The Application of 2D Fiber Array

2D fiber array is the longitudinal expansion of the one-dimensional fiber array, which can obtain a high-density optical fiber arrangement to meet the requirements of high-throughput information transmission, dot matrix illumination, area array detection, etc. Usually silicon micromachining technology is used to make mold, which is grinded and polished after curing through optical fiber.

Fiber array has been widely used in fields such as optical communications. With the expansion of application fields, the demand for high-speed and high-density optical fiber transmission has become more and more urgent, and it is inevitable to expand the one-dimensional  fiber array into a 2D fiber array (2D fiber array that is fiber panel ).

As 2D fiber array requires extremely high fiber positioning accuracy to ensure precise alignment of the micron-level fiber core diameter, which puts forward high requirements on processing and manufacturing. Due to the limited accuracy of the processing platform and the uncontrollable machining process, common micro-machining technologies, such as micro-EDM and pulsed laser processing, can only be used for two-dimensional fiber array with low precision such as two-dimensional fiber array composed of plastic optical fiber. Silicon micromachining technology makes use of lithography technology in integrated circuits and has the characteristics of high dimensional accuracy, no cumulative error, and batch processing due to parallel processing, which is the first choice for manufacturing mold for one-dimensional fiber array and also the first choice for manufacturing mold for 2D fiber array.

There are several types of typical applications of 2D fiber array. The most common is passive coupling, that is, a 2D fiber array is coupled with another 2D fiber array to achieve high-density and high-speed information transmission. In one type of application, the fiber array is coupled with the laser to achieve laser dot matrix illumination. In another type of application, the fiber array is coupled with the detector,which can realize the requirement of the area array detector or the large area array detector spliced by small array detector. There is also a type of application, which uses a two-dimensional fiber array unit to couple with a laser for laser dot matrix illumination, and then uses a two-dimensional fiber array to couple with the detector for corresponding laser reception, compared with flash illumination (FLASH), this scheme requires less energy and uses energy more efficiently, also, it is safer for people and has a longer laser life. In addition, polarization-preserving fiber can also be used as a two-dimensional fiber array to form a polarization-preserving two-dimensional fiber array to further improve the information transmission capability of the fiber.