Patent · US Expired

Automated workstation for the manufacture of optical fiber couplers

US5386490A · kind A · utility

53Cited by
4References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 1, 1993
Grant dateJan 31, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 1, 2013

Classification

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

Abstract

The present invention provides for a workstation for automatically manufacturing a coupler between at least two optical fibers. The workstation has a control unit for directing operations of said workstation and an operations unit for performing the manufacturing steps for the coupler. The operations unit has a pair of clamps for holding the optical fibers for the formation of a coupling region between the clamps, a torch for heating a predetermined length of the fibers between the clamps to fuse the fibers, motor assemblies responsive to the control unit for driving the clamps, a source laser block for generating an input signal into the optical fibers, and a laser measurement block which measures the signal from laser source block to determine characteristics of the coupling region between the optical fibers.

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