Patent ID: 7186031

Claim:
An optical interconnect device comprising: (a) a plurality of fiber optic cables, each cable having two ends and comprising at least one optical fiber surrounded by a protective jacket where the diameter of each fiber optic cable is larger than the diameter of its optical fiber and where the protective jacket of at least a first end of the fiber optic cable have been removed thereby exposing first ends of the optical fibers; (b) a ribbonized assembly defining an input zone, a transition zone and an output zone encasing a port on of the first ends of the fiber optic cables and the optical fibers, where the fiber optic cables lie in a first plane and occupy the input zone, the fibers lie in a second plane substantially parallel to the first plane and occupy the output zone, the cables and fibers both occupy the transition zone in which the fibers are non-parallel, and the optical fibers in the output zone lie parallel to one another and have a first pitch; and (c) a ferrule terminating the ribbonized assembly, the ferrule having a plurality of internal grooves having a second pitch, wherein the first pitch of the optical fibers is substantially equal to the second pitch of the ferrule.