Flame-fused Optical Fiber Directional Couplers: Fabrication and Automated Process Control

Abstract

A microprocessor controlled system for fabrication of 2 x 2 flame-fused biconical single-mode fiber directional couplers has been designed and realised. The system involves multiple motorized movements of mechanical stages, and an electronic hardware. The associated software developed for executing CPU operation enables presetting key fabrication control parameters like time of flame fusion, fiber pulling speed etc for minimising the excess loss and achieving various target specifications with regard to the coupling ratio. It has almost all the features of industrial fabrication. This automatic fabrication system has been successfully tested in our laboratory by drawing a number of couplers.

Indexing terms:

• Optical fiber components
• Optical fiber directional coupler