Demountable high density optical connector

Abstract

A high-density optical connector for demountable coupling to an external component having a fiber block that includes a body supporting a 2-D array of optical fibers, a 2-D array of microlenses aligned with the optical fibers for beam shaping, a coupling surface having passive alignment demountable coupling features matching complementary coupling features on a receptacle associated with the external connection point to be coupled, wherein the coupling surface comprises an optical region aligned with the microlens array and the optical fiber array permitting passage of light to and from optical fibers, with the demountable coupling features distributed adjacent the optical region in reference to the microlens array and optical fiber, and wherein the demountable coupling features are symmetrically arranged about at least one of two orthogonal axes of optical region.

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