Apparatus for and method of manufacturing a collimator

A method in an apparatus for automatically manufacturing a collimator having a glass tube, a GRIN lens, a pigtail, and a fiber extended from the pigtail, the method comprising:

• loading the glass tube and the pigtail using a turntable and a loading part mounted on the turntable;
• inserting the pigtail into the glass tube and coaxially aligning the pigtail with the GRIN lens using an angle aligning part holding the fiber of the pigtail and moving in a direction parallel to the glass tube;
• moving the turntable and controlling an optical property between the pigtail and the GRIN lens using a spot aligning part moving the fiber with respect to the glass tube;
• and
• moving the turntable and fixedly attaching the pigtail to the glass tube.

An apparatus for automatically manufacturing a collimator having a glass tube, a GRIN lens fixedly inserted into the glass tube, and a pigtail formed with at least one fiber, comprising:

• a turntable mounted with a tube holder, a pigtail holder, and a rotation moving part coupled to the pigtail holder;
• a loading part controlling the tube holder to hold and support the glass tube having the GRIN lens, the pigtail holder to hold and support the pigtail, and the rotation moving part to move the pigtail holder with respect to the tube holder;
• an angle aligning part controlling the rotation moving part to move the pigtail to be inserted into the glass tube and coaxially aligned with the GRIN lens;
• a spot aligning part controlling the rotation moving part to adjust the pigtail with respect to the GRIN lens to have a predetermined optical property;
• a dispensing part fixedly attaching the pigtail to the glass tube when the coaxially aligning and the optical property controlling are completed;
• and
• a controller controlling the turntable to move around the loading part, the angle aligning part, the spot aligning part, and dispensing part.