Ferrule Adhesive Filling with Venting and Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ferrules with adhesive filling parts struggle to provide sufficient fastening force for optical fibers, leading to increased transmission loss due to incomplete adhesive application and air bubbles, especially when multiple fibers are aligned, causing detachment and weak fixation.
Innovation Solution
A ferrule design with upper and lower openings in the adhesive filling part allows for adequate adhesive application between the optical fiber and the ferrule's inner wall, using a refractive index matching material and a prism plate to enhance optical signal transmission and precision alignment without additional devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If adhesive filling part is filled with adhesive to fix optical fiber, then optical fiber is fixed to ferrule, but adhesive may not reach bottom surface and air remains causing weak fastening force
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive filling part is divided into multiple segments by introducing partition walls that extend from the bottom surface toward the opening. This segmentation creates multiple narrow adhesive application paths, allowing adhesive to reach the bottom surface effectively without being blocked by air bubbles or optical fibers, thereby ensuring complete adhesive application and strong fastening force.
Solution Approach 2:
Partition walls are introduced as intermediary structures within the adhesive filling part. These partition walls guide the adhesive flow and prevent air entrapment, acting as mediators between the adhesive and the optical fiber to ensure complete adhesive application and eliminate air bubbles that would otherwise weaken the fastening force.
2Quantity of substance
If multiple optical fibers are aligned inside adhesive filling part, then fiber capacity increases, but adhesive builds up on upper side and cannot reach bottom surface
Solution Approach 1:
Partition walls divide the adhesive filling part into multiple narrow channels around the aligned optical fibers. This segmentation allows adhesive to flow uniformly along each channel and reach the bottom surface without building up on the upper side, ensuring complete and uniform adhesive distribution even when multiple optical fibers are present.
3Ease of manufacture
If adhesive fills from opening only, then filling process is simple, but air bubbles remain and fastening force is weak
Solution Approach 1:
The partition walls create multiple narrow adhesive paths from the opening to the bottom surface. This segmentation allows simple top-down adhesive filling while preventing air bubble entrapment, as the narrow paths enable air to escape efficiently. The result is complete adhesive application with strong fastening force, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while improving reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The ferrule design ensures robust fixation and reduced transmission loss by ensuring complete adhesive application and minimizing air bubbles, while enabling precise optical path conversion and alignment without the need for additional positioning devices.
Implementation Method 1
an adhesive filling part that is surrounded with an upper wall part and a lower wall part, and that is to be filled with an adhesive to be applied between the optical fiber inserted in the fiber hole and an inner wall surface of the adhesive filling part
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3D
AI summary
[Problem] To fix an optical fiber to a ferrule with sufficient fastening force. [Solution] A ferrule in the present disclosure includes a fiber hole into which an optical fiber is to be inserted, an adhesive filling part that is surrounded with an upper wall part and a lower wall part facing the upper wall part, and that is to be filled with an adhesive to be applied between the optical fiber inserted in the fiber hole and an inner wall surface of the adhesive filling part, an upper opening provided in the upper wall part for filling the adhesive in the adhesive filling part, and a lower opening provided in the lower wall part for ventilation between the adhesive filling part and outside of the ferrule.