Effect of Surface Roughness Profiles on Optical Characteristics of Plastic Split Sleeves for Single-Mode Fiber-Optic Connectors

概要

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We successfully fabricated split alignment sleeves for single-mode operation with the injection-molding technique using both thermosetting epoxy resin and thermoplastic polyetherimide(PEI)resin. The relationship between the surface smoothness and the connection-loss characteristics of these injection-molded plastic sleeves was investigated. We made two-dimensional contour maps of the outer and inner surfaces of the plastic sleeves using the measured surface roughness. There were many contour lines on both the outer and inner surfaces of the PEI sleeve. In contrast, the epoxy sleeves had very smooth surface profiles. An offset Δ_r was estimated by using the inner-surface roughness data of the sleeve-ferrule contact regions. The connection loss of the sleeve increased as the Δ_r value increased. The measured losses agree fairly well with the theoretical losses estimated by using the Δ_r values. The PEI sleeves exhibited large Δ_r values, and one-third of them had large connection losses of > 0.5 dB. In contrast, the epoxy sleeves had very small Δ_r values of < 0.6 μm, and exhibited an average loss of < 0.1 dB.
社団法人電子情報通信学会の論文
2000-10-25