Patent ID: 7209615

Claim:
A method of forming a fiber bundle from a plurality of separate optical fibers including at least one single mode fiber, the method comprising the steps of: arranging the plurality of separate fibers into a closely-packed circular assembly, with a single mode fiber at the center of the assembly, the single mode fiber defined as including a central core region and a surrounding cladding region; stripping all outer coating material from each fiber within the collected, closely-packed circular assembly, so as to expose the outer cladding layer of each fiber; exposing the stripped collected assembly to an etching material that reacts with the material of the outer cladding layer of each fiber, thus etching away a predetermined portion of the outer cladding layer of each fiber to form a fiber of reduced diameter; and fusing together the etched end portions of the plurality of fibers to form the fiber bundle wherein the reduced diameter of each fiber allows for the fused portion to be tapered with respect to the non-etched portion of the fiber bundle.