Low-loss multifibre connectors with plug-guide-grooved silicon

Low-loss interchangable multifibre connectors have been developed using plugs consisting of large guiding grooved and fibre-fixing V-grooved silicon chips. Guiding grooves etched on silicon chips accomplish extremely small average fibre offset less than 2 ¿m. A 6-fibre connector plug pair selected from the same wafer exhibits 0.14 dB average connection loss. Connector plugs from different wafers exhibit 0.17 dB and 0.24 dB average connection losses.