Retention grooves for optical-fibre connectors

Optical-fibre aligning grooves with lands of fungiform cross-section cramp inserted fibres and hold them accurately in place. Such grooves have been realised by a combination of photolithographic, etching and electrodeposition techniques. Experiments have shown that linear arrays of optical fibres can be positioned to close tolerances, while the mounting operation of the fibres is facilitated. The technique requires no adhesive. Measuring results are presented, showing that the lateral misalignment of fibres between to separately fabricated connector halves is within 5% of the outside fibre diameter. That entails a geometric coupling loss within 0.4 dB with a mean loss at 0.26 dB.