Fabrication of Lensed Plastic Optical Fiber Array Using Electrostatic Force

Abstract

The GI (graded-index) POFs (Plastic optical fibers), which has been proven to reach distances as long as 1 km at 1.25 Gb/s has a relatively low numerical aperture . Therefore, the efficient coupling of GI POFs to the light source has become critical to the power budget in the system. Efficient coupling for a POFs system normally involves either a separate lens or the direct formation of the lens at the end of the fiber. Forming the lens-like structure directly on the fiber end is preferred for simplicity of fabrication and packaging, such as polishing and fusion, combine different fibers with the cascaded fiber method and hydroflouride (HF) chemical etching. These approaches are well established, but applicable only to glass. Optical assembly architecture for multichannel fibers and optical devices is critical to optical fiber interconnections. Multichannel fiber-pigtail laser diode (LD) modules have potential for supporting higher data throughput and longer transmission distances. However, to be of practical use, these modules must be more precise. This work proposes and manufactures lensed plastic optical fibers (LPOF) array. This novel manipulation can be utilized to fabricate an aspherical lens on a fiber array after the UV curing of the photo-sensitive polymer; the coupling efficiency (CE) is increased and exceeds 47% between the LD array and the fiber array.