Patent ID: 7266282

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a fiber array for optical communication, the fiber array comprising: a substrate for inserting optical fibers therein; and a press plate for pressing and fixing the inserted optical fibers, said substrate having a plurality of grooves into which said optical fibers are to be inserted, the accuracy of the center-to-center dimension between said grooves adjacent to each other being within ±0.5 μm, the degree of parallelization in the groove length direction between said grooves adjacent to each other being within ±0.1 degree, said method comprising the steps of: forming grooves into which said optical fibers are inserted in said substrate by pulsed laser beam machining; etching the inner wall of said formed grooves after said laser beam machining; inserting optical fibers into the formed grooves; and joining and fixing said inserted optical fibers to said substrate and said press plate.