Patent ID: 7686522

Claim:
An optical coupling component for use in a two-way optical communication connector comprising: a single piece of body fully made of an optically transparent synthetic resin material, said body comprising: a columnar sending side optically functional section having a rod-like shape light-propagating path with no sleeve and having a first optically coupling portion at one end and a second optically coupling portion at the other end, wherein the first optically coupling portion of the columnar sending side optically functional section receives sending light, and wherein the second optically coupling portion of the columnar sending side optically functional section outputs the sending light; a columnar receiving side optically functional section having a rod-like shape light-propagating path with no sleeve and having a first optically coupling portion at one end and a second optically coupling portion at the other end, wherein the first optically coupling portion of the columnar receiving side optically functional section receives receiving light, and wherein the second optically coupling portion of columnar receiving side optically functional section outputs the receiving light; and a joint section positioned and connected between said optically functional sections, wherein: said joint section has a body portion and opposite joint end portions, each of the joint end portions adjoins to a circumferential surface of the corresponding columnar optically functional section with a joint region; a circumferential length of each joint region adjoining to the circumferential surface of the corresponding columnar optically functional section is less than or equal to half the circumference of the corresponding columnar optically functional section.