Novel plastic optical-fiber connector

Abstract

The upside down taper lens (UDTL) optical fiber ends are formed by a heating method. This new type of microlens can be used to make optical fiber connector between two fibers. In this paper, using plastic optical fiber, a single installation which are needed in the making UDTL fiber ends is described. The making method of this type plastic optical fiber end is introduced. Theoretically, using 1D heat conductor model, we analyze the forming tendency during the heating of the end of a plastic fiber. Experiments of the coupling between two plastic optical fibers with UDTL ends are given. The testing results of the connector shows that this novel optical fiber device can improve the coupling efficiency and provided a potentially inexpensive, simple and direct coupling method for fiber optic communication and fiber sensor systems.