Patent ID: 9625656
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: G02B

Claim:
1. A method for manufacturing a multi-core optical fiber connector comprising: one or more multi-core optical fibers; and a connector having an installation face or holes formed in a row in a longitudinal direction of an end face of the connector, and a bottom face opposed to the installation face or the holes, ends of the multi-core optical fibers being held by the installation face or the holes, the method comprising: an arrangement step of arranging each of the ends of the multi-core optical fibers at a predetermined position on the installation face or keeping the ends of the multi-core optical fibers respectively penetrate through the holes; and a rotational alignment step of rotating each of the multi-core optical fibers around a longitudinal direction of the multi-core optical fiber to adjust each of rotational positions of cross sections of the multi-core optical fibers, perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, wherein each of the multi-core optical fibers comprises; a plurality of cores extending along the longitudinal direction; a marker extending along the longitudinal direction while being separated from each of the plurality of cores; and a common cladding individually surrounding the plurality of cores and the marker, wherein in a cross section of each of the multi-core optical fibers, a core arrangement consisting of the plurality of cores includes one or more linear arrangement elements and each of the linear arrangement elements is comprised of two or more cores arranged on a first straight line or on a straight line parallel to the first straight line, wherein in the cross section of each of the multi-core optical fibers, the marker includes at least one first marker element arranged on a second straight line being perpendicular to the first straight line and passing a center of the cross section, or, at least two second marker elements arranged in symmetry with respect to the second straight line, and wherein in the rotational alignment step, each of the multi-core optical fibers is rotated around the longitudinal direction so as to locate the marker at a specific position, while monitoring the marker, to align each of extending directions of the linear arrangement elements in the multi-core optical fibers with a specific direction.