Patent ID: 6702481
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
An apparatus for fusion-splicing a first polarization maintaining optical fiber having a core and stress applying members which form a polarization plane and a second polarization maintaining optical fiber having a core and stress applying members which form a polarization plane, comprising:two cameras for sensing the first and second polarization maintaining optical fibers from two different lateral directions; an image processing unit, connected to the two cameras, for obtaining a luminance distribution for each of the first and second polarization maintaining optical fibers from at least one of images from two different lateral directions sensed by the two cameras, detecting a first luminance peak closest to a first end of a bright portion of the luminance distribution and a second luminance peak closest to a second end of the bright portion, the second end being opposite to the first end, obtaining a sum of a first distance between positions of the first end and the first luminance peak and a second distance between positions of the second end and the second luminance peak, or a third distance between positions of the first and second luminance peaks; and an optical fiber holding mechanism for moving at least one of the first and second polarization maintaining optical fibers such that the sum of the first and second distances becomes minimum or the third distance becomes maximum to adjust the polarization planes of the first and second polarization maintaining optical fibers to be coincident with each other.