JPS5822306B2 - Optical fiber end face bevel processing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement in a method for bevelling the end face of an optical fiber that is held with its end face exposed in a ferrule in optical connectors, optical devices, and the like.

Conventionally, when processing the end face of an optical fiber that is held with the end face exposed in a ferrule at an angle, a processing method using surface polishing has been widely adopted.

A ferrule processed by this method is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is a front view, and FIG. 2 is a side view, where 1 is a ferrule and 2 is an optical fiber.

In this case, most of the end face of the ferrule 1 including the optical fiber 2 is polished at an angle θ, and the vertical plane part 3 of the end face becomes extremely narrow and partially offset in the circumferential direction. In the case where the end faces of a pair of ferrules are butted against each other, there is a drawback that the abutment becomes unstable.

Furthermore, with this processing method, it is troublesome to change the inclination angle and direction during processing.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and is an optical fiber whose end face can be tilted in any direction and at any angle, and which can stabilize the abutting of the ferrule after the end face bevel processing. The purpose is to provide processing methods.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3-8.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing how to tilt the end face of the optical fiber exposed on the end face of the ferrule by the optical fiber end face tilting method according to the present invention. In the figure, 11 is a grindstone having a spherical processed surface 12. be.

The ferrule 1 is set on a support stand (not shown), and its center line (center line of the optical fiber) 0, -0 is set on a grindstone 11.
The end face 13 is in contact with the processed surface 12 of the grindstone 11 in a state where it is eccentric by δ with respect to the zero rotation center axis 0□-0□.

In this state, by rotating the grindstone 11 around the rotation center axis 02-0□0, the portion of the end face 13 containing the optical fiber can be polished into a spherical surface. By swinging the whetstone 110 in the directions of arrows A and A' about the center 0 of the whetstone
It is possible to prevent one-sided slippage and improve polishing efficiency.

An end face of the ferrule 1 processed in this manner is shown in FIG. 4, and a sectional view taken along the line V--I is shown in FIG.

In the figure, 14 is a spherical processed part.

By this spherical processing, the end surface of the optical fiber 2 is processed into a substantially planar shape (the larger the radius R of the grindstone 110 is, the closer it becomes to a planar surface), and the angle that the processed end surface makes with the end surface 13 of the ferrule 1 is θ.

Furthermore, as is clear from the comparison between FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, in this example, the vertical plane portion of the end face 13 is wider than the conventional
and remains in the entire circumferential direction.

The following relationship holds true between θ, δ, and R.

As is clear from this equation, the radius R eccentricity δ of the grindstone 11
A desired inclination angle θ can be obtained by appropriately selecting .

Incidentally, the eccentricity δ and the angle α shown in FIG. 4 (the angle between the end face center line passing through the reference position B of the ferrule 10 and the line passing through the center of the optical fiber 2 and the center of the spherical processing) support the ferrule. By making the support stand movable in the X direction of Figure 3 and in the X direction perpendicular to the X direction and perpendicular to the paper plane of the diagram, and by performing this movement using a micrometer method, any value can be set easily and accurately. It is possible.

Other embodiments are shown in FIGS. 6 and 8.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 15 denotes a grindstone, and the grindstone 15 has a cylindrical processing surface 16 as shown in FIG.
Rotate around -03.

The ferrule 1 is set on a support stand as in the previous example, and its center line 0□-0□ is set on a grindstone 150 as shown in FIG.
The end face 13 is in contact with the processed surface 16 of the grindstone 15 in a state where it is eccentric by δ with respect to the rotation center axis 03-03.

In this state, by rotating the grindstone 15 around the rotation center axis 03-03, the portion of the end face 13 containing the optical fiber can be ground into a cylindrical surface.

In this case, by reciprocating the support base that supports the ferrule 1 in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG.
It is possible to prevent one-sided slippage and improve the polishing effect.

In the case of this example, as in the previous example, the larger the diameter of the grindstone 15, the closer the end face of the polished optical fiber becomes to a flat surface, and by appropriately selecting R2δ, a desired inclination angle can be obtained.

Furthermore, as is clear from the comparison between the end surface of the processed ferrule 1 shown in FIG. 8 and the end surface of FIG. 2, the vertical plane portion of the end surface 13 remains wider than in the conventional case and remains in substantially the entire direction.

In the figure, 17 is a cylindrical surface processed portion.

In this case as well, the angle β shown in FIG. Of course, it can be set to

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily and accurately tilt the end face of a holding member such as a ferrule that holds an optical fiber, including the optical fiber, in any direction and at any angle. During this end face slanting process, the vertical portion of the end face of the holding member is left wide over almost the entire circumference (in the case of the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, it is left over the entire periphery), so that the end face of the holding member is butted during assembly after the end face slanting process is completed. It has various excellent effects such as stabilization of

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are a front view and a side view of a ferrule whose end surface is inclined by a conventional method, and FIGS.
The figure shows an embodiment of the optical fiber end face bevel processing method according to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a front view showing the end face bevel processing procedure;
Fig. 4 is a side view of the same, Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line v-■ in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 is a front view showing another end face machining procedure, Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the same grindstone, and Fig. 8 is a It is the same side view. In the figure, 1 is a ferrule (holding member), 2 is an optical fiber,
11.15 is a grindstone, 12.16 is a processed surface, 13 is an end surface,
14 is a spherical surface processed portion, and 17 is a cylindrical surface processed portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The end face of the optical fiber held by the holding member with the end face exposed is brought into contact with the outer peripheral processed surface of the rotary grindstone so that the center line of the optical fiber is eccentric with respect to the rotation center axis of the rotary grindstone. An optical fiber end face inclination processing method characterized in that a portion of the end face including an exposed portion of the optical fiber is processed.