Optical fiber ferrule
AssigneeXanoptix, Inc.
InventorsKeith Kang, John Trezza
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ferrule has a body, peripherally dimensioned for receipt within a commercially available fiber optic connector, the body has a forward portion comprising a front side and a rear side, the front side defining a face of the ferrule, the rear side defining an inner surface. The forward portion has a large format array of fiber holes, each of the fiber holes in the array extending between the front side and the rear side and being sized to accept an optical fiber inserted therein, and the forward portion having a thickness, T, less than 3000 microns but at least a minimum thickness sufficient to support optical fibers inserted into the fiber holes. An optical connector, having a ferrule, and a fiber optic cable assembly are also described.
Claims112
A ferrule comprising:
- a body, peripherally dimensioned for receipt within a commercially available fiber optic connector,
- the periphery of the body defining a cavity;
- the body having a forward portion comprising a front side and a rear side;
- the front side defining a face of the ferrule,
- the rear side defining an inner surface of the cavity,
- the forward portion having a large format array of fiber holes, each of the fiber holes in the array extending between the front side and the rear side and being sized to accept an optical fiber inserted therein, and
- the forward portion having a thickness, T, less than 3000 microns but at least a minimum thickness sufficient to support optical fibers inserted into the fiber holes.
An optical connector comprising:
- a connector housing;
- a ferrule sized for containment within the connector housing;
- and
- multiple optical fibers within the ferrule, the ferrule comprising a formed body lacking guide grooves and having a leading end including multiple holes extending through the leading end to a face surface, the holes being spaced from each other in a regular arrangement by a predetermined pitch, each of the multiple holes containing one of the multiple optical fibers, the leading end having a thickness of between a minimum structural thickness and under 3000 microns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.