Method and apparatus for thermal fusing of optical fibers
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorGervin Ruegenberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Two incipiently fused fiber ends are fused to one another by being pushed one inside the other in a longitudinal direction beyond the end face contact site by a variable amount, which is increased in proportion to the greater extent of the poorer quality of the end face as compared to the desired shape of the end face.
Claims20
A method for thermal fusing two mutually assigned optical fiber ends, said method comprising the steps of determining for each end face of the optical fiber ends an amount of departure from a desired end face shape, heating the end faces and pushing one end face inside the other end face in the fiber longitudinal direction beyond the end face by a feed path determined by the amount of departure.
A device for thermally fusing two mutually aligned optical fiber ends, the fiber ends having a shape, said device including means for incipiently fusing the fiber ends, means for pushing one of the incipiently fused fiber ends inside the other in a fiber longitudinal direction a predetermined distance, the predetermined distance being determined by the amount of departure of the end face shape from a desired end face shape.
A method for thermal fusing two optical fibers at respective ends, each fiber end having a face with a shape, said method comprising the steps of:
- determining for each end face a difference between the shape of the end face and a desired end face shape;
- holding at least one of the fibers;
- heating the end faces of both fibers;
- and
- pushing the unheld fiber in a longitudinal direction toward the held fiber such that the end face of the pushed fiber is pushed through the other end face by an amount corresponding to the difference of the shape of the end faces from the desired end face shape.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.