Manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus of optical splitters

A manufacturing method of an optical splitter, the method comprising:

• performing first processing that involves mounting a coated optical fiber on a jig configured to store the coated optical fiber, and polishing the coated optical fiber together with the jig until reaching a vicinity of a core of the coated optical fiber or the core of the coated optical fiber;
• performing second processing that involves applying a refractive index matching material having a refractive index smaller than 1.45 onto a polished face of the coated optical fiber on the jig polished in the first processing or onto a polished face of a planar lightwave circuit having been polished in advance until reaching a vicinity of a core or reaching the core, and then bonding the polished faces to each other;
• and
• performing third processing that involves positionally aligning the polished faces bonded with each other in the second processing to fix the polished faces to each other to a position at which a desired splitting ratio is obtained,
• wherein, in the third processing,
• a light receiving element is connected to one end of the core of the planar lightwave circuit, test light of a light intensity corresponding to a minimum light receiving sensitivity of the light receiving element is input to the other end of the core of the planar lightwave circuit, and a light intensity of the test light obtained by the light receiving element is measured and a splitting ratio is acquired in the polished faces to positionally align the polished faces at a position where the splitting ratio of a desired ratio is obtained.