Apparatus for fabricating a multi-fiber polarization-maintaining fiber assembly

An apparatus for fabricating a multi-fiber polarization-maintaining fiber assembly comprising:

• a clamping jig and an orientation adjusting unit,
• the clamping jig including a ferrule clamping means for clamping a multi-fiber ferrule so as not to be rotated and a fiber cable clamping means for clamping polarization-maintaining fiber cables so as to be rotated,
• the orientation adjusting unit including:
• an imaging means for imaging a leading end of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables, wherein each of said fiber cables is axially parallel to and radially spaced from each other of said fiber cables held in the multi-fiber ferrule clamped by the clamping jig,
• an image processing means for identifying the orientation of each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables based on each image of the leading end of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables, and
• an orientation adjustment controlling means for controllably driving the fiber cable clamping means to axially rotate each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables for automatically adjusting the orientation of each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables.