Optical fiber tapping coupler
First Claim
1. In an optical tapping coupler designed to be mounted at an arbitrary tapping location along a cable including at least one optical conductor (1) constituted by a step-index glass fiber covered by a plastic covering, and said plastic covering being, in turn, covered by an insulating sheath, said coupler being used either for injecting optical energy into at least one such optical conductor or for extracting optical energy therefrom at the tapping location, the improvement wherein said coupler includes first means (3 &
- 4, 5 &
6, 7, 8,
12) for giving a determined position and a determined curvature to a portion of each optical conductor to be connected, each optical conductor to be connected having said insulating sheath removed at the tapping location so that an auxiliary optical conductor (30) can be connected thereat, second means (21,
22) for mechanically bringing one end of each auxiliary optical conductor against a respective cable optical conductor in the region in which the cable conductor presents said determined curvature, with a small angle of incidence for each auxiliary optical conductor relative to the cable optical conductor against which it presses laterally, and optical-index-matching third means (25) provided between the end of each auxiliary optical conductor and the cable optical conductor against which the end is positioned, said third means being used for locally transmitting optical energy in radiated mode between two optical conductors, one of which is a cable conductor and the other of which is an auxiliary conductor, with energy being transmitted within said conductors in guided mode.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An optical tapping coupler for a cable including at least one optical conductor (1) constituted by a step-index glass fiber which is covered by a plastic covering. First means (3 & 4, 5 & 6, 7, 8, 12) enable a determined position and a determined curvature to be given to a portion of each optical conductor of the cable, with each optical conductor being dissociated from the rest of the cable at the tapping location. Second means (21, 22) enable one end of each auxiliary optical conductor (30) to be mechanically brought against a respective cable optical conductor, with a small angle of incidence, in the region in which the cable conductor presents the determined curvature. Optical-index-matching third means are provided between the end of each auxiliary optical conductor and the cable optical conductor against which the end is positioned. The invention is used in particular for multi-station local network buses.
25 Citations
11 Claims
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1. In an optical tapping coupler designed to be mounted at an arbitrary tapping location along a cable including at least one optical conductor (1) constituted by a step-index glass fiber covered by a plastic covering, and said plastic covering being, in turn, covered by an insulating sheath, said coupler being used either for injecting optical energy into at least one such optical conductor or for extracting optical energy therefrom at the tapping location, the improvement wherein said coupler includes first means (3 &
- 4, 5 &
6, 7, 8,
12) for giving a determined position and a determined curvature to a portion of each optical conductor to be connected, each optical conductor to be connected having said insulating sheath removed at the tapping location so that an auxiliary optical conductor (30) can be connected thereat, second means (21,
22) for mechanically bringing one end of each auxiliary optical conductor against a respective cable optical conductor in the region in which the cable conductor presents said determined curvature, with a small angle of incidence for each auxiliary optical conductor relative to the cable optical conductor against which it presses laterally, and optical-index-matching third means (25) provided between the end of each auxiliary optical conductor and the cable optical conductor against which the end is positioned, said third means being used for locally transmitting optical energy in radiated mode between two optical conductors, one of which is a cable conductor and the other of which is an auxiliary conductor, with energy being transmitted within said conductors in guided mode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- 4, 5 &
Specification