Optical waveguides – With disengagable mechanical connector – Structure surrounding optical fiber-to-fiber connection
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2004-02-24
Robinson, Mark A. (Department: 2872)
Optical waveguides
With disengagable mechanical connector
Structure surrounding optical fiber-to-fiber connection
C385S071000, C385S139000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06695486
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The use of optical fibers for the transmission of voice, data, and video information has increased dramatically in recent years. The heart of such transmission systems is an optical fiber of silica glass or other suitable material that has been clad with an appropriate material to create a waveguide along which light energy can travel in a controlled manner. Optical fibers are extremely small (in the order of microns in diameter) and when they are incorporated into a transmission system it is necessary to effect interconnections between separate lengths of such fibers, or between fiber and active transmitters or receivers.
With the greatly expanding deployment of optical fiber transmission systems and the continual miniaturization of electronics, it has become increasingly necessary to provide a higher density of optical cable connections to optoelectronic transmission equipment.
Since most optoelectronic equipment is rack mounted, traditional fiber optic cable connections to optoelectronic equipment has been to the equipment's vertically mounted front panel, or faceplate.
FIG. 1
illustrates the prior art for vertically mounted optical interfaces on the faceplate of optoelectronic equipment.
FIG. 1
illustrates a side view of a printed circuit board (PCB)
100
containing a multitude of duplex optical interfaces mounted on the PCB faceplate
104
. A duplex optical bulkhead connector
105
connects to a PCB transmitter
101
and a PCB receiver
102
via optical fibers
103
. A duplex transmitter/receiver module with an integrated bulkhead connector
110
is also shown in
FIG. 1
as an alternative optical interface. Other optical interfaces, such as simplex optical bulkhead connectors, are also widely used. The term optical interface is being used to generically describe any of the above optical bulkhead connectors to the PCB
100
, as well as other types of optical connectors.
To maximize the useable real estate on the PCB
100
, manufacturers commonly mount the optical interface bulkhead connectors
105
or the integrated bulkhead connectors
110
in a vertical configuration, as illustrated in FIG.
1
. However, as a result of utilizing the vertical optical interface bulkhead connectors
105
or the integrated bulkhead connectors
110
, end users may be exposed to safety issues due to high power lasers at eye level.
Additionally, the natural gravitational affects on fiber optic jumper cables
130
connected to the vertical optical interface bulkhead connectors
105
or the integrated bulkhead connectors
110
can cause microbending losses in the fiber optic jumper cables
130
, as depicted by the sharp angle
140
shown in FIG.
1
.
Historically, to prevent such microbending, manufacturers of fiber optic jumper cables
130
, produce right angle strain relief devices (not illustrated) that attach to the fiber optic jumper cable
130
in the area next to a fiber optic connector
120
which is the area most susceptible to the gravitationally induced sharp angle
140
. These right angle strain relief devices are specifically designed for each manufacturer of and type of fiber optic connector
120
. Consequently, end users (e.g., telecommunications companies) that use multiple suppliers of optical fiber jumper cables
130
, must also keep vendor specific right angle strain relief devices. This is an expense and inconvenience the end user would much prefer to avoid.
To eliminate this right angle strain relief device cost to the end user, some manufacturers cut the PCB
100
in order to angle the optical interface bulkhead connector
105
or the integrated bulkhead connector
110
downward, thereby avoiding the fiber optic jumper cable
130
microbending. This technique, however, results in increased design and manufacturing costs for the PCB
100
, and lost PCB
100
real estate.
For this reason there is a need for a fiber optic connector module which can connect to a vertically mounted faceplate and angle downward to eliminate the gravitation microbending effect on an attached generic fiber optic jumper.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A fiber optic connector module is presented that has one or more male fiber optic connectors on one end of a molded body and a corresponding number of female optical connectors on the other end. The molded body can be a fixed angle module made of a material such as plastic, or can be an adjustable angle module where the angle can be adjusted to an angle between 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees.
In one embodiment, the male connector is connected to the female connector with an optical fiber terminated with optical ferrules enclosed within the molded body. Alternative embodiments utilize various passive optical devices to interconnect the male and female connects, such as optical splitters, wave division multiplexers, and optical attenuators. Alternative embodiments substitute a bulkhead connector for the male connector(s) to allow for direct mounting to the optoelectronic equipment faceplate.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3933409 (1976-01-01), Kloots
patent: 4737004 (1988-04-01), Amitay et al.
patent: 5073044 (1991-12-01), Egner et al.
patent: 5115260 (1992-05-01), Hayward et al.
patent: 5138676 (1992-08-01), Stowe et al.
patent: 5138678 (1992-08-01), Briggs et al.
patent: 5179617 (1993-01-01), Stockman
patent: 5218657 (1993-06-01), Tokudome et al.
patent: 5233677 (1993-08-01), Winslow
patent: 5329603 (1994-07-01), Watanabe et al.
patent: 5355429 (1994-10-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5521998 (1996-05-01), Walles et al.
patent: 5757997 (1998-05-01), Birrell et al.
patent: 5781681 (1998-07-01), Manning
patent: 5892870 (1999-04-01), Fingler et al.
patent: 5923802 (1999-07-01), Giebel et al.
patent: 6290399 (2001-09-01), Ogiya
Cisco Technology, INC
Ritter Lang & Kaplan LLP
Robinson Mark A.
LandOfFree
Angled fiber optic connector does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Angled fiber optic connector, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Angled fiber optic connector will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3320960