JPS5932766B2 - Optical connector positioning structure - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to an improvement in the positioning structure of an optical connector.

Conventional optical fibers used for optical communications have a core diameter of 10
Since it is very thin, about 0 μm, if there is a positional shift in the connection plane when two optical fibers are butt-connected, the loss of optical power will be large.

Therefore, when connecting two optical fibers, it is necessary to precisely match their opposing surfaces. For this reason, various optical connectors have been devised. FIG. 1 shows an example of an optical multi-connector that connects a plurality of optical fibers at the same time. To explain this with a diagram, a plurality of optical fibers 1 are held by an optical fiber alignment member 3 in which a plurality of V-shaped grooves 2 are formed, and this alignment member 3 is attached to a block 4. . The optical fiber is positioned by pressing the side surface 4' of the block 4 against the reference surface 5' of the reference member 5 of the connector. In this case block 4
It is necessary to accurately determine the distance l between the end face 4' of the optical fiber and the optical fiber. Conventionally, this surface was processed by polishing, but it was difficult to achieve high precision. The present invention has been devised to improve this drawback. Therefore, in the optical connector positioning structure of the present invention, a plurality of L-shaped grooves are formed in parallel, and the optical fiber alignment member holding the optical fibers is placed in one groove outside the groove. The optical connector is characterized in that it is fixed by pressing one side of the optical connector against the reference surface of the reference member of the optical connector via an optical fiber or the like.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 2 shows the first embodiment, and Fig. 3 shows the ■-■ of Fig. 2.
A cross-sectional view taken along the line is shown.

To explain this embodiment with reference to the drawings, reference numeral 6 denotes an optical fiber;
7.? ' is a member for aligning optical fibers, 8 is a reference member, 9 is a guide pin with a mating connector, and 10, 10' is a block for holding the members 7, 7' for aligning optical fibers. And optical fiber alignment members 1 and 7! A plurality of V-shaped grooves 11 for holding the optical fibers 6 are precisely formed at equal intervals, and the side ends 7a, 7a' are cut from the center of the V-shaped groove. The optical fiber alignment members 7, 7' hold the optical fibers 6 in their respective grooves 11 and side ends, and the reference member 8
It is held between the blocks 10 and 10' while being pressed against the reference surface 8a in the direction of the arrow EDP. It should be noted that the optical fiber alignment members 7, 7' can have precise dimensional accuracy by forming grooves on a silicon wafer or the like by photo-etching, for example. In this embodiment configured as described above, if the interval between the grooves 11 of the optical fiber alignment members 7 and 7' is accurately machined, the positioning of the optical fiber 6 is equivalent to using the grooves 11 as a reference. Therefore, precise positioning is possible without requiring special processing such as polishing as in the conventional method.

Next, a second embodiment is shown in FIG.

This embodiment differs from the previous embodiment in that a wire rod 12 is used instead of the optical fiber 6 held between the reference surface 8a of the reference member 8 and the side end of the optical fiber alignment member 7, γ. The operation and effect are exactly the same as in the previous embodiment. However, the diameter of the wire 12 needs to be a size that fits the V-shaped groove. As explained above, the positioning structure of the optical connector of the present invention can be easily and easily achieved by using the grooves at the side ends of the optical fiber alignment member, which has a plurality of grooves for aligning and maintaining optical fibers, for positioning the optical fibers. This enables highly accurate positioning.

Note that in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the 2
Although the grooves are formed on both of the alignment members, the grooves may be formed only on one side and the other side may be made flat.

However, in this case, it is necessary to make the depth of the groove deeper than in the case of two grooves.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an example of a conventional positioning structure for an optical connector, FIG. 2 is a front view of a positioning structure for an optical connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a front view of the second embodiment. 6... Optical fiber, 7,7t... Optical fiber alignment member, 8... Reference member, 8a...
...Reference plane, 9...Guide pin, 10,1V
...Prok, 11...V-shaped groove, 1
2...Wire rod.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber alignment member is formed by forming a plurality of V-shaped grooves in parallel and holding optical fibers in the grooves, and using one side of the groove outside the grooves, the optical fibers, etc. are placed on that side. 1. A positioning structure for an optical connector, characterized in that the optical connector is pressed against and fixed to a reference surface of a reference member of the optical connector via a reference member.