed has a predetermined length. In some embodiments, the fiber core, after removing the cladding layer, has a diameter of 125 μm. In some embodiments, the cladding layers at both ends of the optical fiber are stripped off.

(25) At step 304, the fixture is placed in the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold. To be specific, the fixture holding a plurality of optical fibers is placed in the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold, such that both ends of the optical fibers are respectively disposed on the grooves of the first section and the second section of the optical fiber fixing mold, wherein the grooves on the first section and the second section is in one-to-one correspondence.

(26) In a specific embodiment, the both ends of the optical fiber respectively are: a cladding layer-removed bare fiber core and a fiber core with cladding layer. In another specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fibers are cladding layer-removed bare fiber cores.

(27) At step 305, a tensile force is applied at both ends of the plurality of optical fibers, such that the optical fibers are drawn straight and both ends of each optical fiber are disposed within a pair of corresponding grooves, respectively. Specifically, a tensile force parallel with the mainboard of the optical fiber fixing mold is applied at both ends of the optical fibers, such that the optical fibers are in a strained state and the fiber cores respectively fall in one groove by means of the tension on the fiber core. Then the fixture is removed and guide elements are mounted within the guide grooves at both ends of the plurality of optical fibers. In some specific embodiments, the optical fibers may be pressed onto the mainboard by the fastening member of the optical fiber fixing mold, so as to ensure that the optical fibers can be disposed in the grooves.

(28) At step 306, the plurality of optical fibers and guide elements are mounted in the housing. To be specific, the housing consists of two parts, i.e., an upper housing and a lower housing. The two parts of the housing are engaged respectively from an upper side and a lower side of the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold, so as to dispose the optical fibers and the guide elements in the housing, thereby acquiring an assembled ferrule assembly; wherein the guide elements enable the housing to correctly align with the optical fiber fixing mold, such that the optical fibers are mounted in a correct position of the housing.

(29) At step 307, the curable body is filled in a gap between the optical fiber and the housing. Specifically, the curable body is filled into the gap between the optical fiber and the housing by injection manner and/or using a capillary phenomenon. In some embodiments, an injection hole can be disposed above the upper housing, which injection hole is connected with a gap between the optical fiber and the housing for injecting the curable body into the gap between the optical fiber and the housing. The curable body is liquid form and can be cured through further processing (e.g., ultraviolet irradiation or heating). In some embodiments, the curable body is epoxy resin (Epoxy). To avoid changing the position of the optical fiber in the ferrule assembly due to movement, the ferrule assembly that has been injected with the curable body is irradiated by ultraviolet to pre-cure the curable body, such that the position of the optical fiber is roughly fixated.

(30) At step 308, the ferrule assembly is removed from the optical fiber fixing mold and the curable body is further cured by ultraviolet.

(31) At step 309, the guide elements are removed from the ferrule assembly and an end of the ferrule assembly is further cut, such the cut fiber optical fiber is flush with a housing face of the housing. The optical fiber at the cut side is finally polished to manufacture a high-precision ferrule assembly, wherein the cladding layer of the optical fiber at the cut and polished end has been stripped off.

(32) The housing in the above solution is of a split type, i.e., the housing is comprised with an upper part and a lower part. Therefore, during the process of manufacture, the position of the optical fiber is first set and the housing is mounted afterwards. Next, we will introduce a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly with respect to an integral housing. Because the housing is of an integral type, the method needs to first insert the optical fiber into the housing and then adjust the position of the optical fiber. The details are as below:

(33) FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a high-precision ferrule assembly according to the present disclosure.

(34) As shown, a plurality of optical fibers is inserted in the optical fiber holes of the housing at step 405, and the guide elements are inserted in the guide holes of the housing, wherein the housing is of an integral type as shown in FIG. 7, and the optical fibers need to pass through the optical fiber holes of the housing, so as to dispose the optical fibers in the housing.

(35) At step 410, both ends of a plurality of optical fibers are placed within a plurality of grooves 106 at both ends of the optical fiber fixing mold 100, such that the plurality of optical fibers maintains a specific distance therebetween. In a specific embodiment, the both ends of the optical fibers disposed in the grooves 106 respectively are: a cladding layer-removed bare fiber core and a fiber core with a cladding layer. In another specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fibers placed in the grooves 106 are cladding layer-removed bare fiber cores. Because the grooves 106 are made by nanometer etching, the optical fibers can be accurately located through the grooves. The grooves are U-shaped grooves or V-shaped grooves.

(36) At step 415, the plurality of optical fibers is fixed relative to the housing. Specifically, the optical fibers located via grooves can be fixated in the housing of the ferrule assembly through a curable body, so as to ensure that the position of the optical fiber in the ferrule assembly has a higher precision.

(37) At step 420, the optical fibers at a first side of the housing are cut and polished. To be specific, the optical fiber at an interface port of the fiber core is clipped and the optical fiber at the clipped side is polished, so as to generate a high-precision ferrule assembly.

(38) Steps 405, 410, 415 and 420 will be further elaborated through a specific embodiment with reference to FIG. 5.

(39) At step 501, a plurality of optical fibers having a cladding layer is cut out according to a specific length, wherein the length can be set based on the dimension of the optical fiber fixing mold, for example, the length is at least greater than a length of the mainboard of the optical fiber fixing mold. In some embodiments, the optical fiber having a cladding layer has a diameter of 200 μm.

(40) At step 502, a plurality of optical fibers having a cladding layer is placed in a fixture. This step mainly functions as preliminarily locating distance between optical fibers and maintaining the optical fibers by the fixture, to facilitate moving the optical fibers. To be specific, a middle portion of the plurality of optical fibers having a cladding layer is clamped by the fixture, such that the optical fibers are fixated at a spacing distance. It can be appreciated that the spacing distance between the optical fibers has certain errors as the precision of the fixture is not high enough. In some embodiments, the distance is 0.25 mm.

(41) At step 503, at least strip off a cladding layer of a cut and polished end in both ends of the plurality of optical fibers to expose a fiber core. Specifically, a cladding layer of at least one of the both ends of the plurality optical fibers is stripped off, such that the fiber core exposed at both ends of the optical fiber has a predetermined length. In some embodiments, the fiber core, after removing the cladding layer, has a diameter of 125 μm. In some embodiments, the cladding layers at both ends of the optical fiber are stripped off.

(42) At step 504, the fixture is removed, a plurality of optical fibers are inserted in the optical fiber holes of the housing, and the guide elements are inserted in the guide holes of the housing. Specifically, because the optical fibers have been roughly located through the fixture, the optical fibers held by the fixture can be substantially aligned and inserted into the optical fiber holes of the integral housing. However, the spacing distance between the optical fibers is not precise enough.

(43) At step 505, the housing inserted with the optical fibers and the guide elements are disposed in the opening of the optical fiber fixing mold, such that both ends of the optical fibers are respectively placed on the grooves of the first section and the second section of the optical fiber fixing mold, and the guide elements are placed on the guide grooves of the first section and the second section of the optical fiber fixing mold, wherein the grooves and the guide grooves on the first section and the second section are in one-to-one correspondence. The guide elements are to guide the housing to align with the optical fiber fixing mold, such that the optical fibers in the housing are aligned with the grooves on the optical fiber fixing mold.

(44) In a specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fiber respectively are: a cladding layer-removed bare fiber core and a fiber core with cladding layer. In another specific embodiment, both ends of the optical fiber are cladding layer-removed bare fiber cores.

(45) At step 506, a tensile force is applied at both ends of the plurality of optical fibers, such that the optical fibers are drawn straight and both ends of each optical fiber are disposed within a pair of corresponding grooves, respectively. Specifically, a tensile force parallel with the mainboard of the optical fiber fixing mold is applied at both ends of the optical fibers, such that the optical fibers are in a strained state and the fiber cores respectively fall in one groove by means of the tension on the fiber core. In some specific embodiments, the optical fibers may be pressed onto the mainboard by the fastening member of the optical fiber fixing mold, so as to ensure that the optical fibers can be disposed in the grooves.

(46) At step 507, the curable body is filled in a gap between the optical fiber and the housing. Specifically, the curable body is filled into the gap between the optical fiber and the housing by injection manner and/or using a capillary phenomenon. In some embodiments, an injection hole can be disposed above the upper housing, which injection hole is connected with a gap between the optical fiber and the housing for injecting the curable body into the gap between the optical fiber and the housing. The curable body is liquid form and can be cured through further processing (e.g., ultraviolet irradiation or heating). In some embodiments, the curable body is epoxy resin (Epoxy). To avoid changing the position of the optical fiber in the ferrule assembly due to movement, the ferrule assembly that has been injected with the curable body is irradiated with ultraviolet to pre-cure the curable body, such that the position of the optical fiber is roughly fixated.

(47) At step 508, the ferrule assembly is removed from the optical fiber fixing mold and the curable body is further cured by ultraviolet.

(48) At step 509, the guide elements are removed from the ferrule assembly and an end of the ferrule assembly is further cut, such the cut fiber optical fiber is flush with a housing face of the housing. The optical fiber at the cut side is finally polished to manufacture a high-precision ferrule assembly, wherein the cladding layer of the optical fiber at the cut and polished end has been stripped off.

(49) Further, although operations are described in a particular order, it should not be appreciated that it requires that these operations are necessarily performed according to this particular sequence, or a desired outcome can only be achieved by performing all shown operations. In some cases, multi-tasking or parallel processing is beneficial. Likewise, although the above discussion comprises some specific implementation details, they should not be interpreted as restrictions on the scope of any invention of claims. Instead, they should be interpreted as descriptions for a specific embodiment of a specific invention. Some features described in the context of separate embodiments of the present description can be merged in a single embodiment. On the contrary, various features described in the context of the single embodiment can be separately implemented in a plurality of embodiments or any suitable sub-combinations.

(50) For those skilled in the art, it is apparent that the present disclosure is not limited to the details of the above exemplary embodiments, and the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by other specific forms without deviating from the principle or basic features of the present disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments should be regarded as exemplary and non-restrictive anyway. Besides, it is obvious that the term “include” does not exclude other elements and steps and the expression “one” does not exclude plural forms. The plurality of elements stated in the device claims can be implemented by one element. The words “first” and “second” only represent the names and do not indicate any particular order.