Plastic optical connectors molded directly onto optical fibers and optical fiber ribbons

A technique is reported where plastic optical connectors (ferrules) have been transfer molded directly onto optical multimode fibers or fiber ribbons with a silica filled epoxy thermoset. The fabricated connector-types are cylindrical ferrules with 2.5 mm diameter for 1 fiber and flat MT-compatible connectors with 4 or 8 fibers. Preconnectorized optical cables of fixed lengths, typically between 0.2 m and 200 m can be manufactured to a low cost and should be of interest for many applications in the telecom and datacom fields. The loss properties achieved-mean loss values below 1 dB per connector-meet requirements for short haul optical links.<
>