The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 23, 2014
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2011
Paul F. Wysocki, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Alan Heaney, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Stephen Kreger, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Mark Froggatt, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Ken Walker, Semora, NC (US);
Paul F. Wysocki, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Alan Heaney, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Stephen Kreger, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Mark Froggatt, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Ken Walker, Semora, NC (US);
Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and structure for terminating an optical fiber are disclosed that provide an optical fiber termination structure with a small volume and very low return loss, even when the termination is in close proximity to reflective surfaces. In one example embodiment, the optical fiber termination reduces reflections into the one or more cores to a return loss of −70 dB or less regardless of the presence of surfaces proximate the optical fiber termination. At the same time, a length of the optical fiber termination is less than 5 mm and a largest transverse dimension of the optical fiber termination is less than 325 um. The optical fiber termination is useful in fiber sensing applications in general and is particularly effective for terminating a multi-core fiber used in a distributed shape sensing application.