CN1790074A - Method for manufacturing optical fiber array connector - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for manufacturing an optical fiber array connector for optical communication, the key point of the method is to combine femtosecond laser irradiation and chemical treatment to manufacture array through holes in substrate materials such as quartz glass, borate glass, microcrystalline glass or translucent ceramics, and then insert the optical fiber into the through hole and fix it to manufacture the optical fiber array connector. This method avoids the steps of pre-manufacturing molds and blank sintering required by previous manufacturing methods, and has the characteristics of simple manufacturing process, high precision of hole spacing and low production cost.

Description

Manufacturing method of optical fiber array connector

technical field

The invention relates to optical communication, in particular to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber array connector for optical communication combined with femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation and chemical treatment.

Background technique

So far, the connectors and fiber array connectors used to fix optical fibers, connect optical fibers and optical communication components, and optical fibers are generally machined into V-shaped grooves on the surface of microcrystalline glass, silicon substrate, quartz glass, etc., or use _ZrO2 Ceramics are produced by using a metal mold as a blank, then sintered and finally machined to form the pores. The machining accuracy of the V-shaped groove is ±5μm. To ensure the accuracy of the V-shaped groove, it needs to be corrected by cutting and polishing. But the procedure is loaded down with trivial details, and production efficiency is low. In addition, with _ZrO2 ceramics, the accuracy of the distance between the holes is ±2μm. Due to the stress during processing, the crystal structure changes from tetragonal to monoclinic during sintering, which causes the connector to expand and affects the dimensional accuracy. The optical fiber connectors and optical fiber array connectors prepared by these methods can be reinforced with adhesives after the optical fibers are inserted, and have a relatively simple operation, but the accuracy of the distance between the holes with more than two through holes and the array of through holes is affected. Due to the influence of various factors in metal mold manufacturing, forming, sintering and processing, it is very difficult to control the precision below 1 μm.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the defects of the above-mentioned prior art and provide a method for preparing a high-precision optical fiber array connector. The method of the present invention should have the characteristics of simple manufacturing process, high precision of hole spacing and low production cost.

Technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

A method for manufacturing a high-precision fiber optic array connector, the method comprising the following steps:

① Make a long hexahedron plate from a solid material that can pass through the femtosecond laser;

② An end face of the plate into which the optical fiber is inserted is fixed on a three-dimensional mobile platform with high-precision displacement, and the Z-axis of the plate is perpendicular to the three-dimensional mobile platform;

③ Focus a femtosecond laser beam on the lower surface of the plate, and then use the three-dimensional mobile platform to scan and ablate the plate from bottom to top to form a through line , and then move the three-dimensional mobile platform along the horizontal X-axis and Y-axis according to the needs, and then perform femtosecond laser scanning and ablation to obtain multiple uniformly spaced array through lines;

④ Soak the plates with through-lines in hydrofluoric acid and corrode to form an array of through-holes;

⑤Insert the optical fiber in the through hole and fix it with an adhesive to make an optical fiber array connector.

The movement precision of the three-dimensional mobile platform is less than 1 μm.

The long hexahedral plate is made of quartz glass, borosilicate glass, glass-ceramics or transparent ceramics after cutting and surface polishing.

The average power of the femtosecond laser beam is 5mW-500mW, the pulse frequency is 10Hz-200KHz, and the wavelength is 750nm-800nm. The scanning speed of the femtosecond laser beam is: 5 μm/s˜5 mm/s.

Technical effect of the present invention:

Combining femtosecond laser irradiation and chemical treatment, the present invention can form trumpet-shaped array holes on the surface of quartz glass, borosilicate glass, glass ceramics and transparent ceramic materials in a short time and with high precision;

This method does not require pre-made molds in the manufacturing process, and the precision is controlled by a three-dimensional mobile platform, which can be easily controlled below 1 μm.

In addition, the method does not require sintering during the manufacturing process, which avoids precision errors caused by deformation and crystal transformation.

Therefore, the method of the invention has the characteristics of simple process, high precision of hole spacing and low production cost.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 shows the through-line of the array after femtosecond laser scanning

Figure 2 is an array of through holes formed after hydrofluoric acid etching

In the figure: 1-substrate, 2-through array line, 3-through array hole, 4-horn mouth

Detailed ways

The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments, but the protection scope of the present invention should not be limited thereby.

Please refer to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the manufacturing method of optical fiber array connector of the present invention, comprises the following steps:

① Make a long hexahedron plate from a solid material that can pass through the femtosecond laser, as shown in Figure 1;

② An end face of the plate inserted into the optical fiber is fixed on a three-dimensional mobile platform with high-precision displacement, and the Z-axis of the plate is perpendicular to the three-dimensional mobile platform;

③ focus a femtosecond laser beam on the lower surface of the plate, and then use the movement of the three-dimensional mobile platform along the Z axis to scan and ablate the plate from bottom to top to form A through-line, and then move the three-dimensional mobile platform along the horizontal X-axis and Y-axis according to the needs, and then perform femtosecond laser scanning and ablation to obtain an array of through-lines with uniform intervals, as shown in 2 in Figure 1;

④ Soak the plates with through-lines in hydrofluoric acid and corrode to form an array of through-holes, as shown in 3 in Figure 2;

⑤Insert the optical fiber in the through hole and fix it with an adhesive to make an optical fiber array connector.

The obtained small hole array has high precision of hole diameter and distance between holes, and the surface has a certain bell mouth shape (4 in Fig. 2). During the irradiation of the femtosecond laser, we used a high-precision three-dimensional mobile platform (with an accuracy of 100nm), so that the accuracy of the size of the holes and the distance between the holes can be controlled within 1 μm. The optical fiber is inserted into the hole and fixed with an adhesive to form a connector for optical communication. The method can realize the optical fiber connector and the optical fiber array connector with high processing precision and low price.

In this method, various parameters of the femtosecond laser (average power, pulse frequency, wavelength, etc.), the scanning speed of the laser (referring to the moving speed of the three-dimensional platform) and the use of focusing lenses with different magnifications are used to obtain small laser beams of different shapes and sizes. Holes, through the method of multiple scans to obtain a small hole array.

The following are specific examples:

Example 1:

Focus a 5mW femtosecond laser with a pulse frequency of 10Hz and a wavelength of 800nm on the bottom of a 5mm thick polished quartz glass with a 100x lens, and then scan from bottom to top at a speed of 5μm/s to form 2 laser beams with an interval of 250μm. × 2 wires. Then soak in 4wt% hydrofluoric acid solution, and apply ultrasonic waves, forming a through-hole array with a diameter of 125 μm and a trumpet structure on the surface. And the accuracy of the distance between the through holes is 250±1 μm. Insert the optical fiber into the hole and fix it with an adhesive to form an optical fiber array connector for optical communication.

Example 2:

Focus the 100mW femtosecond laser with pulse frequency of 1KHz and wavelength of 750nm on the bottom of the 5mm thick polished quartz glass with a 50 times lens, and then scan from bottom to top at a speed of 1000μm/s to form 6 laser beams with an interval of 250μm. ×6 wires. Then soak in 4wt% hydrofluoric acid solution, and apply ultrasonic waves, forming a through-hole array with a diameter of 125 μm and a trumpet structure on the surface. And the accuracy of the distance between the through holes is 250±1 μm. Insert the optical fiber into the hole and fix it with an adhesive to form an optical fiber array connector for optical communication.

Example 3:

Focus the 500mW femtosecond laser with pulse frequency of 200KHz and wavelength of 850nm on the bottom of a 5mm thick polished quartz glass with a 2x lens, and then scan from bottom to top at a speed of 5000μm/s to form 10 laser beams with an interval of 250μm. ×10 wires. Then soak in 4wt% hydrofluoric acid solution, and apply ultrasonic waves, forming a through-hole array with a diameter of 125 μm and a trumpet structure on the surface. And the accuracy of the distance between the through holes is 250±1 μm. Insert the optical fiber into the hole and fix it with an adhesive to form an optical fiber array connector for optical communication.

Example 4:

Focus the 100mW femtosecond laser with a pulse frequency of 50Hz and a wavelength of 775nm on the bottom of a 5mm thick polished glass-ceramic with a 20x lens, and then scan from bottom to top at a speed of 50μm/s to form a 500μm interval. 8×8 wires. Then it is soaked in 5wt% hydrofluoric acid solution and ultrasonic waves are applied to form an array of through holes with a diameter of 126 μm and a trumpet structure on the surface. And the accuracy of the distance between the through holes is 500±1 μm. Insert the optical fiber into the hole and fix it with an adhesive to form an optical fiber array connector for optical communication.

Claims (5)

1, a kind of manufacture method of optical fiber array connector is characterized in that this method comprises the following steps:

1. the solid material that can see through femtosecond laser is made long hexahedron plate;

2. an end face of the insertion optical fiber of described plate is fixed on one and has on the three-dimensional mobile platform of high precision displacement, and makes this plate Z axle perpendicular to described three-dimensional mobile platform;

3. a femtosecond laser beam is focused on the lower surface of the described plate of irradiation, described then femtosecond laser beam utilizes moving along the Z axle of described three-dimensional mobile platform to scan the described plate of ablating from bottom to top, form a through track, the moving three dimension mobile platform moves along the X-axis and the Y-axis of level as required again, carry out femtosecond laser scanning again and ablate, obtain to have at interval array through track uniformly;

The plate that 4. will have through track is immersed in the hydrofluorite and corrodes, and forms the array through hole;

5. in through hole, insert optical fiber, use adhesive securement, make fiber array device in succession.

2, the manufacture method of optical fiber array connector according to claim 1, the mobile accuracy that it is characterized in that described three-dimensional mobile platform is less than 1 μ m.

3, the manufacture method of optical fiber array connector according to claim 1, it is characterized in that described long hexahedron plate by quartz glass, borate glass, devitrified glass or light transparent ceramic through cutting, make after the surface finish.

4, according to the manufacture method of claim 1 or 2 or 3 described optical fiber array connectors, it is characterized in that the average power 5mW～500mW of described femtosecond laser beam, pulsed frequency is 10Hz～200KHz, wavelength is 750nm～800nm.

5, the manufacture method of optical fiber array connector according to claim 4, the sweep velocity of described femtosecond laser beam is: 5 μ m/s～5mm/s.

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