Patent Application
20240393540
This disclosure relates to an optical connection module.
For an all-optical switch that performs path switching while keeping light as it is, various systems have been suggested as disclosed in Non Patent Literature 1, for example. Among these systems, an optical-fiber-type mechanical optical switch that controls abutment between optical fibers or optical connectors with a robot arm, a motor, or the like is inferior to the other systems in that the switching speed is low, but has many aspects at which the mechanical optical switch is superior to the other systems in terms of low loss, low wavelength dependence, multi-port properties, and a self-holding function of holding the switching state at a time when the power supply is stopped. Representative examples of such structures include a system in which a stage using an optical fiber V-shaped groove is moved in parallel, a system in which a mirror or a prism is moved in parallel or is made to change its angle so as to selectively couple an incident optical fiber with a plurality of exit optical fibers, and a system in which a jumper cable having an optical connector is connected using a robot arm.
However, the above-described conventional technology disclosed in Non Patent Literature 1 has a problem in that it is difficult to further lower electric power consumption, reduce size, and lower costs. Specifically, in the above-mentioned system in which a stage having an optical fiber V-shaped groove or a prism is moved in parallel, a motor is normally used as a drive source. However, since the mechanism linearly moves a heavy object such as a stage, a torque of a certain level or higher is required for the motor, and electric power consumption for obtaining the appropriate output is required to maintain the necessary torque. Since optical axis alignment using a single-mode optical fiber requires an accuracy of about 1 μm or less, it is necessary to convert rotational motion of the motor into linear motion in a sub-μm-step in a mechanism (a ball screw is generally used). An optical fiber pitch of an optical fiber array on the output side, which is usually used, is equivalent to about 125 μm of a cladding outer diameter of the optical fiber or about 250 μm in a coating outer diameter of the optical fiber. When an increased number of optical fibers is installed while maintaining the optical fiber pitch, the optical fiber array on the output side becomes large. As a result, problems arise in that the distance of linear motion becomes longer, the actual drive time of the motor has to be made longer, and the electric power consumption becomes higher. Therefore, such an optical-fiber-type mechanical optical switch normally requires electric power of several hundreds of mW or more. Meanwhile, the robot arm system using an optical connector has a problem in that a large amount of electric power, like several tens of watts or more, is required for the robot arm that controls insertion and removal of the optical connector or a ferrule. In an environment where only an optical fiber is provided, such as an outdoor overhead optical connection point, it is difficult to secure sufficient electric power to drive these optical switches.
As in an example illustrated in
In this respect, an object of this disclosure is to enable space saving of an optical fiber connection unit such as an optical switch.
There is provided an optical connection module according to this disclosure that connects first and second multi-fiber connectors,
In the first multi-fiber connector, optical fibers connected to the same optical switch are arranged in a vertical direction, and optical fibers connected to different optical switches are arranged in a horizontal direction.
In the second multi-fiber connector, optical fibers connected to the same optical switch are arranged in a horizontal direction, and optical fibers connected to different optical switches are arranged in a vertical direction.
According to this disclosure, it is possible to save a space for an optical fiber connection unit such as an optical switch.
Hereinafter, embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Further, this disclosure is not limited to the embodiments to be described below. These embodiments are merely examples, and this disclosure can be carried out in forms with various modifications and improvements based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art. Further, configurational components having the same reference signs in this specification and the drawings denote the same configurational components.
An optical connection module according to this disclosure connects first and second multi-fiber connectors
In the first multi-fiber connector, optical fibers connected to the same optical switch are arranged in a vertical direction, and optical fibers connected to different optical switches are arranged in a horizontal direction.
In the second multi-fiber connector, optical fibers connected to the same optical switch are arranged in a horizontal direction, and optical fibers connected to different optical switches are arranged in a vertical direction.
According to this disclosure, such configurations enable collective optical shuffle connection using a multi-fiber connector. Hereinafter, an example in which the first and second multi-fiber connectors are N×M-fiber (N and M are natural numbers of 2 or more) connectors will be described.
A fiber tape in which four optical fibers are one-dimensionally arranged may be used as the optical connectors CSA to CSH, and a fiber tape in which eight optical fibers are one-dimensionally arranged may be used as the optical connectors CSI to CSL. Further, this disclosure is not limited thereto, and an eight-fiber tape may be configured by arranging two fiber tapes in series in which four optical fibers are one-dimensionally arranged. In addition, a fiber tape in which optical fibers are two-dimensionally arranged may be used.
In this case, as the multi-fiber optical connectors CA and CB, MT optical connectors arranged two-dimensionally as illustrated in
In a case where the guide pin hole 12 penetrates a two-dimensional array MT connector 11, as illustrated in
Therefore, as illustrated in
Further, the penetration preventing portion 15 is not limited to being provided in the multi-fiber optical connector CA and may be provided in the guide pin hole 12 of the multi-fiber optical connector CB.
In a case where it is necessary to perform an optical shuffle connection such as manufacturing an optical switch having any number of fibers by combining a plurality of 1×N optical switches, it is possible to realize space saving of the connection portion by connecting the horizontally-arranged two-dimensional array connectors CB and the vertically-arranged two-dimensional array connectors CA.
As described above, in this disclosure, a multi-fiber connector in which a plurality of 1×N optical switches are combined and the 1×N optical switches are two-dimensionally arranged horizontally and a multi-fiber connector in which the 1×N optical switches are two-dimensionally arranged vertically are connected by connectors. Accordingly, this disclosure realizes optical shuffle connection.
Any method of realizing the multi-fiber connector can be employed, for example, a full-mesh optical connection can be realized compactly by optically connecting a group of horizontally aligned fiber optic tapes (optical fibers arranged in an array) and a group of vertically aligned fiber optic tapes (optical fibers arranged in an array).
In this case, a vertically-arrayed two-dimensional array MT ferrule produced by inserting a tape core wire so as to be perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the MT ferrule may be realized. The MT connector using the MT ferrule may have a structure in which the guide pin does not penetrate toward a tape core side.
This disclosure can be applied to information and communication industries.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2021/038968 | 10/21/2021 | WO |
