Patent ID: 7252130

Claim:
An apparatus for fabricating a multi-fiber polarization-maintaining fiber assembly comprising: a clamping jig and an orientation adjusting unit, the clamping jig including a ferrule clamping means for clamping a multi-fiber ferrule so as not to be rotated and a fiber cable clamping means for clamping polarization-maintaining fiber cables so as to be rotated, the orientation adjusting unit including: an imaging means for imaging a leading end of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables, wherein each of said fiber cables is axially parallel to and radially spaced from each other of said fiber cables held in the multi-fiber ferrule clamped by the clamping jig, an image processing means for identifying the orientation of each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables based on each image of the leading end of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables, and an orientation adjustment controlling means for controllably driving the fiber cable clamping means to axially rotate each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables for automatically adjusting the orientation of each of the polarization-maintaining fiber cables.