Patent ID: 6961504

Claim:
An optical fiber array, comprising: a holding member including a substrate having flat surfaces arranged on opposite sides of a group of sectional V-shaped housing grooves formed in said substrate for housing optical fibers on a top face, said optical fibers each having an optical fiber tip end bare portion housed in said holding member; a cover plate positioned on the substrate; and an adhesive provided directly between the substrate and the cover plate to fix the optical fibers in the housing grooves, wherein a distance between a center axis of an outermost housing groove and an end portion of the substrate is at least five times larger than the radius of the optical fibers, a distance Y between the flat surfaces of the substrate and the cover plate is L/6≦Y≦L/2, with Y being a thickness of the adhesive between the flat surfaces and L being a distance from a contact point between the housed optical fibers and the housing grooves to the cover plate, and wherein said adhesive forms a meniscus between (i) opposed sides of the cover plate and the flat surfaces of the substrate, or (ii) opposed end portions of the substrate and respective surface portions of the cover plate, and the height of the meniscus is greater than Y.