Low profile splicing stage for optical fiber waveguides

A low profile splicing stage for fusion joining a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber, said stage comprising:

• a) an electric arc welding system;
• b) a clamping and fiber position adjustment system comprising holding means for holding said fibers in a fiber plane and motion means for moving said fibers in three orthogonal dimensions into coaxial, abutting alignment along a common fiber axis in said fiber plane;
• and
• c) an imaging optical system having a fiber imaging illuminator and a fiber image detector, said imaging optical system being adapted to acquire optical images of said fibers in a first imaging direction and a second imaging direction, said imaging directions being non-coincident, and said image detector providing an electrical signal adapted to be received by imaging electronics and processed to produce a display, said fiber imaging illuminator comprising a first light source for said first imaging direction and a second light source for said second imaging direction;
• light from said first source traversing a first optical path and light from said second source traversing a second optical path, each of said optical paths being multiply folded and comprising optical elements located above and below said fiber plane, and said first and second optical paths lying in a plane perpendicular to said common fiber axis.