Self-aligning optical fiber connector
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorBob Mouissie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical fiber connector having two half-round holding members mounted in a central coupler. The half-round members have flat mating surfaces with an opposed longitudinal V-groove for receiving fiber ends of either similar or dissimilar diameters. The opposed fibers spread the holding members away from each other; an elastic member retains the holding members in opposed relationship.
Claims6
An optical fiber connector comprising:
- a housing having a generally cylindrical first bore,
- at least two opposed ribs extending radially into said first bore and terminating in a hub having a hole coaxial with said first bore,
- a pair of sleeves mounted on said housing in opposed relationship, said sleeves terminating in an inwardly projecting peripheral edge defining an opening to said housing coaxial with said first bore, said peripheral edge forming an annular cavity with said housing,
- a resilient O-ring located in said annular cavity having an inside diameter slightly less than said first bore,
- at least one pair of slightly elongated half-round holding members pivotally mounted in said hole, said holding members having a flat surface in opposed mating relationship, said surfaces having an opposed longitudinal V-groove defining a second bore coaxial with said first bore, said second bore having a conically inclined convergent surface on either end thereof defining an entrance to receive the exposed core end of an optical fiber,
- means for guiding the ends of an optical fiber into said second bore, and
- means for elastically maintaining said holding members in opposed relationship.
An improved optical fiber connector of the type wherein each of the ends of a pair of single cladded optical fibers is inserted into an end coupler and axially aligned in end-to-end relationship by inserting said end couplers into a central coupler of the type having a generally cylindrical first bore, wherein the improvement comprises
- two half-round holding members mounted in said central coupler,
- each of said holding members having a flat surface in opposed mating relationship with each other,
- each of said surfaces having an opposed longitudinal V-groove defining a second bore coaxial with said first bore, said second bore having a conically inclined convergent surface on either end thereof for receiving and guiding the exposed end of an inserted fiber into said second bore whereby the longitudinal axis of said fiber coincides with the longitudinal axis of said second bore, said fiber spreading said holding members away from each other, and means for elastically maintaining said holding members in opposed relationship.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.