Optical cable assembly with mismatched fiber pitch
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorMichael A. Haase
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical cable subassembly includes a plurality of optical fibers; at least one light coupling unit with a coupling unit attachment area configured to receive and hold a free end of each optical fiber of the plurality of optical fibers at a coupling unit pitch; and a cable retainer adapted to be installed in a housing and having a retainer attachment area with a plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features arranged at a retainer pitch, each of the plurality of optical fibers disposed in and attached to one of the plurality of retainer fiber alignment features.
Claims18
An optical cable subassembly, comprising:
- a plurality of optical fibers;
- at least one light coupling unit comprising a coupling unit attachment area configured to receive and hold a free end of each optical fiber of the plurality of optical fibers at a coupling unit pitch;
- a cable retainer adapted to be installed in a housing and comprising a retainer attachment area comprising a plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features arranged at a retainer pitch, each of the plurality of optical fibers disposed in and attached to one of the plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features;
- and
- a ribbon cable comprising at least a portion of the plurality of optical fibers, wherein the plurality of optical fibers are constrained to a ribbon cable pitch when contained within the ribbon cable, and emerge from a first end of the ribbon cable and fan out to the retainer pitch of the cable retainer before entering a first side of the cable retainer, the ribbon cable pitch smaller than the retainer pitch by at least 5%.
An optical cable subassembly, comprising
- a cable retainer adapted to be installed in a housing and configured to hold a plurality of optical fibers, and the plurality of optical fibers, the cable retainer comprising a retainer attachment area comprising a plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features arranged at a retainer pitch, such that when each of the plurality of optical fibers is disposed in and attached to one of the plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features, the plurality of optical fibers extends through the cable retainer and is held at substantially the retainer pitch;
- each of the plurality of optical fibers disposed in and attached to one of the plurality of spaced-apart retainer fiber alignment features, each optical fiber of the plurality of optical fibers comprising an outer buffer layer, the retainer pitch being greater than a nominal diameter of the outer buffer layer by at least 20%.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.