Patent · US Expired

Optoelectric connector

US6004044A · kind A · utility

17Cited by
17References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 3, 1995
Grant dateDec 21, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 3, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02B6/4249
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An optoelectric connector (12, FIG. 2) is described, which has an outer end (96) constructed to efficiently couple to an optical fiber connector (14) and which has an inner end (47) with electrical contacts (46) for passing currents representing modulated light received or transmitted to an optical cable (20) attached to the optical connector. The optoelectric connector (12) includes a stub (80) or short length of optical fiber with an outer end (82) held at a coupling that couples to the optical fiber (24) of the cable in the same manner as a pair of long optical fibers are connected to minimize losses. The stub has an inner end (84) optically coupled to the optic face (42) of a photoelectric transducer (40) which is coupled to an electrical contact (46). The outer end (82) of the stub is preferably movable slightly to enable facewise contact with the end of a mating optical cable fiber (24), and the stub has a middle (102) that extends in a curve to enable its outer end to move slightly while its inner end remains fixed in position.

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