Fabrication of Lensed Fibers with Arc Fusion Splicer for Telecommunication Applications
2023 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2023): Proceedings 2023
Arvīds Sedulis, Armands Ostrovskis, Kaspars Zaķis, Kristaps Rubuls, Dilan Enrique Ortiz Blanco, Dmitrijs Prigunovs, Jānis Alnis, Vjačeslavs Bobrovs, Sandis Spolītis

The field of telecommunications is constantly evolving and looking for new inventions to improve transmission speeds, transmission quality, reduce costs, etc. One of the most promising innovations of recent times is photonic integrated circuits. These have arisen as a consequence of miniaturization trends and increased demand for higher data transmission speeds and pave the way to a very cost-effective future-minded technology. A significant problem for these chips is the inherently high insertion loss when coupling light into the chip. It is possible, for instance, to use various types of on-chip optical coupler configurations, e.g., focusing grating couplers, to mitigate it to some extent. Still, the high loss makes testing devices that use such technologies difficult and time-consuming. Alternatively, one can use so-called lensed fibers, which are relatively easier to work with and can effectively reduce the insertion loss of incoming light. In this paper, we demonstrate the 'in-house' production of spherical lensed fibers (SLF) by using a commercially available arc fusion splicer, which is a common piece of equipment used in the field of fiber optical communications and photonics. Our main goal is to establish how easily this fabrication method allows for manipulating important lensed fiber parameters, such as working distance and spot size. This evaluation includes the ease of production, the consistency of the fabricated samples, and the number of iterations required to hone in on the lens parameters required for the specific application. The fabricated samples are compared to commercial-grade lensed fiber products, which are used as a baseline comparison.


Keywords
Couplings, Optical fiber sensors, Technological innovation, Optical fiber couplers, Focusing, Production, Optical fiber communication
DOI
10.1109/PIERS59004.2023.10221315
Hyperlink
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10221315

Sedulis, A., Ostrovskis, A., Zaķis, K., Rubuls, K., Ortiz Blanco, D., Prigunovs, D., Alnis, J., Bobrovs, V., Spolītis, S. Fabrication of Lensed Fibers with Arc Fusion Splicer for Telecommunication Applications. In: 2023 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2023): Proceedings, Czech Republic, Prague, 3-6 July, 2023. Piscataway: IEEE, 2023, pp.1066-1070. ISBN 979-8-3503-1285-0. e-ISBN 979-8-3503-1284-3. ISSN 2831-5790. e-ISSN 2831-5804. Available from: doi:10.1109/PIERS59004.2023.10221315

Publication language
English (en)
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