Patent ID: 6882790

Claim:
An optical fiber array comprising: a substrate having a shoulder and including a grooved portion and a planar portion which are formed integrally with each other on respective opposite sides of said shoulder; said grooved portion of said substrate having a plurality of grooves formed such that said plurality of grooves are arranged in parallel with each other and such that each of said plurality of grooves is defined by two side walls which form a predetermined angle therebetween; a plurality of optical fibers partly accommodated within said plurality of grooves, respectively, and thereby positioned on said grooved portion, said plurality of optical fibers being supported by said planar portion of said substrate; a covering plate disposed on said grooved portion of said substrate, to force said optical fibers partly accommodated in said plurality of grooves of said grooved portion, onto said two side walls of said each groove, to thereby position said optical fibers; and adhesive layers formed so as to fill gaps between said optical fibers and said substrate and between said optical fibers and said covering plate, for integrally bonding said optical fibers to said substrate and said covering plate, and wherein said gaps consists of a gap having a transverse cross sectional surface area S 1 and formed between each of said optical fibers and an upper surface of said grooved portion of said substrate, and a lower surface of said covering plate, and a gap having a transverse cross sectional surface area S 2 and formed between said two side walls of each of said grooves and said each optical fiber, said transverse cross sectional surface areas S 1 and S 2 being determined to satisfy and inequality S 1 >S 2 .