UV-cure of coatings for an optical fiber with a laser
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorsIgor Vladimir Khudyakov, Michael P. Purvis, Bob J. Overton
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Abstract
An apparatus and method efficiently focuses laser light to a target fiber to rapidly and evenly cure a coating on the fiber and to increase a draw rate for the fiber. The laser light is expanded and refocused to a strip of light having a diameter that is a multiple of the fiber diameter. The strip of light is applied to one side of the fiber and a reflection of the strip of light is focused to a second side of the fiber to provide uniform radiation of the fiber.
Claims22
An apparatus for photocuring a coating on a target fiber, comprising:
- a laser source;
- a beam expander for expanding an output of the laser source;
- a first lens operable to focus an output of the beam expander on the coating disposed on the target fiber, wherein the coating is responsive to a wavelength of light emitted from the laser source;
- and
- a concave optical element disposed on an opposite side of the target fiber relative to the beam expander and said first lens, wherein the concave optical element comprises a half cylinder mirror.
A method of photocuring a coating on an optical fiber, comprising:
- expanding a laser beam to produce an expanded diameter laser beam;
- focusing the expanded diameter laser beam to a strip of light having a diameter that is larger than a diameter of the fiber onto a front side of the fiber to cure the fiber;
- and
- reflecting the laser beam strip of light to a rear side of the fiber, wherein reflecting the laser beam to the rear side of the fiber includes reflecting the laser beam with a half cylinder mirror.
A method of photocuring a coating on an optical fiber, comprising:
- expanding a laser beam to produce an expanded diameter laser beam;
- focusing the expanded diameter laser beam to a strip of light having a diameter that is larger than a diameter of the fiber onto a front side of the fiber to cure the fiber;
- and
- reflecting the laser beam strip of light to a rear side of the fiber, wherein the expanding, the focusing and the reflecting are provided by expanding, focusing and reflecting elements each aligned in a linear disposition with each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.