Plastic Optical Fiber Coupler with High Index Contrast Waveguide Taper

A simple low-cost Y-branch plastic optical fiber (POF) coupler which can be assembled easily by the end users has been developed. The acrylic-based Y-Branch POF coupler consists of input POF fiber, a middle high index contrast waveguide taper and output POF fibers. The optical device is based on a 1 × 2 Y-branch coupler design with a middle high index contrast waveguide taper. Nonsequential ray tracing has been performed on the device giving an insertion loss of 4.68 dB and coupling ratio of 50 : 50. The middle waveguide taper region is constructed on the acrylic block itself without using any additional optical waveguiding medium injected into the engraved taper region. Fabrication of the devices is done by producing the device structures on an acrylic block using high speed CNC machining tool. Input and output POF fibers are inserted in to this device structure in such a way that they are passively aligned to the middle waveguide taper structure. The first prototype device shows an insertion loss of 7.5 dB and a splitting ratio of 50 : 50. A second prototype device which includes additional U-groove slots for the jacketed fibers shows an insertion loss of 5.9 dB and a splitting ratio of 50 : 50. Received 13 January 2011, Accepted 24 February 2011, Scheduled 4 March 2011 Corresponding author: Abang Annuar Ehsan ([email protected]). 126 Ehsan, Shaari, and Rahman