CN120703922A

CN120703922A - Optical fiber sealing joint, contact assembly, and connector

Info

Publication number: CN120703922A
Application number: CN202510472754.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈晓林; 夏仁善; 张磊; 张智; 刘涛; 方运阁; 汤洋; 周晓军
Original assignee: China Aviation Optical Electrical Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: China Aviation Optical Electrical Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2025-04-15
Filing date: 2025-04-15
Publication date: 2025-09-26

Abstract

The present invention relates to an optical fiber sealing structure, and more specifically to an optical fiber sealing joint, contact assembly, and connector. The connector is provided with a contact assembly, a sintered shell, and an optical cable inserted into the sintered shell. The gaps between the sintered shell and the optical cable, and the gaps between the bare optical fibers in the optical cable, are filled with a glass sintered structure. The glass sintered structure is a structure formed by heating, melting, extruding, and solidifying a glass tube sleeved on the optical cable. A ceramic pressure plate capable of extruding the melted glass tube is provided in the cavity of the sintered shell. The optical cable is inserted into the ceramic pressure plate. Brackets are provided at both ends of the sintered shell, and an optical fiber contact connected to the optical cable is provided at the other end of the bracket. The present invention has the advantages of high airtightness and low cost, and can meet the requirements of high airtightness and low loss for optical cable glass-sealed optical fiber connectors.

Description

Optical fiber sealing joint, contact assembly and connector

Technical Field

The invention relates to an optical fiber sealing structure, in particular to an optical fiber sealing joint, a contact assembly and a connector.

Background

The optical fiber sealing joint is a product for coupling various active and passive devices and hermetically packaging the optical fiber and the shell, and is widely applied to active devices and passive devices in the military national defense fields such as civil high-speed communication, submarine communication, aerospace and the like.

The existing optical fiber sealing joint mainly comprises three schemes, namely, a sealing ring is used for sealing a sleeve, a sealing ring is fixed with the sleeve by a screw, a gap between an optical fiber and the sleeve is sealed by the sealing ring, the scheme has the advantages of high yield, simplicity in processing and large size, the screw is required for fixing, a device using the optical fiber sealing joint cannot work in a high-temperature environment, a gold-plated sleeve is adopted outside, the optical fiber is sealed and fixed in the gold-plated sleeve by glue inside, the scheme has the advantages of small size, poor sealing effect, easiness in ageing and low-temperature impact resistance, and the scheme has the advantages of small size, high sealing reliability and high cost because gold-tin solder is adopted between the optical fiber and the gold-plated sleeve after local gold plating metallization. Therefore, the invention provides the optical fiber sealing joint with low cost and high sealing reliability.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides an optical fiber sealing joint, a contact assembly and a connector, which aim to solve the technical problems that the optical fiber sealing joint cannot be compatible with volume, work in a high-temperature environment, sealing effect and cost.

The aim of the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme. The invention provides an optical fiber sealing joint, which comprises a tube shell and an optical cable penetrating through the tube shell, wherein a glass sintering structure is filled in a gap between the tube shell and the optical cable and a gap between bare optical fibers in the optical cable, the glass sintering structure is formed by heating, melting, extruding and solidifying a glass tube sleeved on the optical cable, a ceramic pressing plate capable of extruding the melted glass tube is arranged in a cavity of the tube shell, and the optical cable penetrates through the ceramic pressing plate.

Further, the part of the optical cable penetrating through the glass tube is an optical fiber stripping section for removing the coating layer, and the optical fiber of the optical fiber stripping section is a bare optical fiber.

Further, the optical cable and the tube shell are fixed at two ends of the tube shell through an adhesive, and the ceramic pressing plate is fixed with the tube shell and the optical cable through the adhesive.

Further, the optical cable is a ribbon optical cable, the glass tube is provided with an optical fiber penetrating hole II matched with the ribbon optical cable, and the ceramic pressing plate is provided with an optical fiber penetrating hole III matched with the ribbon optical cable.

The utility model provides a contact assembly, includes the sintering casing, wears to locate the optical cable of sintering casing, the space between sintering casing and the optical cable, the space between each bare fiber in the optical cable is filled glass sintering structure, glass sintering structure is the glass pipe heating that the cover was located the optical cable melts and solidifies the structure that forms after the extrusion, is equipped with the ceramic clamp plate that can extrude the glass pipe that melts in the cavity of sintering casing, and the optical cable wears to locate the ceramic clamp plate, and the both ends of sintering casing all set up the support, and the other end of support sets up the optic fibre contact spare that is connected with the optical cable.

Further, the optical cable and the sintering shell are fixed at two ends of the sintering shell through an adhesive, and the ceramic pressing plate is fixed with the sintering shell and the optical cable through the adhesive.

The utility model provides a connector, includes the casing, set up contact assembly in the casing, contact assembly's both ends cover respectively establishes clamp plate I, clamp plate II, clamp plate I respectively with sintering casing, casing circumference welded fastening in order to realize axial seal, casing and clamp plate II circumference are sealed and fixed.

Further, the insertion end of the contact component is located in the insertion cavity of the shell, a sealing ring used for sealing an insertion interface when the contact component is inserted with the adapter connector, a flange used for being connected with the bulkhead is arranged on the outer wall of the shell, and one side face of the flange is nested with the sealing ring used for being sealed with the bulkhead.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

After sample trial production and assembly, the leakage rate of the invention can reach 1X 10 ^-12Pa·m³/s, and the insertion loss is less than or equal to 1.2dB. After the connector is subjected to a temperature impact test at-55 ℃ to 125 ℃, the leakage rate and the insertion loss index still meet the indexes. Therefore, the optical fiber sealing joint with the low-temperature glass seal has the advantages of high air tightness and low cost, and the requirements of high air tightness and low loss of the optical cable glass sealing optical fiber connector can be met by the glass tube and optical fiber glass sintering sealing technology and the shell welding sealing technology. The sealing technology of the invention can achieve the airtight performance far higher than the sealing level of the current international airtight optical fiber connector, meets the airtight requirement of the existing equipment, and provides an engineering solution for the wide application of the equipment high-density all-optical network. The invention can be widely popularized and applied in the fields of coupling of various active and passive devices such as optical transceiver modules, airtight packaging between optical fibers and a shell, and the like.

The foregoing description is only an overview of the technical solution of the present invention, and may be implemented according to the content of the specification in order to make the object, feature and advantage of the present invention more obvious, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments is given with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

FIG. 1a is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a fiber optic seal segment of the present invention;

FIG. 1b is a front view of the glass tube of FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 1c is a schematic perspective view of the glass tube of FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 1d is a schematic cross-sectional view of the ribbon cable of FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 1e is a schematic diagram showing the cooperation between the glass tube and the tube shell in FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a connector of the present invention;

FIG. 3a is a cross-sectional view of the contact assembly of FIG. 2;

FIG. 3b is a cross-sectional view of the contact assembly of FIG. 2 from another perspective;

FIG. 3c is a schematic perspective view of FIG. 3 a;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the fiber optic seal joint of FIG. 3 a;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the contact assembly of FIG. 3a mated with a platen I;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of a seal between the contact assembly and the housing of fig. 3 a.

Reference numerals:

1-a housing, wherein the housing is provided with a plurality of grooves,

A 101-a flange, a flange and a flange,

102-An insertion cavity I,

103-Insertion cavity II

A 2-contact assembly, which is arranged on the upper surface of the housing,

A 21-a sintered shell body, wherein,

2101-An adhesive cavity, the adhesive cavity,

2102-A sintering chamber,

2103-A first-stage step I,

2104-A two-stage step,

2105-A first-stage step II,

2106-The fiber is threaded through the hole I,

2107-A bracket mounting slot I,

2108-A bracket mounting groove II,

A 22-glass tube, which is arranged on the inner side of the glass tube,

2201-The optical fiber is threaded through the hole II,

A 23-ceramic pressing plate, wherein the pressing plate is provided with a plurality of grooves,

2301-A fiber through hole III,

A 24-ribbon fiber cable,

A 25-a support I, wherein the support I is provided with a plurality of support holes,

A 2501-bond, a bond or a combination of bonds,

2502-MT contact mounting slots,

2503-A support plate, which is provided with a plurality of support holes,

2504-A connection plate, which is provided with a plurality of connection holes,

2505-A stop-and-stop projection,

26-A support II, which is provided with a plurality of support holes,

A 27-MT contact element is provided which,

2701-A stop step, which is provided with a stop groove,

28-A high frequency induction heating position,

29-A fiber stripping section,

210-An epoxy adhesive I, which is a reactive epoxy compound,

A 211-epoxy adhesive II, which is used for the adhesive,

A 3-pressing plate I, wherein the pressing plate I is provided with a plurality of pressing grooves,

301-A welding step I of the welding machine,

4-A pressing plate II, wherein the pressing plate II is provided with a plurality of grooves,

401-A limit step, which is a stop,

402-A welding step II,

A 5-glue ring, wherein the glue ring is provided with a plurality of glue holes,

A 6-0 type ring, wherein the ring is provided with a ring opening,

A 7-silicon rubber adhesive agent, wherein the adhesive agent is prepared from silicon rubber,

An 8-O-shaped ring mounting groove,

9-A tube shell, wherein the tube shell,

901-Fiber holes.

Detailed Description

For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application more apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments of the present application.

An embodiment of a fiber optic seal joint of the present invention is shown in fig. 1 a-1 e. The optical fiber sealing joint comprises a tube shell 9, a glass tube 22 and a ceramic pressing plate 23. The optical fiber hole 901 for penetrating the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is arranged in the tube shell 9, the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is made of 12-core arranged optical fibers, the optical fiber hole 901 is a kidney-shaped hole and is matched with the outer contour of the optical fiber ribbon cable, and the optical fiber hole 901 is in small clearance fit with the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 to prevent the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 from shaking.

The two ends of the tube shell 9 are respectively provided with a cavity, the cavities are designed into waist shapes, the inner outline size of each cavity is larger than that of each optical fiber hole 901, the cavities at the front end of the tube shell 9 are sequentially inserted with a glass tube 22 and a ceramic pressing plate 23, the ribbon optical cable 24 penetrates through the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23, and the glass tube 22 is made of low-temperature glass solder. The glass tube 22 is provided with an optical fiber penetrating hole II2201 matched with the outer contour of the optical fiber ribbon 24, the optical fiber ribbon 24 penetrates through the optical fiber penetrating hole II2201, the optical fiber penetrating hole II2201 is a kidney-shaped hole, the kidney-shaped hole in the glass tube 22 is sized to be capable of penetrating through the 12-core optical fiber ribbon 24, and the kidney-shaped hole is designed to be in small clearance fit with the optical fiber ribbon 24. The ceramic pressing plate 23 is provided with an optical fiber penetrating hole III2301 matched with the outer contour of the optical fiber ribbon 24, the optical fiber ribbon 24 penetrates through the optical fiber penetrating hole III2301, the optical fiber penetrating hole III2301 is also a waist-shaped hole, and the waist-shaped hole in the ceramic pressing plate 23 is designed to be just penetrated through the 12-core optical fiber ribbon 24.

The outer contours of the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23 are matched with the inner contour of the cavity at the front end of the tube shell 9, the design is waist-shaped, and the glass tube 22, the ceramic pressing plate 23 and the tube shell 9 are in small clearance fit, the wall thickness of each part of the glass tube 22 is uniform so as to ensure that the heat quantity experienced by each part of the glass tube in the sintering process is uniform, and the quantity of molten glass is uniform. The ceramic pressing plate 23 is made of ceramic material, and has the same appearance design as the glass tube 22, and has three main functions of protecting the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 in the ① sintering process, reducing the influence of heat on the non-stripped coating layer of the optical fiber in the tube shell 9 by utilizing the excellent heat insulation performance of ceramic, applying force from the front end of the ceramic pressing plate 23 in the ② sintering process to squeeze molten glass, fully filling gaps between the optical fibers and the tube shell 9, increasing the density of the glass tube 22 when the glass tube 22 is melted and resolidified, realizing strict sealing, increasing the strength of a sealing structure, simultaneously avoiding the molten glass from flowing out of the tube shell 9, prolonging the small clearance fit length of the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 in the tube shell 9 by utilizing the optical fiber penetrating hole III2301 of the ceramic pressing plate 23 after ③ sintering, preventing the optical fiber breakage, protecting the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 when contacts at two ends of the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 float, prolonging the service life of the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 due to the small clearance fit with the tube shell 9, ④ installing the glass tube 22 in the tube 9 and heating, and filling the molten glass into the gaps between the optical fibers and the tube shell 9, increasing the strength of the sealing structure, and the length of the glass tube 22 from being necessary to be increased by the proper length of the ceramic pressing plate 23 after the sintering, After the ceramic pressing plate 23 is inserted into the tube shell 9, the ceramic pressing plate 23 protrudes out of the tube shell 9, after heating and extrusion, the ceramic pressing plate 23 can further enter the tube shell 9, after solidification, the ceramic pressing plate 23 is flush with the end face of the tube shell 9 or protrudes out of the end face of the tube shell 9, the cavity inside the tube shell 9 is guaranteed to be filled, the tube shell 9 is supported, the integral strength of the tube shell 9 is improved, melted glass can enter an internal gap of the ceramic pressing plate 23 close to the glass tube 22, the glass and the ceramic pressing plate 23 are firmly combined, the tube shell 9 and the internal structure of the tube shell 9 are integrated, the integral strength is improved, after the ⑤ glass tube 22 is heated and melted, the position of the ribbon optical cable 24 is easy to deflect, the ribbon optical cable 24 can be arranged in the middle position of the tube shell 9 through the ceramic pressing plate 23, and when the ⑥ tube shell 9 is finished and is used, the mechanical stress and/or the adhesive temperature stress of the outside is/is directly acted on the ceramic pressing plate 23 and is not directly transferred to the glass structure formed by the glass tube 22, and the effect of protecting the glass sintering structure is achieved.

Before the 12-core optical ribbon cable 24 is threaded into the tube housing 9, the jacket, the coating layer and the like are stripped from the middle section of the optical ribbon cable 24 to form an optical fiber stripping section 29, namely, one section of optical fiber at the optical fiber stripping section 29 is a bare optical fiber, after the optical ribbon cable 24 is threaded into the tube housing 9, the optical fiber stripping section 29 can be positioned in the glass tube 22, namely, the optical fiber of the optical ribbon cable 24 positioned at the position of the glass tube is stripped into the bare optical fiber without the coating layer and then is inserted into the tube housing 9.

After the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is inserted into the tube housing 9, the stripped optical fiber stripping section 29 is placed at the installation position of the glass tube 22, and the cavity at the rear end of the tube housing 9 is provided with the silicone rubber adhesive 7 for pre-fixing the optical fiber ribbon cable 24.

After the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is pre-fixed, the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23 are sequentially loaded into the tube housing 9 from the front end.

The high-frequency induction heating process is adopted (for example, a high-frequency induction coil is sleeved outside the tube shell 9, the sleeved position is positioned at the position of the glass tube 22), the ceramic pressing plate 23 is applied with force from the front end of the tube shell 9, the ceramic pressing plate 23 presses the melted glass tube 22, the glass tube 22 is melted and filled into a gap between the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and the inner wall of the tube shell 9 and a gap between bare fibers in the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and is solidified, the glass tube 22 is melted, filled and solidified to form a glass sintering structure, the glass sintering structure is integrally arranged with the optical fiber stripping section 29 in the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and the tube shell 9, good airtight sealing is achieved, the optical fiber stripping section 29 is stripped, local damage or peeling of the optical fiber coating is avoided, and a new leakage channel is avoided to form between the bare fibers and the coating.

The front end and the rear end of the sintered optical fiber sealing joint are respectively bonded and fixed by adopting an epoxy adhesive I210 and an epoxy adhesive II211, so that the optical fiber ribbon 24 inside the optical fiber sealing joint is relatively fixed with the tube shell 9, the optical fiber sealing joint vibrates in a use environment, or the optical fiber sealing joint is used for a connector and vibrates when the connector is plugged and pulled out, the bare optical fiber at the sintering position can be prevented from being stressed and broken, and the optical fiber ribbon 24 is protected.

The tube shell 9 can be made of stainless steel materials, and the tube shell 9 and the sealing part are sealed by laser welding or electron beam welding. The tube shell 9 can also adopt a gold-plated tube shell, and the tube shell 9 and the sealing part are sealed by gold-tin welding.

The optical fiber sealing joint can be used for active devices such as optical modules or passive devices such as optical fiber connectors. When the optical fiber is required to pass through the shell of the optical module, the optical fiber sealing joint is arranged on the shell of the optical module, and the optical fiber sealing joint and the shell are sealed in a welding mode. When the front end and the rear end of the optical fiber connector need to be sealed, the contact assembly inside the optical fiber connector can be sealed by using the optical fiber sealing joint. The optical fiber sealing joint can also be used in other structures needing sealing between the optical fiber and the shell.

In other embodiments, the shape and size of the tube housing 9, the glass tube 22, and the ceramic pressing plate 23 in the optical fiber sealing joint can be adjusted according to specific requirements, for example, when 24-core, 48-core, and other optical fibers are required, that is, two, four, and other 12-core optical fiber ribbons 24 are required, corresponding numbers of waist-shaped holes for the optical fiber ribbons 24 to pass through can be formed on the tube housing 9, the glass tube 22, and the ceramic pressing plate 23, or when two optical fiber ribbons 24 are required, two optical fiber through holes II2201 can be formed on one glass tube 22, two optical fiber through holes III2301 are formed on one ceramic pressing plate 23, the two optical fiber through holes III2301 are formed on one glass tube 22, the two optical fiber ribbon cables 24 share one glass tube 22 and one ceramic pressing plate 23, and the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23 are inserted into the corresponding cavity of the tube housing 9, and when four optical fiber ribbons 24 are required, two glass tubes 22 with two optical fiber through holes II2201 and two ceramic pressing plates 23 with optical fiber through holes III2301 can be formed on the tube housing 9.

In other embodiments, after the ribbon cable 24 is pre-fixed by the silicone rubber adhesive 7, the epoxy adhesive II211 may be disposed at the rear end of the tube shell 9, the ribbon cable 24 is firmly fixed on the tube shell 9, and then sintered, and during sintering, the silicone rubber adhesive 7 may play a role in blocking, so as to prevent the epoxy adhesive from directly contacting with the glass being sintered, and after the epoxy adhesive is directly contacted with the glass and in a high-low temperature environment, the stress of the epoxy adhesive may cause glass breakage, thereby affecting the sealing effect.

In other embodiments, the epoxy adhesive may be replaced with other adhesives that bond the ribbon cable 24, the tube housing 9, and the ceramic compression plate.

In other embodiments, ribbon cable 24 may be replaced with other forms of cable, such as a bundle cable, with the mating structure of the cable matching the outer profile of the bundle cable.

An embodiment of the connector of the present invention is shown in fig. 2 to 6. The connector comprises a contact assembly 2, a housing 1, a pressure plate I3, a pressure plate II4, which enable an airtight seal, as shown in fig. 2.

The two ends of the inner cavity of the shell 1 are respectively an inserting cavity I102 and an inserting cavity II103, the bottom edge of the inserting cavity is provided with a rubber ring 5, and when the connector is inserted with an adapting connector inside and outside a bulkhead, the sealing of an inserting interface is realized through the rubber ring 5. The connector is mounted on the bulkhead by a flange 101 on the outer wall of the housing 1 and is sealed to the bulkhead by a 0-ring 6. In this embodiment, the 0-shaped ring 6 is nested on one side of the flange 101, the connector is inserted on the bulkhead, the flange 101 abuts against the outer surface of the bulkhead, sealing is achieved between the flange 101 and the bulkhead through an O-shaped ring between the flange 101 and the bulkhead, and the side, facing the O-shaped ring 6, is taken as the rear side to be described.

Reliable sealing of the interior of the connector is required to achieve a hermetic seal of all leakage paths, the connector having two leakage paths, namely a leakage path in the interior of the contact assembly 2 and a leakage path between the contact assembly 2 and the housing 1, so that the hermetic properties of the connector include a hermetic seal by the interior of the contact assembly 2 and a hermetic seal between the contact assembly 2 and the housing 1.

The airtight seal inside the contact assembly 2 is mainly achieved by the optical fiber sealing joint, and the structural design of the contact assembly 2 is shown in fig. 3a, 3b and 3 c. The contact assembly 2 comprises two 12-core MT contact pieces 27 distributed at two ends, 2 supports (a support I25 and a support II 26), a sintered shell 21, a glass tube 22, a ceramic pressing plate 23 and a 12-core ribbon optical cable 24, wherein the optical fiber sealing joint comprises the sintered shell 21, the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23, and the sintered shell 21 is a tube shell 9 in the embodiment of the optical fiber sealing joint, which is obtained by deformation design according to the structural characteristics of a connector. The 12-core optical ribbon cable 24 can realize 12-core signal transmission, and two ends of the optical ribbon cable 24 are respectively connected with one 12-core MT contact piece.

When the contact assembly 2 is manufactured, firstly, the sheath, the coating and the like are stripped from the middle section of the optical ribbon cable 24, namely, the optical ribbon cable 24 at the position of the glass tube 22 is stripped into a bare optical fiber without the coating, then the optical ribbon cable 24 is penetrated into an optical fiber penetrating hole I2106 in the sintered shell 21, the optical fiber penetrating hole I2106 is a kidney-shaped hole, the inner diameter of the optical fiber penetrating hole I2106 is matched with the outer size of the optical ribbon cable 24, and the optical ribbon cable 24 is in small clearance fit, so that the optical ribbon cable 24 is prevented from shaking in the optical fiber penetrating hole I2106.

The front and rear ends of the sintering housing 21 are respectively provided with a sintering chamber 2102 and an adhesive chamber 2101, and the sintering chamber 2102 and the adhesive chamber 2101 are communicated through an optical fiber penetrating hole I2106. The optical ribbon cable 24 is fixed on the sintering shell 21 by adopting a silicone rubber adhesive 7 and an epoxy adhesive II211 at the rear end of the sintering shell 21 after being penetrated in the optical fiber penetrating hole I2106, in the embodiment, the silicone rubber adhesive 7 and the epoxy adhesive II211 are poured into an adhesive cavity 2101, part of the epoxy adhesive II211 is arranged outside the adhesive cavity 2101 and is positioned on the rear end face of the sintering shell 21 to fix the optical ribbon cable 24 firmly, then the glass tube 22 and the ceramic pressing plate 23 are sequentially arranged in the sintering cavity 2102 at the front end of the sintering shell 21 from the front end of the sintering shell 21, and the inner outline size of the sintering cavity 2102 is matched with the outer outline sizes of the glass tube 22 and the glass pressing plate 23 and is in small clearance fit. The optical fiber penetrating holes II2201 of the optical ribbon cable 24 penetrating the glass tube 22 and the optical fiber penetrating holes III2301 of the ceramic pressing plate 23 are respectively waist-shaped holes, and are matched with the outer outline size of the optical ribbon cable 24 and are in small clearance fit.

After the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is threaded into the glass tube 22, the optical fiber stripping section 29 of the stripped coating layer of the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 is positioned in the optical fiber threading hole II2201 of the glass tube 22, and then the high-frequency induction heating position 28 shown in fig. 4 is heated by adopting a high-frequency induction coil, so that the glass tube 22 is melted at the same time, in the sintering process, the ceramic pressing plate 23 is pressed, the ceramic pressing plate 23 presses the melted glass tube 22, so that the melted glass of the glass tube 22 fully flows into the gaps between the bare fibers in the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and the gaps between the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and the sintering shell 21, the leak sealing is prevented, and the optical fiber stripping section 29 of the optical fiber ribbon cable 24 and the sintering shell 21 are solidified into a whole through the glass tube 22, thereby realizing the sealing of the inside of the contact assembly 2. After the glass is sintered, the fiber stripping section 29 of the ribbon cable 24 is integrally arranged with the sintered housing 21 through glass, so that good airtight sealing is realized, local damage or peeling of the optical fiber coating layer is avoided, and a new leakage channel is avoided between the bare optical fiber and the coating layer.

The wall thickness of the sintering housing 21 at the sintering position is uniform, so that the consistency of the heat experienced by the glass tube 22 at the time of sintering is ensured, and the high-frequency induction heating position 28 (the position where the glass tube 22 is located) of the sintering housing 21 at the time of sintering is integrally arranged in the high-frequency induction coil.

Finally, the ceramic pressing plate 23 is adhered and fixed with the ribbon cable 24 and the front end of the sintering shell 21 by adopting an epoxy adhesive I210, the MT contact 27 is stressed when the connector is inserted, the ribbon cable 24 is easy to shake, the force is easily transmitted to the joint of the bare optical fiber and the glass, the optical fiber is easy to break, the optical signal transmission is influenced, the ribbon cable 24 and the sintering shell 21 are fixed into a whole by adopting the epoxy adhesive I210 and the epoxy adhesive II211, and the ribbon cable 24 can be prevented from breaking.

The two ends of the exterior of the sintering shell 21 are provided with mounting steps, wherein the front end of the sintering shell 21 is provided with two stages of mounting steps, namely a first stage step I2103 and a second stage step 2104, and the rear end of the sintering shell 21 is provided with a first stage step II2105.

Both ends of the sintering shell 21 are respectively provided with a bracket I25 and a bracket II26, the other ends of the bracket I25 and the bracket II26 are respectively provided with an MT contact piece 27, and the bracket I25 and the bracket II26 have the same structure, and one of them is taken as an example for illustration. The bracket I25 includes two support plates 2503 disposed opposite to each other and extending forward and backward, and one sides of the two support plates 2503 are connected to each other by a connection plate 2504 so that the two support plates 2503 are connected as one body. The two support plates 2503 are provided with keys 2501 at one end near the sintering housing 21, and the two keys 2501 are disposed opposite to each other. Two bracket mounting grooves I2107 are symmetrically formed on the outer wall of the primary step I2103 of the sintering shell 21, and the key 2501 is fixed by bonding after being matched with the bracket mounting grooves I2107 for positioning. When the bracket I25 is mounted on the sinter housing 21, the key 2501 on the bracket I25 is pushed into the bracket mounting groove I from one side of the bracket mounting groove I107, and the ends of the two support plates 2503 are sandwiched outside the sinter housing 21. The key on bracket II26 is mounted in bracket mounting slot II2108 on primary step II 2105.

The cavity between the two support plates 2503 forms an MT contact mounting groove 2502, and both side walls of the MT contact mounting groove 2502 at the front and rear ends are provided with stopper protrusions 2505. The MT contactor 27 is mounted in the MT contactor mounting groove 2502, a stopper step 2701 is provided on the outer wall of the MT contactor 27, and the stopper step 2701 is located between stopper protrusions 2505 at the front and rear ends in the MT contactor mounting groove 2502, so as to limit the MT contactor 27 in the front-rear direction. When the MT contact 27 is mounted, the MT contact 27 is pushed in from one side of the MT contact mounting groove 2502, so that the MT contact 27 is quickly mounted, and the MT contact 27 is conveniently positioned. The dimension between the rear end surface of the MT contactor 27 and the stopper step 2701 is in small clearance fit with the dimension between the corresponding front and rear stopper protrusions 2505, the dimension between the thickness of the MT contactor 27 and the opposite side walls of the two support plates 2503 is in small clearance fit, and the insertion end of the MT contactor 27 protrudes out of the MT contactor mounting groove 2502. Another MT contact 27 is mounted on the carrier II 26. The floating structure of small clearance fit between the MT contact 27 and the bracket ensures that the MT contact 27 has proper activity in the MT contact mounting groove 2502, can ensure that the MT contact 27 has self-adjusting function when in butt joint, and can effectively reduce the insertion loss of the connector.

After the contact assembly 2 is assembled with the support and MT contact 27, the contact assembly and the pressing plate I3 are assembled into a whole, as shown in FIG. 5, the pressing plate I3 is a cylindrical body with an inner hole, the front end of the sintering shell 21 is arranged in the inner hole of the pressing plate I3, the inner hole of the pressing plate I3 is sleeved on the secondary step 2104, the two steps are in small clearance fit, and the pressing plate I3 and the sintering shell 21 are welded in a welding mode. The largest outer circle of the sintered shell 21 is consistent with the outer circle of the welding part of the pressing plate I3 in size. The seam between the sintered shell 21 and the pressing plate I3 is sealed axially (i.e. in the extending direction of the ribbon cable 24) by circumferential laser welding (or electron beam welding), and in order to reduce the influence of welding heat on the sintered sealing structure, the welding seam is welded by four segments. The pressing plate I3 can be sleeved on the bracket I25, so that the MT contact 27 can be prevented from falling out of the MT contact mounting groove 2502, and the insertion end of the MT contact 27 extends out of the pressing plate I3.

After the contact assembly 2 is welded with the pressing plate I3, the contact assembly is installed in the shell 1, the front end part of the pressing plate I3 extends out of the bottom surface of the insertion cavity I102, a welding step I301 is arranged on the outer wall of the pressing plate I3, the welding step I301 is flush with the bottom surface of the insertion cavity I102 and is axially sealed by adopting circumferential laser welding (or electron beam welding), in order to further improve the air tightness, O-shaped ring installation grooves 8 corresponding to each other are also formed in the outer wall of the pressing plate I3 and the inner wall of the shell 1, and the axial sealing is realized by arranging 0-shaped rings in the O-shaped ring sealing grooves 8, in this embodiment, the O-shaped rings are installed in the two 0-shaped ring installation grooves 8 in the axial direction of the outer wall of the pressing plate I3 and the inner wall of the shell 1, and the two 0-shaped ring sealing is realized by two-stage 0-shaped ring sealing.

The pressing plate II 4 is arranged in the shell 1 from the rear end of the shell 1, the pressing plate II 4 is a columnar body with an inner hole, the inner hole of the pressing plate II 4 is sleeved on the sintering shell 21 and the bracket II 26, and the inserting end of the MT contact 27 on the bracket II 26 extends out of the pressing plate II 4. The outer wall of the pressing plate II 4 is provided with a limiting step 401 for blocking with the inner wall of the shell 1, so that forward blocking limiting of the pressing plate II 4 is realized. Before the outer wall of the pressing plate II 4 is installed in the shell 1, an adhesive may be arranged on the outer wall of the pressing plate II 4 and/or the inner wall of the shell 1, after the pressing plate II 4 is installed and the adhesive is cured, the bonding fixation of the pressing plate II 4 and the shell 1 is realized, and the axial sealing is realized, or after the pressing plate II 4 is installed in the shell 1, the welding step II 402 of the outer wall of the pressing plate II 4 is flush with the bottom surface of the inserting cavity 102, and the pressing plate II 4 can be welded and fixed in the shell 1 in a welding mode to realize the axial sealing, wherein the welding mode is the same as that of the pressing plate I3, as shown in fig. 6.

After the pressing plate II4 is installed, rubber rings 5 are arranged at the bottoms of the inserting cavities at the front end and the rear end of the shell 1, and 0-shaped rings are arranged on the flange 101.

In other embodiments of the connector of the present invention, the 0-ring may be used to further seal the space between the pressure plate II4 and the housing 1, and the adhesive may be used to further seal the space between the pressure plate I3 and the housing 1.

In other embodiments of the connector of the present invention, different numbers of ribbon cables with different cores can be selected according to the needs, corresponding numbers and sizes of fiber through holes, sintering cavities and bonding cavities are designed on the sintering shell 21, glass tubes and ceramic pressing plates are installed in the sintering cavities, the glass tubes can be dual-cavity glass tubes (with two fiber through holes) or single-cavity or multi-cavity glass tubes (with one or more fiber through holes), the fiber through holes of the glass tubes are designed according to the sizes of the ribbon cables, the ceramic pressing plates can be dual-cavity ceramic pressing plates (with two fiber through holes) or single-cavity or multi-cavity ceramic pressing plates (with one or more fiber through holes), and the fiber through holes of the ceramic pressing plates are designed according to the sizes of the ribbon cables. The ends of the rack mount a corresponding number of MT contacts 27 based on the number of cores, the number of fiber optic ribbon cables 12.

In other embodiments of a connector of the present invention, ribbon cable 24 may be replaced with other forms of cable, such as a bundle cable, with the mating structure of the cable matching the outer profile of the bundle cable.

In other embodiments of a connector of the present invention, the MT contact may be replaced with other forms of fiber optic contacts.

In other embodiments of the connector of the present invention, the rubber rings 5, 0 may be replaced with other types of sealing rings.

The connector of the invention has the technical characteristics that:

① According to the invention, the glass tube matched with the external dimension of the 12-core ribbon optical cable 24 and the sintered shell 21 provided with the sintering cavity matched with the glass tube are designed, and the sealing of the glass tube 22, the 12-core optical fiber and the sintered shell 21 is realized by adopting a high-frequency induction local heating mode;

② The invention designs a ceramic pressing plate 23, wherein the ceramic pressing plate 23 protects a ribbon optical cable 24 and ensures that gaps of the ribbon optical cable 12 are fully filled with glass in the glass sintering process;

③ According to the invention, through a floating structure of the support matched with the MT contact 27, the floating butt joint of the MT contact 27 is realized;

④ The contact assembly 2 and the pressing plate and the shell 1 are welded by laser or electron beam, so that the metal matrix is fused into a whole to realize sealing;

⑤ The pipe shell 9 and the sealing component can be sealed in various sealing modes, and the application range is wide;

⑥ The glass seal of the present invention has the advantage of low cost over the high price of gold-tin solder.

After sample trial production and assembly, the leakage rate of the invention can reach 1X 10 ^-12Pa·m³/s, and the insertion loss is less than or equal to 1.2dB (the insertion loss of two butt joints, namely the insertion loss of two butt joints formed after the two ends of the connector are in butt joint with matched devices). After the connector is subjected to a temperature impact test at-55 ℃ to 125 ℃, the leakage rate and the insertion loss index still meet the indexes. Therefore, the low-temperature glass sealed optical fiber sealing joint has the advantages of high air tightness and low cost, and the requirements of high air tightness and low loss of the 12-core ribbon optical cable glass sealed optical fiber connector can be met by the glass tube and optical fiber glass sintering sealing technology and the shell welding sealing technology. The sealing technology of the invention can achieve the airtight performance far higher than the sealing level of the current international airtight optical fiber connector, meets the airtight requirement of the existing equipment, and provides an engineering solution for the wide application of the equipment high-density all-optical network. The invention can be widely popularized and applied in the fields of coupling of various active and passive devices such as optical transceiver modules, airtight packaging between optical fibers and a shell, and the like.

An embodiment of a contact assembly according to the present invention is the contact assembly in the embodiment of the connector, and will not be described herein.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An optical fiber sealing joint, comprising a tube shell (9) and an optical cable inserted into the tube shell (9), characterized in that the gap between the tube shell (9) and the optical cable and the gaps between the bare optical fibers in the optical cable are filled with a glass sintered structure, the glass sintered structure being a structure formed by heating, melting, extruding and solidifying a glass tube (22) sleeved on the optical cable, a ceramic pressing plate (23) capable of extruding the melted glass tube (22) being provided in the cavity of the tube shell (9), and the optical cable being inserted into the ceramic pressing plate (23).

2. An optical fiber sealing joint according to claim 1, characterized in that the portion of the optical cable passing through the glass tube (22) is a fiber stripping section (29) with the coating removed, and the optical fiber of the fiber stripping section (29) is a bare optical fiber.

3. An optical fiber sealing joint according to claim 1, characterized in that: the optical cable and the tube shell (9) are fixed to each other by adhesive at both ends of the tube shell (9), and the ceramic pressure plate (23) is fixed to the tube shell (9) and the optical cable by adhesive.

4. An optical fiber sealing joint according to claim 1, characterized in that: the optical cable is a ribbon optical cable (24), the glass tube (22) is provided with an optical fiber insertion hole II (2201) matching the ribbon optical cable (24), and the ceramic pressure plate (23) is provided with an optical fiber insertion hole III (2301) matching the ribbon optical cable (24).

5. A contact assembly, comprising a sintered shell (21) and an optical cable passed through the sintered shell (21), characterized in that the gap between the sintered shell (21) and the optical cable, and the gaps between the bare optical fibers in the optical cable are filled with a glass sintered structure, the glass sintered structure being a structure formed by melting a glass tube (22) sleeved on the optical cable and then solidifying after being heated and squeezed, a ceramic pressing plate (23) capable of squeezing the melted glass tube (22) is provided in the cavity of the sintered shell (21), the optical cable is passed through the ceramic pressing plate (23), brackets are provided at both ends of the sintered shell (21), and an optical fiber contact member connected to the optical cable is provided at the other end of the bracket.

6. A contact assembly according to claim 5, characterized in that the portion of the optical cable passing through the glass tube (22) is a fiber stripping section (29) with the coating removed, and the optical fiber of the fiber stripping section (29) is a bare optical fiber.

7. A contact assembly according to claim 5, characterized in that: the optical cable and the sintered shell (21) are fixed to each other at both ends of the sintered shell (21) by adhesive, and the ceramic pressure plate (23) is fixed to the sintered shell (21) and the optical cable by adhesive.

8. A contact assembly according to claim 5, characterized in that: the optical cable is a ribbon optical cable (24), the glass tube (22) is provided with an optical fiber insertion hole II (2201) matching the ribbon optical cable (24), and the ceramic pressure plate (23) is provided with an optical fiber insertion hole III (2301) matching the ribbon optical cable (24).

9. A connector, comprising a shell (1), characterized in that: a contact assembly (2) according to any one of claims 5 to 8 is arranged in the shell (1), and pressure plates I (3) and II (4) are respectively sleeved on both ends of the contact assembly (2), and pressure plates I (3) are respectively welded and fixed to the sintered shell (21) and the shell (1) to achieve axial sealing, and the shell (1) and pressure plates II (4) are circumferentially sealed and fixed.

10. A connector according to claim 9, characterized in that: the plug-in end of the contact assembly (2) is located in the plug-in cavity of the shell (1), and the bottom edge of the plug-in cavity is provided with a sealing ring for sealing the plug-in interface when plugging with the adapter connector, and the outer wall of the shell (1) is provided with a flange (101) for connecting to the bulkhead, and one side of the flange (101) is nested with a sealing ring for sealing with the bulkhead.