Multifiber optical connector and method of making same

Abstract

Two plugs each comprises a pair of plastic guide plates with inner sides in which are formed duplicate groove patterns each consisting of parallel V-sided spaced grooves running through the plugs and divided into a central set of smaller 'fiber' grooves and a pair of larger 'pin' grooves on opposite sides of and spaced from the pin grooves. The two plates in each plug are disposed with their respective groove patterns registering with each other across a transverse gap such that the fiber grooves define a set of fiber channels extending through the plug from its rear to an end face on a front nose on the plug, the pin grooves defining a pair of pin channels having front openings rearward of such end face. Optical fibers from a ribbon type cable extend through the fiber grooves to the front of the nose. The two plates are bonded together by adhesive filling the spaces in the fiber channels around the fibers, and filling also the portions of the gap between adjacent fiber channels, but not occupying the gap between portions of the plates outward of the outermost fiber channels and including the pin channels. The two plugs are joined into an optical connector by a pair of aligning pins received in the pin channels of both plugs to hold them in nose-to-nose relation so as to align with each other the optical fiber ends respectively exposed at the front ends of one and the other of such plugs, and to produce, thereby, an optical splicing of the fibers, in respectively, the two plugs. The groove patterns in the plates in each plug may be derived from a common master pattern formed in a silicon chip.