Dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector

Description

STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

BACKGROUND

Currently, the United States Navy uses standard connectors on fiber optic connector interfaces. These connectors, as well as other connectors, are difficult to inspect and clean, especially in an operational (fleet maintenance environment). Current proposals to fix this issue include a physical contact array connector and noncontact connectors. Neither types of connectors are designed for maintainability or meet U.S. Navy and Department of Defense interoperability needs.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed to a dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector that is a fiber optic connector, that includes a pin housing, a receptacle housing, and a slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly.

The present invention is directed to a dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector that allows easy cleaning and inspection.

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector that is maintainable, readily cleanable, and keeps external contaminants away from its optical surfaces.

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a connector that is readily cleanable in a tight working space application environment. Applications include fiber optic backplanes, blind-mate equipment rack connections, and store and sensor interfaces. By eliminating the use of connector guide pins and guide pin sockets, and providing a relatively flat connector mating surface, the connector optical interface is readily cleanable using standard cleaning instruments and materials.

Additionally, the present invention provides sealing gasket(s) which prevent contaminants from entering any of the dematable connector optical interfaces.

DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims, and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the de able expanded beam fiber optic connector in the demated position;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector in the mated position;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector in the mated position;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of part of the ball-bearing dimple apparatus; and,

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the corresponding the ball-bearing dimple apparatus.

DESCRIPTION

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example below and as shown in FIG. 1-5. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 comprises of a pin housing 100 including a pin plane 105, a receptacle housing 200 including a receptacle plane 205, a non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 extending from the pin housing 100 and partially disposed within the pin housing 100 and communicating with a board connector (not shown), and a slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400. The non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 includes a pin sleeve expanded beam lens terminus 305 for optical communication. The slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 is disposed within the receptacle housing 200, and includes a receptacle expanded beam lens terminus 405 containing a lens for relaying a collimated beam 415 of light between the pin sleeve expanded beam terminus 305 and the receptacle expanded beam lens terminus 405. The slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 further includes a receptacle spring 420 for applying force such that the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 is flush with the receptacle plane 205 when it is not in use (as shown in FIG. 1 in an unmated state). The slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 can optically communicate with the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 such that when the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 is mated to the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 (as shown in FIG. 2), a receptacle spring 420 compresses and allows protected optical communication between the receptacle expanded beam lens terminus 405 and the pin sleeve expanded beam lens terminus 305, and further causing the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 to communicate with a fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 that communicates with end nodes (not shown) of an optical backplane (not shown).

In the description of the present invention, the invention will be discussed in a military environment; however, this invention can be utilized for any type of application that utilizes a fiber optic connector.

In another embodiment of the invention, the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10, as show in FIGS. 1-3, further includes a receptacle lens assembly holder 940, wherein the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 is disposed within the receptacle lens assembly holder 940. Additionally, there is a holder spring 440 for applying force such that the receptacle lens assembly holder 940 is flush with the receptacle plane 205 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 when the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 is not use. The dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 also includes a pin lens sleeve assembly holder 960 for holding the non-spring loaded pin, lens sleeve assembly 300.

In the preferred embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fiber optic assembly 500 includes a fiber optic ferrule assembly spring 501 to provide physical contact force between the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400. The non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 form an optical interface 600, and the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 further includes a gasket 700 (shown in FIG. 3) wherein the gasket 700 protects the optical interface 600 from external contaminants. Additionally, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 further includes a ball bearing-dimple apparatus 800 such that the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 can be easily mated and cleaned. The ball bearing-dimple apparatus 800 can include at least 3 ball bearings 805 on either the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 or the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400, with a corresponding dimple 810 on the other assembly (element 300 or 400). As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 may be disposed within the ball-bearing dimple apparatus 800 and may include multiple connectors 10 in the ball-bearing dimple apparatus 800.

In one of the embodiments of the invention, the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 contains a ferrule assembly gasket 560 to protect the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 and the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 optical interface from external contaminants.

In another one of the embodiments of the invention, the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 are axially aligned. Two (or more) elements are axially aligned when the axes of each element are put end to end, they form a substantially straight line. In addition, the invention may include a pin alignment sleeve 900 and a receptacle alignment sleeve 920. The pin alignment sleeve 900 envelops the non-spring loaded pin lens sleeve assembly 300, while the receptacle alignment sleeve 920 envelops the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 and may optionally envelop the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500. The pin alignment sleeve 900 and the receptacle alignment sleeve 920 may be axially aligned. In another embodiment, the dematable expanded beam fiber optic connector 10 includes a guide 605 for aligning the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 such that optical communication between the fiber optic ferrule assembly 500 and the slidable spring loaded receptacle lens assembly 400 occurs.

When introducing elements of the present invention or the preferred embodiment(s) thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean there are one or ore of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.

Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred embodiment(s) contained herein.