Characteristics of Fiber Optic Connector's Apex Offset in Polishing Process

The characteristics of the fiber optic connector's apex offset in the polishing process is studied. Based on the relationship between the ferrule boundary height difference and the other key parameters, the analytical relationship among the apex offset, curvature radius and the polishing parameters is established. The simulation results indicate that the apex offset increases as the curvature radius increases, which theoretically explains the trend of the apex offset. And the apex offset may almost linearly increase with the distance between the centers of the polishing plate's revolution and the ferrule, respectively. In addition, the uniformity for the apex offsets, corresponding to the different distances, may be better with a larger angular velocity of the polishing plate's revolution. The polishing experiment results indicate that the ferrules with a large curvature radius would generally have a large apex offset. In general, the ferrules, far away from the center of the polishing plate's revolution, would have a large apex offset, and a larger angular velocity of the polishing plate's revolution would lead to a less difference between the apex offsets, corresponding to the different distances from the center of the polishing plate's revolution. The experimental results agree with the theoretical analysis results.