VARIABLE BRANCHING RATIO TYPE OPTICAL BRANCHING COUPLER AND VARIABLE CONNECTION RATIO TYPE OPTICAL COUPLER

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a variable branching ratio type optical branching coupler and a variable connection ratio type optical coupler which are used for an optical fiber communication system. ;SOLUTION: The variable branching ratio type coupler is composed of a 1st collimator assembly including a 1st collimator lens 14 and 1st and 2nd optical fibers F1 and F2 which have their tips optically connected and disposed at a distance (d) from each other centered on the optical axis of the lens, a 2nd collimator assembly including a 2nd collimator lens 15 and a 3rd optical fiber F3 which has its tip optically connected and disposed at a distance d/2 from the center of the optical axis of the lens, and a reflecting mirror means between the collimator lenses 14 and 15 and the reflecting mirror is driven to distribute light of F1 to F2 and F3. Consequently, the constitution of the coupler is simple and the constituent components can easily be mass-produced in terms of manufacture technology. The light insertion loss based upon a branching ratio is eliminated and the branching ratio of the quantity of light can be varied continuously. The resolution of branching ratio adjustment can be made high and the influence of environment and an external force is reducible.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2001,JPO