What Are the Applications of FA (Fiber Array)?

With the development of ultra-high-speed and integrated optical communications, optical transceiver modules also hope to adopt smaller and more integrated solutions, and the demand for parallel high-speed optical components is growing rapidly. Fiber array unit (Fiber array, FA) has very high requirements on materials and processing technology, resulting in high costs, and has not been widely used at 10G speeds. With the rapid advancement of 400G and 800G high-speed transmission, high-density, small-volume optical fiber arrays can be said to be a more ideal solution.

Ⅰ. The scope of application of optical fiber array

Optical fiber arrays are most commonly used in the packaging of planar optical waveguide splitters (PLC) and arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG). With the explosion of data traffic, the demand for optical fiber arrays in data centers and 5G commercial applications is growing rapidly. FA has also been more widely use in MEMS systems, sensors, silicon photonics and other fieldsd.

Ⅱ. Application of high-speed optical component fiber array

1. High-speed optical components MT-FA

MT-FA is widely used in parallel transmission of optical transceiver modules, such as 100GPSM4 connected to an external port. The end-face total reflection is achieved by grinding the fiber array into a 42.5° reflector, using a low-loss MT ferrule. And the V-groove pitch tolerance range is ±0.5μm, which can provide the most compact parallel connection scheme for the optical transceiver module.

2. Application of optical fiber array in AWG: AWG-FA-Receptacle

The receptacle is usually combined with FA, Capillary, Isolator, etc. to form an optical connection device, which is used as the external connection optical port of the optical module to realize the connection and transmission of optical signals outside the module.

3. Polarization maintaining PM-FA of high-speed optical components

Polarization-maintaining PM-FA is more often used in coherent optical communications. Polarization-maintaining fiber can keep the polarization state of light waves in the transmission process and can give full play to the advantages of coherent reception. The polarization-maintaining PM fiber array uses a V-groove (V-groove, V-Groove) to install a polarization-maintaining fiber ribbon on the array substrate, and can achieve highly dense parallel transmission while ensuring the stability of the light wave polarization.

4. Silicon-optical integrated optical components: mode field conversion MFD FA

The mode field diameter conversion fiber array provides a low-loss coupling method to a waveguide with a smaller mode field. A small section of ultra-high numerical aperture single-mode fiber (UHNA) is spliced to a standard SM or PM fiber pigtail, realizing the conversion of the mode field.