Array optical fiber collimator

Abstract

The array optical fiber collimator is composed of a pore plate and a plurality of collimators, spherical positioning surfaces are arranged on the pore plate and the collimators respectively, the radius of curvature is the same, the pore plate is attached to the positioning surfaces of the collimators, a universal joint structure is formed, the included angle between the axis of the collimator and the axis of a through hole is finely adjusted through the collimators, and therefore the array optical fiber collimator is formed. According to the technical scheme, each optical fiber collimator can be conveniently and independently dimmed and fixed, so that the light beam pointing consistency of the array optical fiber collimator product is ensured, and compared with the prior art, the array optical fiber collimator has the advantages that the light beam pointing uniformity of the array optical fiber collimator product is ensured; a large amount of collimator screening and adapting work can be omitted, the technical bottleneck of array optical fiber collimator production is broken through, the production efficiency is high, the percent of pass is high, and the cost is low.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application relates to the field of fiber collimator processing in the optical communication industry, and particularly relates to a two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator. BACKGROUND

[0002] The two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator has wide application in the fields of data centers, aerospace, laser radars and the like, and especially in the current period of rapid development of AI computing, the huge data computing capacity gives rise to the demand for the two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator. For example, the OCS (Optical Circuit Switches) based on the optical cross switching principle enables the direct optical interconnection between server ports, and no matter what optical deflection mechanism is adopted, the two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator is a core component.

[0003] The two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator has wide application in the fields of data centers, aerospace, laser radars and the like, and especially in the current period of rapid development of AI computing, the huge data computing capacity gives rise to the demand for the two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator. For example, the OCS (Optical Circuit Switches) based on the optical cross switching principle enables the direct optical interconnection between server ports, and no matter what optical deflection mechanism is adopted, the two-dimensional surface array fiber collimator is a core component.

[0004] To solve the problem, the application provides a "universal joint" light adjusting structure to break through the technical bottleneck in the production of the array fiber collimator. SUMMARY

[0005] To solve the problem mentioned in the background, the application provides the following technical scheme: The array fiber collimator is composed of one or two hole plates 1 and a plurality of collimators 2, the hole plate 1 has array distributed through holes 11, each through hole 11 provides a through hole positioning surface 12, the collimator 2 includes a tail fiber 24 and a lens 23, includes or does not include a collimator sleeve 21, and each collimator 2 provides a collimator positioning surface 22. The through hole positioning surface 12 and the collimator positioning surface 22 are mutually attached to form a universal joint structure, and the collimator 2 is used as a body for angle adjustment and fixation.

[0006] Preferably, the through hole positioning surface 12 is located at the hole of the through hole 11 and is a convex or concave spherical surface, and correspondingly, the collimator positioning surface 22 attached thereto is a concave or convex spherical surface.

[0007] Preferably, the through-hole positioning surface 12 is the inner wall cylindrical surface of the through-hole 11, and the collimator positioning surface 22 is the spherical surface of the collimator sleeve 21.

[0008] Further, after the collimator 2 is finely adjusted, it is fixed with the hole plate 1 by pouring glue 3, or fixed together with the reinforcing pipe 4 by pouring glue 3.

[0009] By adopting the technical scheme, the application has the following beneficial effects: a "universal joint" light adjusting structure is provided as a body, which is convenient for independent light adjusting and fixing of each fiber collimator, so as to ensure the light beam pointing consistency of the array fiber collimator product. Compared with the prior art, a large number of collimator screening and adaptation work can be cancelled, the technical bottleneck of array fiber collimator production is broken, and the production efficiency is high, the qualified rate is high, and the cost is low. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the prior art array fiber collimator structure; Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the hole right concave surface and the collimator left convex surface cooperation structure; Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the optional structure of the fiber collimator head; Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the glue pouring fixing structure after the universal joint light adjusting; Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the glue pouring fixing structure after the universal joint light adjusting combined with the reinforcing pipe; Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the hole right convex surface and the collimator left concave surface cooperation structure; Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of another hole right convex surface and collimator left concave surface cooperation structure; Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the hole left concave surface and the collimator right convex surface cooperation structure; Figure 9 It is a schematic diagram of the hole left convex surface and the collimator right concave surface cooperation structure; Figure 10 It is a schematic diagram of the spherical cooperation surface structure provided for the collimator sleeve; Figure 11 It is a schematic diagram of the two-piece hole plate clamping collimator structure; Figure 12 It is a schematic diagram of the through-hole inner wall and the collimator sleeve spherical surface cooperation.

[0011] In the figure: 1, hole plate; 11, through-hole; 12, through-hole positioning surface; 2, collimator; 21, collimator sleeve; 22, collimator positioning surface; 23, lens; 24, tail fiber; 3, glue; 4, reinforcing pipe. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the drawings. The following description is exemplary and is only used to explain the present application and cannot be understood as a limitation on the application; for ease of description, only parts related to the present application are shown in the drawings and not all structures; the orientation terms such as up, down, left, right, inner, outer and the like in the text are only for explaining the embodiments and should be understood in a broad sense.

[0013] Figure 1 The present application is a schematic diagram of a prior art array fiber collimator structure, a plurality of collimators are suspended and inserted into a hole plate, and then glue is filled. In order to ensure temperature stability, the suspended gap cannot be too large, for example, the hole diameter is 0.01 larger than the outer diameter of the collimator, and the thickness of the hole plate is 3, actan(0.01 / 3)=0.2°, which means that only 0.2° of angular adjustment amount is left after the collimator is inserted into the hole. This requires that the collimator must be pre-selected and matched, and only those with high precision and consistency of outer diameter and point accuracy (the angle between the collimated beam direction and the mechanical axis direction) can be used. The selection cost is high and the efficiency is low. The angular adjustment of each collimator is difficult due to the lack of body positioning.

[0014] The core idea of the present application is to provide a "universal joint" type positioning body for the installation of the collimator. The positioning surfaces are in close contact with each other, and the glue is filled after the angle is adjusted. With the positioning body, the temperature stability is guaranteed, and the collimator does not need to be pre-selected, which can be efficiently produced and can guarantee 0.01° of beam pointing consistency without obstacles.

[0015] See Figure 2 and Figure 3 Embodiments, Figure 2 The hole plate 1 provides a right concave spherical surface as a through hole positioning surface 12 at the right hole port, and the collimator 2 provides a left convex spherical surface as a collimator positioning surface 22, and the curvature radii of the through hole positioning surface 12 and the collimator positioning surface 22 are equal.

[0016] The hole plate 1 is provided with array through holes 11, and the right end of each through hole is provided with a spherical surface. Such a hole plate can be conveniently formed by molding or casting, for example, molding with low-melting-point glass or casting with metal or ceramic. The surface of the through hole positioning surface 12 is smooth, and the positional accuracy between the through holes 11 can be ensured by production process, and it is not difficult to achieve an accuracy of 50um.

[0017] The collimator 2 includes a lens 23 (a flat convex Clens in the figure) and a pigtail 24 (also called a pigtail), and includes or does not include a collimator sleeve 21. Figure 2 The collimator is of a sleeve-free type, and directly uses the convex spherical surface of the lens 23 as the collimator positioning surface 22. Figure 3Two structures of collimator sleeve 21 are provided in the figure, one is lens 23 inside shrink, one is lens 23 exposed, collimator positioning surface 22 is provided by the left end surface of collimator sleeve 21, the material of collimator sleeve can be glass, ceramic and metal, collimator positioning surface 22 is smooth.

[0018] Figure 4 And Figure 5 is the glue filling schematic diagram of multiple collimators after light adjustment through universal joint. The collimator positioning surface 22 of each collimator 2 is attached to the through hole positioning surface 12 of the hole plate 1, and there can be glue or no glue in the attached surface. When there is glue, the thickness of the glue layer is not more than 2um. The angle of the collimator 2 (the angle between the collimator axis and the through hole axis) is finely adjusted so that the collimated light beams are all directed in a unified parallel direction. The point accuracy level of ordinary collimator is about 0.5°, so the angle adjustment amount is usually not more than 0.5°.

[0019] Figure 4 is to fill glue 3 directly around the collimator, such as considering reducing the amount of glue and increasing the strength, it can be like Figure 5 A reinforcing pipe 4 is added to the head of the collimator, and glue is filled together. The inner hole of the reinforcing pipe 4 matches the outer diameter of the collimator, and the outer side is a rectangular cross section (because the through hole 11 is often a rectangular distribution, the outer side of the reinforcing pipe 4 is adapted to a rectangular cross section, such as the through hole 11 is distributed according to the hexagonal honeycomb, the outer cross section of the reinforcing pipe 4 is adjusted accordingly), or even consider combining multiple reinforcing pipes 4 into a large array hole plate pattern, only the holes of this hole plate need to accommodate the outer diameter of the collimator.

[0020] Figures 2 to 5 In the figure, the through hole positioning surface 12 is concave, of course the through hole positioning surface 12 can also be convex, and the collimator positioning surface 22 is concave at this time, such as Figure 6 And Figure 7 . Figure 6 is lens 23 inside shrink, Figure 7 is lens 23 exposed. It should be pointed out that Figure 6 And Figure 7 the lens 23 is replaced by a flat head Glens, that is, the specification of the lens is not limited in this application, and a flat head Glens can also be used.

[0021] The through hole positioning surface 12 can also appear on the left side of the hole plate 1 (towards the side of the collimated light beam), and correspondingly the collimator positioning surface 22 appears on the right side (towards the side of the tail fiber), such as Figure 8 And Figure 9 . Figure 8 is the embodiment of the concave through hole positioning surface 12, Figure 9 is the embodiment of the convex through hole positioning surface 12, and the collimator positioning surface 22 appears on the collimator sleeve 21.

[0022] The collimator sleeve 21 can also provide a spherical surface towards the side of the collimated light beam and a spherical surface towards the side of the pigtail. In this case, it is reasonable to provide a smooth spherical surface on the collimator sleeve 21. Figure 10 Three kinds of collimator sleeve 21 with spherical surface are provided. In the a scheme, the collimator sleeve is only a spherical surface. In the b scheme, the collimator sleeve has a spherical surface at one end and a cylindrical surface extending to the other end. In the c scheme, the collimator sleeve has a spherical surface in the middle and a cylindrical surface extending to both ends.

[0023] As shown in Fig. 1, the collimator sleeve 21 is provided with a spherical surface. Figure 11 When the collimator sleeve 21 has a spherical surface, the two pieces of hole plate 1 can be used to hold the collimator. As shown in Fig. 2, the hole plate 1 is provided with a through hole 11 and a positioning surface 12. Figure 10 Taking the a scheme of the collimator sleeve with only a spherical surface as an example, the positioning surface 12 of the through hole of the two pieces of hole plate 1 has the same curvature radius as the spherical surface of the collimator sleeve 21. After the angle of the collimator is adjusted, glue 3 is filled in the through hole 11 on both sides.

[0024] As a special example, as shown in Fig. 3, the hole plate 1 is provided with a through hole 11 and a positioning surface 12 in the form of a cylindrical surface. Figure 12 In the special case where the collimator sleeve 21 has a spherical surface, the hole plate 1 can be provided with a positioning surface 12 in the form of a cylindrical surface in the inner wall of the through hole 11, and the collimator sleeve 21 is provided with a positioning surface 22 in the form of a spherical surface. The collimator can be swung and adjusted, and then fixed by filling glue. In this case, the "universal joint" is a ring line contact instead of a surface contact. In order to fill the space and reduce the amount of glue, reinforcing pipes 4 can be added on both sides. The end surface of the reinforcing pipe 4 in contact with the spherical surface of the collimator sleeve can be a flat surface or a concave surface.

[0025] For the above-described embodiments, those skilled in the art can make modifications, replacements and variations without creative contribution without departing from the principles and purposes of the present application. The protection scope of the present application is defined by the claims.

Claims

1. An array fiber optic collimator, comprising one or two perforated plates (1) and multiple collimators (2), characterized in that: The perforated plate (1) has an array of through holes (11), each through hole (11) provides a through hole positioning surface (12), the collimator (2) includes a pigtail (24) and a lens (23), and may or may not include a collimator sleeve (21), each collimator (2) provides a collimator positioning surface (22). The through-hole positioning surface (12) and the collimator positioning surface (22) fit together to form a universal joint structure, which serves as a support for the collimator (2) to finely adjust the angle and fix it.

2. The array fiber collimator according to claim 1, characterized in that: The through hole positioning surface (12) is located at the opening of the through hole (11) and is a convex or concave spherical surface. Correspondingly, the collimator positioning surface (22) that is in contact with it is a concave or convex spherical surface.

3. The array fiber collimator according to claim 1, characterized in that: The through hole positioning surface (12) is the inner cylindrical surface of the through hole (11), and the collimator positioning surface (22) is the spherical surface of the collimator sleeve (21).

4. The array fiber collimator according to claim 1, characterized in that: After the collimator (2) is finely adjusted to the correct angle, it is fixed to the orifice plate (1) by applying glue (3), or fixed together with the reinforcing tube (4) by applying glue (3).

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