Manufacturing method of optical fiber bundle

Abstract

The invention provides an optical fiber bundle manufacturing method which comprises an optical fiber bundle body which is composed of a plurality of optical fiber bodies, an optical fiber bundle substrate, a plurality of optical fiber horizontal grooves and an optical fiber bundle cover plate. According to the method, the optical fiber horizontal groove is machined in the surface of the optical fiber bundle substrate through the micromachining equipment, the precision of the width U and the period T of the optical fiber horizontal groove is effectively guaranteed, then the bare fiber is clamped in the optical fiber horizontal groove to guarantee the precision of each optical fiber body in the optical fiber bundle body, and compared with a traditional method for manufacturing the optical fiber bundle by corroding a V-shaped groove in a silicon wafer, the manufacturing cost is reduced. The method is simple in process, high in production efficiency and suitable for batch production, the production cost can be greatly reduced, and the optical fiber bundle substrate can be made of a material with the heat conductivity higher than that of an S sheet, so that the device is better in heat dissipation performance, more stable in performance and more suitable for coupling of a high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar strip and the optical fiber bundle.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber, in particular to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle, and belongs to the technical field of optical fibers. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of modern science and technology, in the field of optics and optoelectronics, due to the excellent transmission characteristics of optical fiber, the light emitted by active devices is often coupled into the optical fiber. In order to obtain higher power, it is necessary to couple the light emitted by array devices composed of multiple chips into the optical fiber bundle. The high-power semiconductor laser output by the optical fiber bundle can be used in military fields such as laser guidance, laser submarine communication, optoelectronic confrontation, and civilian fields such as laser printing, laser marking, and laser welding.

[0003] Figure 4 This is a method for coupling the light emitted by the widely used semiconductor laser diode Bar bar 1 into the optical fiber bundle 5. The high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar bar 1 is 1 cm long and contains 19 light-emitting units 2. The light beams in the fast axis direction of the 19 light-emitting units 2 are collimated and compressed by the optical fiber column lens 3, and then coupled one-to-one to the corresponding 19 optical fibers 4. The 19 light-emitting units 2 of the high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar bar 1 are made by semiconductor photolithography technology and have high arrangement position accuracy. To obtain a higher coupling efficiency, the 19 optical fibers 4 of the optical fiber bundle 5 and the 19 light-emitting units 2 of the high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar bar 1 need to have the same arrangement position with high accuracy. The optical fiber bundle substrate 6 usually uses a Si wafer, and 19 optical fiber grooves 7 are etched on the Si wafer. The cleavage direction of the Si wafer determines that its optical fiber groove is a V-shaped groove. The 19 optical fibers 4 are fixed in the 19 V-shaped optical fiber grooves 7. The high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar coupling products of American companies such as COHERENT use this method.

[0004] However, when this method is actually applied, there are still problems such as complex process, low production efficiency and high production cost. Therefore, a method for making an optical fiber bundle is proposed. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of this, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle to solve or alleviate the technical problems existing in the prior art, and at least provide a beneficial choice.

[0006] The technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is implemented as follows: a method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle, comprising an optical fiber bundle body, wherein the optical fiber bundle body is composed of a plurality of optical fiber bodies, an optical fiber bundle substrate, a plurality of optical fiber grooves and an optical fiber bundle cover plate;

[0007] The production method comprises the following steps:

[0008] S1. A fiber groove with two groove sections is processed on a fiber bundle substrate using micro-machining equipment, and the period T of the fiber groove is precisely controlled, wherein the two groove sections of the fiber groove are a narrow U-shaped groove section and a wide U-shaped groove section;

[0009] S2, stripping off the coating layer at the front end of the optical fiber body to expose the bare fiber, and the remaining part is the optical fiber with coating layer;

[0010] S3, placing the optical fiber bodies one by one into the optical fiber grooves;

[0011] S4, coating the optical fiber body, the optical fiber bundle substrate and the optical fiber groove with ultraviolet glue, and covering the optical fiber bundle cover plate;

[0012] S5. Use ultraviolet light to irradiate the optical fiber bundle substrate covered with the optical fiber bundle cover plate to solidify the ultraviolet glue, thereby completing the production of the optical fiber bundle.

[0013] Further preferably, the micromachining equipment is a grinding wheel dicing machine or a laser dicing machine, the period T of the optical fiber groove is precisely controlled by preset programming of the micromachining equipment, and the width U of the optical fiber groove is controlled by the thickness of the diamond grinding wheel of the grinding wheel dicing machine or the parameters of the laser beam of the laser dicing machine.

[0014] Further preferably, the material of the optical fiber bundle substrate includes but is not limited to aluminum nitride, zirconium oxide, and aluminum oxide.

[0015] Further preferably, the outer diameter of the coated optical fiber is smaller than the period T of the optical fiber groove.

[0016] Further preferably, the optical fiber groove is a U-shaped through groove with uniform width or a stepped groove composed of U-shaped through grooves with different widths at both ends;

[0017] Among them, the stepped groove includes a narrow U-shaped groove section and a narrow U-shaped groove section. When the optical fiber body is placed in the optical fiber horizontal groove, the bare fiber is located on the narrow U-shaped groove section and does not fall into the bottom of the groove, while the coated optical fiber is located in the wide U-shaped groove section.

[0018] Further preferably, one end of the bare fiber away from the coated optical fiber protrudes to one side of the optical fiber groove, the length of the bare fiber is greater than the length of the U-shaped groove or the bare fiber, and the protruding length of the bare fiber should ensure that the ultraviolet glue does not contaminate the end face of the bare fiber during the manufacturing process.

[0019] Further preferably, the wide U-shaped groove section is a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves corresponding one to one with the narrow U-shaped groove sections or a large wide groove opened up by a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves;

[0020] The large and wide groove is used to lay out and place multiple coated optical fibers.

[0021] Further preferably, the position accuracy of a single optical fiber body in a single optical fiber groove is controlled by the outer diameter D of the bare fiber and the width U of the optical fiber groove;

[0022] Among them, the outer diameter D of the bare fiber is larger than the width U of the optical fiber groove, the optical fiber axis is higher than the surface of the optical fiber bundle substrate, the depth H of the optical fiber groove is larger than the radius D / 2 of the bare fiber, and the bare fiber is stuck on the optical fiber groove and does not fall into the bottom of the optical fiber groove.

[0023] Further preferably, the arrangement period Tf of the plurality of optical fiber bodies and the positional accuracy of the optical fiber bodies relative to each other are determined by the period T of the plurality of optical fiber grooves and the positional accuracy of the grooves relative to each other.

[0024] Further preferably, the fiber bundle cover is made of a light-transmitting sheet material, and the fiber bundle cover can fully or partially cover the bare fiber, but cannot cover the coated fiber.

[0025] Since the embodiment of the present invention adopts the above technical scheme, it has the following advantages: the present invention uses micro-machining equipment to process optical fiber grooves on the surface of the optical fiber bundle substrate, effectively ensuring the accuracy of the width U and period T of the optical fiber grooves, and then clamps the bare fiber on the optical fiber grooves to ensure the accuracy of each optical fiber body in the optical fiber bundle body. Compared with the traditional method of etching V-grooves on silicon wafers to make optical fiber bundles, the present invention has simple process and high production efficiency, is suitable for mass production, and can greatly reduce production costs. In addition, the optical fiber bundle substrate can adopt a material with higher thermal conductivity than Si wafer, so that the device has better heat dissipation and more stable performance, and is more suitable for the coupling of high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar strips and optical fiber bundles.

[0026] The above summary is for illustrative purposes only and is not limiting in any way. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments and features described above, further aspects, embodiments and features of the present invention will be readily apparent by reference to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0028] Figure 1 is a structural diagram of an optical fiber bundle of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the optical fiber horizontal groove of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of placing the optical fiber body of the present invention into the optical fiber groove;

[0031] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of existing high-power semiconductor laser diode Bar coupling.

[0032] Figure numerals: 4, optical fiber body; 5, optical fiber bundle body; 6, optical fiber bundle substrate; 7, optical fiber groove; 8, optical fiber bundle cover plate; 41, bare fiber; 42, coated optical fiber; 71, narrow U-shaped groove section; 72, wide U-shaped groove section; 9, UV glue; 0, optical fiber axis. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] In the following, only some exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the described embodiments may be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Therefore, the drawings and descriptions are considered to be exemplary and non-restrictive in nature.

[0034] It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", "symmetrical", "array", etc. are only used to distinguish between description and position description purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the definition of "first", "symmetrical", etc. can explicitly or implicitly include one or more of these features; similarly, when the number of certain features is not limited in the form of words such as "two" or "three", it should be noted that this feature also explicitly or implicitly includes one or more feature quantities.

[0035] The embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0036] like Figure 1-Figure 3 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle, including an optical fiber bundle body 5, the optical fiber bundle body 5 is composed of a plurality of optical fiber bodies 4, an optical fiber bundle substrate 6, a plurality of optical fiber grooves 7 and an optical fiber bundle cover plate 8;

[0037] The preparation method comprises the following steps:

[0038] S1, using micro-machining equipment to process an optical fiber horizontal groove 7 with two groove sections on the optical fiber bundle substrate 6, and accurately controlling the period T of the optical fiber horizontal groove 7, wherein the two groove sections of the optical fiber horizontal groove 7 are a narrow U-shaped groove section 71 and a wide U-shaped groove section 72;

[0039] S2, stripping off the coating layer at the front end of the optical fiber body 4 to expose the bare fiber 41, and the remaining part is the coated optical fiber 42;

[0040] S3, placing the optical fiber bodies 4 one by one into the optical fiber grooves 7;

[0041] S4, coating the ultraviolet glue 9 on the optical fiber body 4, the optical fiber bundle substrate 6 and the optical fiber groove 7, and covering the optical fiber bundle cover plate 8;

[0042] S5. Use ultraviolet light to irradiate the optical fiber bundle substrate 6 covered with the optical fiber bundle cover plate 8 to solidify the ultraviolet glue 9, thereby completing the production of the optical fiber bundle.

[0043] In one embodiment, the micro-machining equipment is a grinding wheel scribing machine or a laser scribing machine, the period T of the optical fiber groove 7 is precisely controlled by the preset programming of the micro-machining equipment, and the width U of the optical fiber groove 7 is controlled by the thickness of the diamond grinding wheel of the grinding wheel scribing machine or the parameters of the laser beam of the laser scribing machine;

[0044] The requirements for the width U and period T of the optical fiber groove 7 are relatively high, while the requirements for the groove depth H, the shape of the groove and the accuracy of the burrs on the groove bottom are relatively low.

[0045] In one embodiment, the material of the optical fiber bundle substrate 6 includes but is not limited to aluminum nitride, zirconium oxide, and aluminum oxide;

[0046] For the optical fiber bundle 5 that has heat dissipation requirements, a thin plate material with relatively high thermal conductivity can be selected.

[0047] In one embodiment, the outer diameter of the coated optical fiber 42 is smaller than the period T of the optical fiber groove 7;

[0048] The coating layer is made of polyimide material, which is thinner than ordinary PVC material as the optical fiber coating layer and protective layer.

[0049] In one embodiment, the optical fiber groove 7 is a U-shaped through groove with uniform width or a stepped groove composed of U-shaped through grooves with different widths at both ends;

[0050] The stepped groove includes a narrow U-shaped groove section 71 and a narrow U-shaped groove section 71. When the optical fiber body 4 is placed in the optical fiber horizontal groove 7, the bare fiber 41 is located on the narrow U-shaped groove section 71 and does not fall into the bottom of the groove, while the coated optical fiber 42 is located in the wide U-shaped groove section 72;

[0051] One end of the bare fiber 41 away from the coated optical fiber 42 extends to one side of the optical fiber groove 7. The length of the bare fiber 41 is greater than the length of the U-shaped groove or the bare fiber 41. The length of the bare fiber 41 should ensure that the ultraviolet glue 9 does not contaminate the end face of the bare fiber 41 during the manufacturing process.

[0052] like Figure 2As shown, the optical fiber groove 7 can be a U-shaped through groove with uniform width, or a stepped groove composed of two sections of U-shaped grooves with different widths. When the optical fiber body 4 is placed in the through groove, the bare fiber 41 section is placed in the groove, and its length is slightly longer than the length of the through groove, and the coated optical fiber 42 section is outside the through groove. When the optical fiber body 4 is placed in the stepped groove, the bare fiber 41 section is placed in the narrow U-shaped groove section 71, and its length is slightly longer than the length of the narrow U-shaped groove section 71. The coated optical fiber 42 section is partially placed in the wide U-shaped groove section 72, and the tail is outside the stepped groove.

[0053] The groove width of the through groove and the groove width of the stepped groove narrow U-shaped groove section 71 need to be precisely controlled, while the groove width of the stepped groove wide U-shaped groove section 72 does not need to be precisely controlled.

[0054] In one embodiment, the wide U-shaped groove section 72 is a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves corresponding to the narrow U-shaped groove sections 71 one by one or a large wide groove opened by a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves;

[0055] The wide groove is used to lay all the coated optical fibers 42 flatly therein;

[0056] The wide U-shaped groove section 72 of the stepped groove can be a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves with the same period as the narrow U-shaped groove section 71, or a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves can be connected to form a large wide groove, which is only used to constrain the coated optical fiber 42.

[0057] In one embodiment, the position accuracy of a single optical fiber body 4 in a single optical fiber groove 7 is controlled by the outer diameter D of the bare fiber 41 and the width U of the optical fiber groove 7;

[0058] The outer diameter D of the bare fiber 41 is greater than the width U of the optical fiber groove 7, the optical fiber axis O is higher than the surface of the optical fiber bundle substrate 6, the depth H of the optical fiber groove 7 is greater than the radius D / 2 of the bare fiber 41, and the bare fiber 41 is stuck on the optical fiber groove 7 and does not fall into the bottom of the optical fiber groove 7;

[0059] like Figure 3 As shown, the optical fiber bodies 4 are placed one-to-one in the optical fiber grooves 7, and the position accuracy of a single optical fiber body 4 in a single optical fiber groove 7 is ensured by the outer diameter D of the bare fiber 41 and the width U of the U-shaped optical fiber groove 7. The bare fiber 41 does not fall into the bottom of the optical fiber groove 7 because the present invention does not have high requirements on the accuracy of the groove depth H, and there are no standard requirements for the shape of the groove. The presence of burrs at the bottom of the groove does not affect the position accuracy of the optical fiber body 4 in the optical fiber groove 7.

[0060] In one embodiment, the arrangement period Tf of the plurality of optical fiber bodies 4 and the positional accuracy of the optical fiber bodies 4 relative to each other are determined by the period T of the plurality of optical fiber grooves 7 and the positional accuracy of the grooves relative to each other;

[0061] After the position accuracy of a single optical fiber body 4 in a single optical fiber groove 7 is confirmed, the arrangement period Tf of the multiple optical fiber bodies 4 and the position accuracy of the optical fiber bodies 4 relative to each other are determined by the period T of the multiple optical fiber grooves 7 and the position accuracy of each groove relative to each other, so as to ensure the position accuracy of each optical fiber body 4 in the optical fiber bundle 5.

[0062] In one embodiment, the fiber bundle cover plate 8 is made of a light-transmitting sheet material, and the fiber bundle cover plate 8 can cover the bare fiber 41 in whole or in part, but cannot cover the coated fiber 42;

[0063] The light-transmitting sheet material can be a glass sheet, which has a high surface flatness, and the ultraviolet light can pass through the optical fiber bundle cover plate 8 to cure the ultraviolet glue 9;

[0064] When the optical fiber groove 7 is a U-shaped through groove with uniform width, the size of the optical fiber bundle cover plate 8 can be larger than the size of the optical fiber bundle substrate 6, can be smaller than the size of the optical fiber bundle substrate 6, or can be the same as the size of the optical fiber bundle substrate 6, as long as it is ensured that the coated optical fiber 42 is not covered;

[0065] When the optical fiber groove 7 is a stepped groove, the size of the optical fiber bundle cover plate 8 should be smaller than that of the optical fiber bundle base plate 6 to avoid covering the coated optical fiber 42 .

[0066] The above are only specific embodiments of the present invention, but the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can easily think of various changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention, which should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle, comprising an optical fiber bundle body (5), characterized in that: The optical fiber bundle body (5) is composed of a plurality of optical fiber bodies (4), an optical fiber bundle base plate (6), a plurality of optical fiber grooves (7) and an optical fiber bundle cover plate (8); The production method comprises the following steps: S1. A fiber groove (7) having two groove sections is processed on a fiber bundle substrate (6) using micro-processing equipment, and a period T of the fiber groove (7) is precisely controlled, wherein the two groove sections of the fiber groove (7) are respectively a narrow U-shaped groove section (71) and a wide U-shaped groove section (72); S2, stripping off the coating layer at the front end of the optical fiber body (4) to expose the bare fiber (41), and the remaining part is the coated optical fiber (42); S3, placing the optical fiber bodies (4) one by one into the optical fiber grooves (7); S4, coating the ultraviolet glue (9) on the optical fiber body (4), the optical fiber bundle substrate (6) and the optical fiber groove (7), and covering the optical fiber bundle cover plate (8); S5. Using ultraviolet light to irradiate the optical fiber bundle substrate (6) covered with the optical fiber bundle cover plate (8) to solidify the ultraviolet glue (9), thereby completing the production of the optical fiber bundle.

2. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The micro-machining equipment is a grinding wheel scribing machine or a laser scribing machine, the period T of the optical fiber groove (7) is precisely controlled by preset programming of the micro-machining equipment, and the width U of the optical fiber groove (7) is controlled by the thickness of the diamond grinding wheel of the grinding wheel scribing machine or the parameters of the laser beam of the laser scribing machine.

3. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The material of the optical fiber bundle substrate (6) includes, but is not limited to, aluminum nitride, zirconium oxide, and aluminum oxide.

4. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The outer diameter of the coated optical fiber (42) is smaller than the period T of the optical fiber groove (7).

5. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The optical fiber groove (7) is a U-shaped through groove with uniform width or a stepped groove composed of U-shaped through grooves with different widths at both ends; The stepped groove comprises a narrow U-shaped groove section (71) and a narrow U-shaped groove section (71). When the optical fiber body (4) is placed in the optical fiber groove (7), the bare fiber (41) is located on the narrow U-shaped groove section (71) and does not fall into the groove bottom, while the coated optical fiber (42) is located in the wide U-shaped groove section (72).

6. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 5, characterized in that: One end of the bare fiber (41) away from the coated optical fiber (42) protrudes to one side of the optical fiber groove (7), and the length of the bare fiber (41) is greater than the length of the U-shaped groove or the bare fiber (41). The protruding length of the bare fiber (41) should ensure that the ultraviolet glue (9) does not contaminate the end face of the bare fiber (41) during the manufacturing process.

7. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 5, characterized in that: The wide U-shaped groove sections (72) are a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves corresponding one to one with the narrow U-shaped groove sections (71) or a large wide groove formed by connecting a plurality of wide U-shaped grooves; The wide groove is used to lay a plurality of coated optical fibers (42) flatly therein.

8. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The position accuracy of a single optical fiber body (4) in a single optical fiber groove (7) is controlled by the outer diameter D of the bare fiber (41) and the width U of the optical fiber groove (7); The outer diameter D of the bare fiber (41) is greater than the width U of the optical fiber groove (7), the optical fiber axis (0) is higher than the surface of the optical fiber bundle substrate (6), the depth H of the optical fiber groove (7) is greater than the radius D / 2 of the bare fiber (41), and the bare fiber (41) is stuck on the optical fiber groove (7) and does not fall into the bottom of the optical fiber groove (7).

9. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The arrangement period Tf of the plurality of optical fiber bodies (4) and the positional accuracy of the optical fiber bodies (4) relative to each other are determined by the period T of the plurality of optical fiber grooves (7) and the positional accuracy of the grooves relative to each other.

10. The method for manufacturing an optical fiber bundle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The optical fiber bundle cover plate (8) is made of a light-transmitting thin sheet material. The optical fiber bundle cover plate (8) can cover the bare fiber (41) in whole or in part, but cannot cover the coated optical fiber (42).

Images