Bell Telephone Laboratories

Willis Martin Muska

Tingye Li

William M Hubbard

Stewart David Personick

James Emanuel Goell

An optical fiber coupling assembly is mounted on the back of a repeater module so that when the repeater is slid into a rack near which an optical fiber frame plug is mounted, the optical fibers of the frame plug are laterally captured at an orientation angle by tapered grooves in an alignment receptacle of the coupling assembly and progressively urged so as to be precisely positioned near repeater optical fibers or semiconductor devices. A spring loaded construction automatically decreases the orientation angle to zero so that the fibers rest in the whole length of the grooves. The assembly additionally slides the fibers relative to the grooves and into abutment with the fibers or devices to which they are being coupled.

Fiber positioning and connection method and apparatus

A directional optical waveguide coupler and power tap is disclosed for use with optical fibers or planar-form optical waveguides. Abutted to the end of a cladded optical transmission waveguide is a section of a second optical waveguide comprising a core surrounded by a cladding layer, the core having a smaller cross-sectional area than the core of the transmission waveguide. In the present arrangement, light energy propagating in the core of the second waveguide towards the transmission waveguide is coupled into the core of the transmission waveguide at the point of abuttment, whereas light energy propagating in the core of the transmission waveguide towards the second waveguide is coupled into both the core and cladding layer of the second waveguide at the point of abuttment. Means disposed along the second waveguide adjacent the point of abuttment couples out of the cladding layer the cladding modes transferred from the core-guided modes of the transmission waveguide for subsequent conversion into a representative electrical signal. A stripper-absorber means is also disposed along the second waveguide for removing spurious cladding modes propagating therebeneath towards both the coupling out means and the point of abuttment between the two waveguides.

Directional optical waveguide coupler and power tap arrangement

There is disclosed a variety of arrangements for tapping a portion of the signal power from an optical fiber waveguide without requiring that the fiber be terminated or broken. Power is coupled out of the fiber waveguide, which typically includes an inner core surrounded by a lower refractive index outer cladding, by disposing a dielectric body in a coupling relationship with an intermediate length of the fiber from which all or most of the cladding has been removed or, alternatively, which is bent to cause a portion of the power to radiate out of the inner core into the outer cladding of the fiber. The dielectric body couples power out of the fiber provided its index of refraction is approximately equal to, or greater than, that of the fiber cladding material. The power coupled out by the dielectric body is converted to a representative electrical signal by a photodetector disposed adjacent to the dielectric body.

Optical fiber power taps

There is disclosed an arrangement for tapping signal power from an optical fiber waveguide without requiring that the fiber be terminated or broken. An intermediate length of a fiber waveguide from which all or most of the outer cladding has been removed is sandwiched between first and second dielectric bodies, each illustratively in the form of a circular disk. The first body, which serves to couple optical power out of the fiber, is formed of a relatively compliant dielectric material, such as a soft plastic, having an index of refraction approximately equal to, or greater than, that of the outer cladding of the fiber. The second body is formed of a relatively hard dielectric material, such as a glass or hard plastic, having an index of refraction less than that of the first body. The two dielectric bodies and the fiber are placed in a specially designed holder and forced together so that the fiber deforms the first body providing a large area of contact therewith. A photodetector disposed adjacent to the first body detects the power coupled out of the fiber, converting it to a representative electrical signal suitable for utilization. The holder serves to maintain the proper pressure and alignment among the two dielectric bodies, the fiber and the photodetector during the tapping process. In a modified embodiment of the fiber tap, the second dielectric body is provided with a rounded surface which forces the fiber to bend into a radius sufficient to cause power to radiate out of the inner core of the fiber into the outer cladding. The latter embodiment can thus tap optical power from a clad fiber without requiring that all or most of the fiber cladding be removed therefrom in the vicinity of the tap.

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Little Silver, NJ, United States of America

Willis Martin Muska