Optical fiber alignment measurement method and apparatus

摘要

A measurement system comprising an analog position sensitive device is provided that can measure the XY position of a plurality of light beams at very high resolution. In accordance with one exemplary associated method, a connector bearing one or more optical fibers is fixedly positioned before a position sensing detector so that light emanating from the ends of the optical fibers will strike the position sensing detector. A light beam is passed through at least one opening in the connector, such as a guide pin hole onto the detecting surface of the PSD to establish the position of the connector. Next, each optical fiber in the connector is individually illuminated sequentially so that the light emanating from the fiber falls on the position sensing detector. The locations of all of these light beams striking the PSD are compared to position of the light beam passed through the guide pins and/or to each other to determine if all the fibers are in the correct positions relative to the connector. In addition, it is possible to simultaneously measure the magnitude of the light emanating from each fiber in order to measure the quality of the light transmission through the connector/cable assembly.