What are the technical characteristics of optical fiber connectors

Fiber optic connectors are widely used. In fact, for the knowledge of fiber optic connectors, you must only stay at the level of what fiber optic connectors do and what they do. Let's talk about the technical characteristics of fiber optic connectors and how fiber optic connectors develop.

What are the technical characteristics of optical fiber connectors

Because the optical fiber connector plays such an important role in the optical fiber communication system, manufacturers in various countries have invested a lot of manpower and material resources, conducted active and in-depth research, and developed a variety of optical fiber connectors, which are now widely used. It is widely used in various optical fiber communication systems. The main purpose of optical fiber connectors is to realize the connection of optical fibers. Now, optical fiber connectors have been widely used in optical fiber communication systems. There are many types and different structures. But on closer inspection, the basic structure of various types of fiber optic connectors is the same, that is, most fiber optic connectors are generally realized by high-precision components (composed of two pins and a coupling tube). Alignment of optical fibers.

In this method, the optical fiber is inserted and fixed in the ferrule, and after the surface of the ferrule is polished, alignment is achieved in the coupling tube. The outer components of the pins are made of metal or non-metal materials. The butt end of the ferrule must be ground, and the other end usually uses a bend limiting member to support the fiber or fiber optic cable to relieve stress. The coupling tube is generally made of two semi-synthetic and fastened cylindrical members made of ceramic or bronze and other materials, and is often equipped with a metal or plastic flange to facilitate the installation and fixation of the connector. In order to align the fibers as precisely as possible, the processing precision of the pins and coupling tubes is very high.

Because the optical fiber connector plays such an important role in the optical fiber communication system, manufacturers in various countries have invested a lot of manpower and material resources, conducted active and in-depth research, and developed a variety of optical fiber connectors, which are now widely used. It is widely used in various optical fiber communication systems.

1) The basic structure of the optical fiber connector. At present, most fiber optic connectors are composed of three parts: two mating plugs and a coupling tube. The two plugs fit into the two fiber ends; the coupling tube acts as an alignment sleeve. In addition, the coupling tube is mostly equipped with metal or non-metal flanges to facilitate the installation and fixation of the connector.

2) Alignment of fiber optic connectors. There are two ways to align fiber optic connectors:

①The alignment method of high-precision components is the most commonly used method. This method is to insert and fix the optical fiber in the support sleeve of the plug. After grinding or polishing the butt port, the alignment is realized in the sleeve coupling tube. . The support sleeve of the plug is made of stainless steel, stainless steel inlaid with glass or ceramic, ceramic sleeve, molded fiberglass plastic and other materials. The butt end of the plug is ground, and the other end usually uses a bend limiting member to support the fiber or fiber optic cord to relieve stress.

Coupling alignment sleeves are typically made of two-half composite, rigid cylindrical members made of materials such as ceramic, fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP), or metal. In order to align the optical fibers, this type of connector requires high machining accuracy for the plug and sleeve coupling components, and needs to be fabricated by ultra-high-precision casting or machining processes. The insertion loss of this type of fiber optic connector is in the range of (0.18-3.0) dB.

② The active alignment connector has low requirements on the precision of the components, and can be manufactured according to the low-cost common process. However, optical instruments (microscope, visible light source, etc.) should be used for auxiliary adjustment during assembly to align the fiber core. For lower insertion loss and higher return loss, index matching materials are also used.

How is the development of fiber optic connectors

It is mainly used to realize the non-permanent fixed connection between equipment, equipment and instrument, equipment and optical fiber, and optical fiber and optical fiber in the system. It is an indispensable passive device in optical fiber communication system.

It is a reusable passive device used to connect two optical fibers or optical cables to form a continuous optical path. It has been widely used in optical fiber transmission lines, optical fiber distribution frames, and optical fiber test instruments and meters. It is currently the most widely used optical wireless device. source device. It is precisely because of the use of the connector that the detachable connection between the optical channels is possible, which provides a test entrance for the optical fiber and facilitates the commissioning and maintenance of the optical system; it also provides a medium for network management, enabling the optical system The transfer scheduling is more flexible.

Optical fiber connectors are the most widely used optical passive components in optical systems. The requirements for connectors are mainly low insertion loss, high reflection loss, good repeatability, stable environment and good mechanical properties. Since the optical fiber connector is also a lossy product, it is also required to be inexpensive. Typical applications include communications, local area network (LAN), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), high-quality video transmission, fiber-optic sensing, test instrumentation, CATV, and more.

When installing any fiber optic system, consideration must be given to connecting optical fibers or cables to each other in a low-loss method to achieve optical link splicing. The connection of optical fiber links can be divided into two types: permanent and active. Permanent connection is mostly realized by welding method, bonding method or fixed connector, and active connection is generally realized by movable connector. The development of optical fiber connectors can be roughly divided into three stages

1) The first stage was in the 1980s. Due to the discussion of the process method of manufacturing optical fiber connectors, various structures emerged as the times require, as many as more than 20 kinds.

2) The second stage was in the 1990s. After mass production and use, the advantages and disadvantages of various structures and processes gradually became clear, and three types of FC, ST and SC connectors with Ф2.5mm ceramic pins as the key components were formed. dominant situation.

3) At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, in order to meet the needs of fiber access network and fiber to the home (FTTH). Fiber optic connectors will enter the third stage, a new generation of smaller, lower-priced connectors.

As the core device of the optical interconnection product family (including optical fiber connectors, optical cable assemblies, panels, distribution frames, etc.) A connection method for fast and reliable connection between optical fibers and optical fibers, optical fibers and instruments. With the development of the optical fiber communication industry, fiber optic connectors have also achieved remarkable development in the past decade.

The development of optical fiber and cable technology has brought the optical fiber closer and closer to the end user, the demand for shorter links is increasing day by day, and the amount of connectors is also greatly increased. It is predicted that the consumption of the global optical fiber connector market will grow at an annual growth rate of 23% in the next five years. With the in-depth development of optical cables in the direction of multi-core and high-density, multi-core optical cables need to be connected with multi-core optical connectors. It is for this reason that the MT connector that came into being has an expanding user base in the market and is based on Japan Optical Communications. The network is the center and is widely used in many fields. At present, major companies in the world are accelerating the development of MT series connectors and actively entering the market.

In recent years, with the continuous expansion of optical communication applications, especially in order to meet the needs of optical fiber access networks and fiber to the home (FTTH), countries are competing to develop new optical fiber connectors of various types and specifications. Significant improvements have been made in terms of cost reduction. The following will briefly introduce several new fiber optic connectors.

The above is all about the technical characteristics of fiber optic connectors and the development of fiber optic connectors. I believe that you have a deeper understanding of fiber optic connectors here. I hope that the above can give you some help. .