Patent ID: 8260102

Claim:
A plastic optical fiber (POF) 2-to-1 optical coupler for use in a bi-directional optical communications link, the optical coupler comprising: a first D-shaped POF having a first D-shaped end face and a second D-shaped end face; a second D-shaped POF having a first D-shaped end face and a second D-shaped end face; and a coupler end face configured to interface with a first end face of a generally circularly-shaped POF, the coupler end face comprising the second D-shaped end faces of the first and second D-shaped POFs, wherein the second end faces of the first and second D-shaped POFs are bonded together to form the coupler such that the coupler end face has a generally circularly-shaped cross section, and wherein the coupler end face has a cross-sectional area that is approximately equal to a cross-sectional area of the first end face of the generally circularly-shaped POF.