Patent ID: 11926553
Assignee: 3SAE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC C  G | IPC C

Claim 19:
20. A self-learning optical fiber tapering apparatus comprising:
at least one processor, a computer memory, at least one heat source, at least one fiber holder, and one or more sensors; and
fiber tapering program code executable by the at least one processor to execute a fiber tapering method comprising:
receiving tapering parameters defining characteristics of an optical fiber taper;
computer-modeling an idealized fiber taper based on the fiber parameters to establish modeled data;
from the tapering parameters, establishing fiber processing parameters for controlling aspects of the fiber tapering machine;
performing a tapering operation on the optical fiber according to the processing parameters to produce a first resultant fiber taper;
measuring aspects of the first resultant fiber taper to establish measured data, including collecting fiber diameter over length data in real time as the first resultant fiber taper is created using one or more sensors;
determining differences between the first resultant fiber taper and the idealized fiber taper, including:
from the modeled data, determining an idealized fiber taper diameter per unit time;
from the measured data, determining a resultant fiber taper diameter per unit time;
determining a difference between the idealized taper diameter and the resultant taper diameter per unit time; and
determining at least one taper ratio based on the difference between the resultant taper diameter and the idealized taper diameter at one or more times;
adjusting one or more of the processing parameters according to the at least one taper ratio; and
performing a next tapering operation using the adjusted processing parameters to form a second resultant fiber taper of the optical fiber or a resultant fiber taper on a different optical fiber.