Optical fiber alignment mechanisms

Abstract

An optical fiber alignment mechanism (100) operates to align optical fibers (102). The mechanism can include a key element (120, 130) arranged on the cladding (112) of an optical fiber (102). The key element (120, 130) can engage with a corresponding element of another optical fiber (102) to align the cores (108) of the mating optical fibers. The key element (120) of an optical fiber (102) can also be inserted into a corresponding keyway (226) of a fiber alignment hole (222) of a ferrule (200) such that the optical fiber (102) is oriented properly within the ferrule (200).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.