Optical fiber connector is a detachable (movable) connection device between optical fiber and optical fiber. It precisely connects the two ends of optical fiber, so that the optical energy output by the transmitting optical fiber can be coupled to the receiving optical fiber to the maximum extent, and the impact on the system caused by its intervention in the optical link is minimized, which is the basic requirement of optical fiber connector. To some extent, the optical fiber connector also affects the reliability and performance of the optical transmission system.
According to different transmission media, optical fiber connectors can be divided into common single-mode and multi-mode connectors of silicon-based optical fiber, and other optical fiber connectors with plastic as transmission media. According to the connector structure, they can be divided into FC, SC, St, LC, D4, DIN, mu, MT and other forms. Among them, St connector is usually used for wiring equipment end, such as fiber distribution frame, fiber module, etc.; while SC and MT connector are usually used for network equipment end. There are FC, PC (including SPC or UPC) and APC according to the end face shape of optical fiber; there are single core and multi-core (such as MT-RJ) according to the number of optical fiber cores. Fiber optic connectors are widely used and of various kinds. In the process of practical application, we usually distinguish according to the different structure of optical fiber connector. The following are some of the more common fiber connectors at present:
(1) FC type optical fiber connector
The connector was first developed by NTT in Japan. FC is the abbreviation of ferrale connector, indicating that the external reinforcement method is metal sleeve, and the fastening method is turnbuckle. The earliest, FC type connector, the butt end of the ceramic pin used, looks like "C". This kind of connector is simple in structure, convenient in operation and easy to manufacture, but the fiber end is more sensitive to dust, and it is easy to produce Fresnel reflection, so it is difficult to improve the return loss performance. Later, this type of connector was improved by using a pin (PC) with a spherical butt end, while the external structure was unchanged, which greatly improved the insertion loss and return loss performance.
(2) SC type optical fiber connector
This is an optical fiber connector developed by NTT company of Japan. The shell is rectangular, and the structure size of the pin and coupling sleeve is the same as FC type,. The end face of the pin is mostly grinded by PC or APC; the fastening method is plug pin latch type without rotation. This kind of connector has the advantages of low price, convenient insertion and removal, small fluctuation of insertion loss, high compressive strength and high installation density.
St and SC interfaces are two types of optical fiber connectors. For 10base-f connection, the connector is usually st type. For 100base FX, the connector is mostly SC type. The core of St connector is exposed, and the core of SC connector is in the connector.
(3) Biconic connector
The most representative product of this kind of optical fiber connector is developed by Bell Laboratories in the United States. It consists of two cylinder plugs with truncated conical ends and a coupling assembly with double tapered plastic sleeves inside.
(4) Din type optical fiber connector
This is a connector developed by Germany. The structure size of the pin and coupling sleeve used in the connector is the same as that of FC type, and the end face is treated by PC grinding. Compared with FC connector, its structure is more complex. There is a spring controlling the pressure in the internal metal structure, which can avoid the damage of the end face due to the excessive plug pressure. In addition, the mechanical accuracy of the connector is high, so the insertion loss value is small.
(5) MT-RJ connector
MT-RJ started from the MT connector developed by NTT. It has the same latch mechanism as RJ-45 LAN electrical connector. It aligns the optical fiber through the guide pins installed on both sides of the small sleeve. In order to connect with the optical transceiver conveniently, the optical fiber at the end face of the connector is designed as a double core (0.75mm interval) arrangement, which is the next generation of high-density optical fiber connector mainly used for data transmission.
(6) LC type connector
LC connector is developed by Bell Research Institute. It is made of modular jack (RJ) latch mechanism. The size of the pin and sleeve used is half of the size used for common SC, FC, etc., which is 1.25mm. This can improve the density of the fiber connector in the fiber distribution frame. At present, in the single-mode SFF, LC type connector has occupied the leading position in practice, and its application in multi-mode is also growing rapidly.
(7) Mu connector
Mu (minimum unit coupling) connector is the world's smallest single core optical fiber connector developed by NTT based on the most commonly used SC connector. The connector adopts a 1.25 mm diameter sleeve and a self-retaining mechanism, which has the advantage of high-density installation. NTT has developed Mu connector series with MU's l.25mm diameter sleeve. They have socket type connectors (mu-a Series) for optical cable connection, backplane connectors (mu-b Series) with self-retaining mechanism, and simplified sockets (mu-sr Series) for connecting LD / PD modules and plugs, etc. With the rapid development of optical fiber network to the direction of larger bandwidth and larger capacity and the wide application of DWDM technology, the demand for mu connector will also grow rapidly.
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