Patent ID: 6899466

Claim:
A method of qualifying a ferrule assembly as being adequate to make physical contact upon mating, said ferrule assembly comprising a ferrule having an end face and at least one fiber in said ferrule, said method comprising: measuring the following parameters of said ferrule assembly; fiber undercut; radius of curvature of said end face; and apex offset from the center of said fiber in said ferrule assembly; qualifying said ferrule assembly if said fiber undercut is less than said maximum fiber undercut, said maximum fiber undercut complying with the following equation: u ( R ,δ)= C·R β −R+√{square root over (R 2 −δ 2 )} where, u=said maximum fiber undercut, R=said end face radius of curvature, C=a constant related to compressive force, β=a constant related to a given ferrule material, and δ=said apex offset.