Patent · US Expired

Fiber optic power splitter

US5121452A · kind A · utility

19Cited by
6References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 1, 1990
Grant dateJun 9, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 1, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02B6/2856
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

Fiber optic power splitters having a central fiber and a selected number of surrounding fibers spaced periodically around the central fiber and the method of fabricating such splitters are described. For splitters having between three and five surrounding fibers, the central fiber is made to have a reduced diameter relative to the surrounding fibers so that it contacts each of the surrounding fibers and each of the surrounding fibers, likewise, touches each of its neighboring fibers. For splitters having seven or more surrounding fibers, the diameters of the surrounding fibers are reduced relative to the central fiber so that mutual contact is made among the set of equal diameter surrounding fibers and the central fiber. The equation governing the relative diameters of the central and surrounding fibers, and methods of obtaining uniform diameter reduction in an optical fiber are described. Single-mode splitters made according to these means have relatively low variation of splitting fraction with variations of input optical power wavelength and can be made to distribute optical power input in any fiber among, e.g. three to seventeen outputs according to predeterminable relationship…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.