Polymeric optical mixing rod coupler

A technique for making optical mixing rod splitters and combiners using extruded plastic tubing and optically transparent casting resins to form a waveguide-type mixing region is described. A resin-filled mixing rod coupler is described and shown to be useful in a variety of short-distance optical interconnection applications where multimode step-index fiber is appropriate. It may also offer a higher yield than some competing, more complex techniques.<>