Easy and safe coated optical fiber direct connection without handling bare optical fiber

Abstract

We propose a novel field installable splicing technique for the direct connection of 250μm diameter coated optical fiber that does not require bare optical fiber to be handled. Our proposed technique can realize a low insertion loss over a wide field installation temperature range of −10–40°C. The keys to coated optical fiber direct connection are a cleaving technique and a technique for removing coated optical fiber. As the cleaving technique, we employed a method where the fiber is stretched and then a blade is pushed perpendicularly against the stretched fiber. As a result we confirmed that fiber endfaces cleaved at −10–40°C were all mirror endfaces. With the removal technique, the coating is removed inside the connecting component by incorporating a circular cone shaped coating removal part. A mechanical splice based on these techniques successfully achieved a low insertion loss of less than 0.11dB and a return loss of more than 50dB at −10, 20, and 40°C. In addition, the temperature cycle characteristics were stable over a wide temperature range of −40–75°C.