Plastic optical fiber connector

Details Plastic optical fiber connector Plastic optical fiber connector

1998-04-23

2001-05-08

Bovernick, Rodney (Department: 2874)

Optical waveguides

With disengagable mechanical connector

Structure surrounding optical fiber-to-fiber connection

C385S060000, C385S072000, C385S078000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06227719

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for a plastic optical fiber cable (POF).
2. Description of the Related Art
The amount of information which can be transmitted through a POF is considerably small in comparison with a silica glass fiber, and hence, a POF has been used in very limited fields. Therefore, a large connection loss (transmission loss) has not been considered serious. However, there has recently been a need for POF connectors to be used for a wide transmission band in place of silica glass fibers. In this connection, conventional POF connectors have many problems to be solved. For instance, if a POF is pressed and deformed, the transmission band is narrowed. Nevertheless, this problem is not taken into account in the conventional POF connectors. Moreover, in the conventional POFs, the fiber diameter at the center portion varies in the range of 0.94 to 1.06 mm&phgr;. Consequently, the connection loss or transmission loss depends on how accurately the POF is aligned with the center axis of a ferrule. Furthermore, in the case that a number of POF connectors are interconnected on a substrate, the ease of insertion or removal of the POF connectors should be taken into account. Nevertheless, since conventional POF connectors are used solely, no operation efficiency for connection and disconnection between the POF connectors is considered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a POF connector having a wide transmission band and less connection loss.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a POF connector in which little deformation thereof when pressed occurs; the POF can be accurately aligned on the center axis of a ferrule; and, it is possible to prevent the POF from moving relative to a ferrule by a structure in which the connection loss can be reduced.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a POF connector which can be easily inserted into or disconnected from another POF connector.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plastic optical fiber connector in which at least a pair of plug connectors having plastic optical fiber cables are held so that the end faces of optical fibers are opposed to each other, wherein it comprises an adaptor which is provided with a plurality of connector receptacles that receive the plug connectors inserted therein from opposite directions.
Preferably, the adaptor is detachably attached to an adaptor holder which is secured to a substrate, so as to facilitate the attachment or detachment of the plug connector.
The attachment mechanism can be realized by a dove-tail groove provided in the adaptor holder and a projection provided in the adaptor, which can be disengageably engaged in the dove-tail groove.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plastic optical fiber connector in which at least a pair of plug connectors having plastic optical fiber cables are held so that the end faces of optical fibers are opposed to each other, wherein said plug connector is provided with an anchoring member which is adapted to secure the plastic optical fiber cable to the plug connector and which is provided with a wedge-shaped projection which can pierce into a sheath of the plastic optical fiber cable without coming into contact with a body of the plastic optical fiber cable.
To secure the anchoring member to the plug connector, the plug connector can be comprised of an insertion hole in which the anchoring member can be inserted, and a tapered surface which guides the anchoring member pierced into the sheath of the plastic optical fiber cable, so that the anchoring member which has been inserted through the insertion hole and which has been pierced into the sheath of the plastic optical fiber cable engages with the tapered surface to be secured to the plug connector.
The connector of the present invention can be advantageously applied either to a single-core POF cable or a dual-core POF cable.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plastic optical fiber connector in which at least a pair of plug connectors having plastic optical fiber cables are held so that the end faces of optical fibers are opposed to each other, wherein it comprises ferrules which are secured to the front end of the plug connectors to hold the plastic optical fiber bodies with the removed sheaths, tapered split sleeves which are attached to the front ends of the plastic optical fiber bodies with the removed sheaths and which are each provided with a tapered outer surface and a longitudinal slit, and stepped portions which are formed on the ferrules and which abut against the tapered outer surfaces of the split sleeves.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a plastic optical fiber connector in which at least a pair of plug connectors having plastic optical fiber cables are held so that the end faces of optical fibers are opposed to each other, comprises ferrules which are secured to the front end of the plug connectors. These ferrules are provided with fiber support holes in which the plastic optical fiber bodies with the removed sheaths can be inserted, and fiber holding grooves which are not connected to the fiber support holes and which face the end faces of the corresponding ferrules, wherein when the front ends of the plastic optical fiber bodies protruding from the front ends of the ferrules are melted and flattened, the molten resin is introduced into the fiber holding grooves through thin films formed on the front end faces of the ferrules.
Preferably, the fiber holding grooves are concentric to the corresponding fiber support holes.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plastic optical fiber connector, comprising dual-core plastic optical fiber cables, each being made of two parallel, single-core plastic optical fiber cables having plastic optical fiber bodies covered with sheaths; plug connectors which hold the dual-core plastic optical fiber cables; ferrules which are provided at the front ends of the plug connectors and which are each provided with a pair of fiber support holes in which the dual-core plastic optical fiber bodies with the removed sheath can be inserted; wherein the distance between the center axes of the pair of fiber support holes is substantially identical to the distance between the center axes of the plastic optical fiber bodies of the dual-core plastic optical fiber cable.
The present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No.9-121006 (filed on May 12, 1997) which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.


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patent: 5768458 (1998-06-01), Ro et al.
patent: 5809192 (1998-09-01), Manning et al.

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