American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

George M Alameel

Alexander Petrunia

Rodney W Hammond

A coupling (20) for backplane connections of an optical fiber arrangement facilitates superbly alignment of optical fibers notwithstanding blind insertion of a portion of the arrangement. The coupling arrangement includes a housing (70) which has a first end portion (52) and a second end portion (49) and which is mounted in an opening of a panel (32) such that it floats and is capable of three dimensional adjustive movement to facilitate alignment of plugs which terminate optical fibers and which are inserted into opposite ends of a sleeve (84) disposed in the housing. A longitudinal movement of the coupling is facilitated by a compression spring (102) which is disposed about the housing between the backplane and a retaining member (104). Advantageously, the second end portion of the housing is tapered inwardly to cause the plug (80) of a card (40) which is inserted blindly into the second end portion of the housing to cam against the entrance of the housing to cause the coupling to be repositioned in the panel opening. A dimensional ratio of a portion of the housing between the tapered second end portion and the sleeve cooperates with substantially frictionless washers (103-103) which engage ends of the spring to cause any movement of the coupling as the plug is inserted into its second end portion to be substantially translatory thereby insuring end face contact of the plugs to obtain a low loss, low reflection connection.

Self-adjusting optical fiber connector assembly

An opto-electronic organizer on a printed wiring card includes a plurality of opto-electronic devices each having electrical leads and at least one optical fiber extending therefrom and an optical fiber channel in the form of a closed loop for directing optical fibers. The opto-electronic devices are attached to the optical fiber closed loop channel at predetermined locations therealong and the optical fibers extending from the devices are directed into the closed loop channel wherein they are selectively interconnected. The closed loop channel has first and second portions and at least one channel joining the first and second portions so that optical fiber passing therethrough can reenter the closed loop either clockwise or counterclockwise. The organizer is affixed to the printed circuit card in predetermined alignment whereby the electrical leads extending from the opto-electronic devices are connected to prescribed electrical elements on the printed circuit card.

Growing community of inventors

Duluth, GA, United States of America

George M Alameel