MEMORY POLYMER OPTICAL FIBER SPLICER AND METHODS

摘要

The present invention involves an optical fiber splicer which is made of a unistructural mass of inherent shaped memory polymer material. The unistructural mass has a longitudinal dimension with opposite ends which includes a first bore at one end and a second bore at the other end wherein the bores go into the mass and to each other. In a preferred embodiment, the first bore and the second bore are merely a single continuous oriface. The unistructural mass has a first shape and a second shape and the first shape is a unique, recoverable, predetermined inherent shape wherein the first bore and second bore each have a preset diameter to accommodate and tightly hold end segments of denuded optical fibers of predetermined diameter in spliced, butted alignment with one another. The second shape is a deformed shape caused by solvent swelling and partial shrinking of the inherent memory polymer material such that the first bore and second bore each have swollen predetermined diameters which are greater than the diameters of the end segments of the denuded optical fibers so as to loosely and freely receive the end segments of the denuded optical fibers. Thus, the unistructural mass of inherent shape memory polymer material is initially formed in the first shape, also known as the inherent shape, and is then swollen and partially shrunk to its second or deformed shape and is capable of being returned to its first shape by application of a non-mechanical stimulus thereto, such as heat. The invention is also directed to the method of preparing the optical splicer as well as the method of using the optical splicer to obtain a butt-to-butt splicing of end segments of optical fibers.