A Single-Channel Fiber Optic Rotary Joint On The Basis Of TEC

Fiber Collimators
Lei Mi
123
Sheng-li Yao
13
Chuan-dong Sun
1
Bo Sun
3
Hong-ju Zhang
13
1.Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Xian 710119 China
2.Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Science ,Beijing 100039,China
3.Femto technology (xian) co. LTOXian 710119, China
Keywords: fiber optical rotary joint, TEC fiber, TEC fiber
collimator, insert loss
Abstract
This article describes a single-channel single-mode fiber
optic rotary joint for optical data transmission based on well
designed TEC fiber collimator. The insertion loss of a fiber
optic rotary joint depends on the mechanical misalignments of
the fiber collimator. Analysis of the characteristics of TEC
fiber and TEC fiber collimator coupling characteristics .
Using TEC fiber collimator can reduce the loss of angle tilt
misalignment. We fabricated single-channel fiber optic rotary
joint which insert loss below 1.27dB . We tested fiber-optic
rotary joint by temperature shock from range of 40 C up to
+ 85 C , our products the average variation of insertion loss
is 0.22dB.
1 Introduction
The Fiber Optic Rotary Joint
[1]
(FORJ) is the optical
equivalent of the slip ring. It allows uninterrupted
transmission of an optical signal while rotating along the fiber
axis. The FORJ is widely used in missile guidance systems,
robotic systems, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), medical
devices (OCTs), phase-arrayed antennas fiber-guided
scanning cameras oil drilling systems, sensing systems, and
many other military or commercial applications where a
twist-free fiber cable is essential. Compared to its counterpart,
the electrical slip ring , FORJ is immune to electo-magnetic
interferences.
Therefore fiber optics is the right technology for higher
data rates and tougher requirements. To ensure that the optical
signal is efficiently transmitted,both ends of the single-mode
fiber are required to be held very closely and in proximity so
that a minimal amount of light is lost in the gap
[2]
. Two fibers
are placed on this axis with a small gap between the fiber
ends while one fiber is pivoted . For single mode applications
it has to be guaranteed that the fiber cores are well adjusted to
each other to get a low loss system. The integration of fiber
collimators allows a bigger gap between the fibers and makes
the system more insensitive to a lateral misalignmentbut
makes more sensitive to an angular tilt misalignment. Most
of FORJ produced by single-mode fiber collimatorBut the
fiber optic rotary joint is more difficult to fabricate which
requires high mechanical precision.
In this letter, a single channel FORJ was designed using
TEC fiber collimator, the working principle and structure of
which are similar to those of single-mode fiber collimator.
Compared with single-mode fiber collimator, the insertion
loss of TEC fiber is better becasus the TEC fiber collimator is
more insensitive to an angular tilt misalignment.Through the
optimization precise mechanical design, the insertion loss of
single channel FORJ is less than 2 dB at either the 1310nm or
1550nm wavelength.
2 Characteristics and theoretical analysis of
TEC Fibers
Thermally diffused expanded-core (TEC) Fiber
[3]
is a
significant fiber device to reduce the coupling loss induced by
optical alignment error between two different core SM fibers
and between the SM fiber and the laser diode, and during
assembling of micro-optic components. This technology can
be applied to most single mode fiber, although not to multi-
mode fibers, and can be used widely in the field of
communications, in measurement equipment and more.Since
mode field expansion and collimation can be achieved
without a lens, TEC Fiber can be used to built high quality
system with low loss and high reliability.
A TEC fiber has an enlarged mode field diameter(MFD)
obtained by heating a conventional single-mode fiber locally
at a high temperature (1300~2000 ) and diffusing some
dopants as Germanium into the core
[4]
. The core expansion
rate depends on the heating temperature, the heating time and
the dopant intensity in the fiber core . TEC fiber has the
feature that although thermal diffusion changes the refractive-
index profile, the normalized frequency does not change and
hence the single mode condition is maintained through the
process.
Figure. 1 is a schematic illustration of a thermally expanded
core fiber. This shows that a TEC fiber with a maximum core
diameter 2a
max
, and a taper length 2L is fabricated from an
optical fiber with an initial core diameter 2a
o
. In this section,
we analyze theoretically the characteristics of TEC fibers
fabricated from 1.55um SMF.
437
The 9th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN2010)
Nanjing, China, 24-27, October, 2010
Figure 1 Schematic illustration of a thermally expanded core
fiber
We assume that the fiber heating region is very long and
that the expanded core is uniform in the longitudinal direction.
The diffusion equation in a cylindrical coordinate is expressed
by
[5]

1 du d du
r D
dt r dr dr
| |
=

\ .

|
1
where u is the dopant concentration, t is the heating time, r is
the radial distance from the fiber center, and D is the diffusion
coefficient.
The germanium dopant concentration u(r, t) is derived
from (1) as follows
( )
( )
( )
( ) ( )
2
0
0 2 2
0
1 1
2
,
n
a
D t n
n
n n
J r
u r t e rf r J r dr
a J a
o
o
o
o

=
=
_
)
2
where a is the outer diameter of a fiber, f ( r ) is the initial
shape of the dopant distribution, J
0
and J
1
are Bessel functions of
the first kind with orders of zero and one, respectively,
n
o are
nth order positive roots derived from
( )
0
0
n
J ao = .
Refractive index profile of an optical fiber is propor-
tional to the distribution function of the dopant and is
expressed as follows:
( ) ( ) (
2 2 2 2
p r p
, n r n n n u r t = + )
r
3
where and are the refractive indexes of the cladding and
the core of the SI-SMF before thermal diffusion, respectively.
u(r, t)is the distribution of the dopant as a function of radial
position and heating time GeO is usually used as the dopant
in standard SMFs. The normalized frequencyof the fiber
with such index profile can be defined as:
( )
( )
2
2 2 2
0 0
0
2 v k n r n rd

=
)
4
(4) is expressed by using (3) as follows:

( )
2 2 2 2
0 r p
0
( , )2 v k 5 n n u r t rdr

=
)

The integral of
)
is constant, as it
corresponds to the total amount of the dopant within a cross
section of the fiber.This means that the normalized frequency
is kept constant throughout the diffusion process. Higher
order modes are not produced in the TEC process.
0
( , )2 u r t rdr

v
Diffusion distributions were calculated with the use of an
expression of diffusion from a layer with limited thickness
d=2a -the core diameter
[6]
:

( )
0
,
2 2 2
N r d r
N r t erf erf
D t D
| | + | | |
=
| |
\ . \ \ .

t
|
|
.
6
where:
N
core dopant concentration before diffusion, d
layer thickness (core diameter), D diffusion coefficient,t
diffusion time, r distance from the core center.
0
Gaussian distributions calculated using an expression:

( ) ( )
2
0 2
, 0, exp
diff
r
N r t N t
A
|

=
|
\ .
|
|
7
here:
( )
0
0, N t - concentration in the core center decreasing
over time,
2
diff
A was defined in the work, here
s the core diameter after diffusion where the dopant
concentration decreases by e times.Good consistence of
diffusion and Guassian distributions was established , it was
the better the longer the diffusion time and greater diffusion
coefficient were .
4 a Dt = +
diff
A
For Gaussian mode field distribution LP (step
refractive index profile) we obtain :
01

ln
diff
diff
A
v
e =
8
This expression was used to calculate the radius of mode
fields for TEC fibers.Parameters correspond to the standard
single mode telecommunication fiber with step refractive
index profile (SI SMF) G. 652. with
2 2
r p
2
r
A =
and numerical aperture NA = 0.116 ( the above presented
parameters were calculated for = 1.55m ).When fusion
splicing temperature t=2000 a diffusion coefficient was
accepted
% 100% 0.35%
2
n n
n

=
13 2
5 10 m / D s

= . The fiber core radius was

5.05m, the dopant concentration (before diffusion) was
26 3
0
7.29 10 N m

=
.So we calculated when t=67.3s
diff
e =15um.The fiber was enlagered 3 times.
3 Coupling analysis of SMF and TEC Fibers
collimator
The section is about the design theory of TEC Fiber
collimator, the theoretical analysis data of TEC Fiber
collimator are shown to demonstrate the advantages of TEC
fiber collimator such as short work distance, small light spot
and insensitive deviation of angle. TEC Fiber collimator is
highly expected to be widely used for small integrated optical
elements in near future. And the insensitive to the angle
deviation character on the out beam is potential to be used in
the FORJ.
The excess loss of a fiber collimator is due to the
misalignment between the transmitting (collimating) and
receiving (focusing) GRIN lenses. There are three types of
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The 9th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN2010)
Nanjing, China, 24-27, October, 2010
misalignment: (1) axial separation misalignment between the
faces of the collimators, (2) lateral offset misalignment
between the longitudinal axes of the collimators, and (3)
angular tilt misalignment between the longitudinal axes of
the collimators. These are illustrated in Figure. 2.
Fig. 2. Three types of misalignment: (a) axial separation
misalignment( ), (b)lateral offset misalignment ( ), (c)
angular tilt misalignment(
0
Z
0
X
u )
Because the fundamental mode of the Gaussian beam is
rotationally symmetric around its axis of propagation.For
SMF collimators, we can use the Gaussian field
approximation method to characterize the coupling loss, and
three formulas to describe the coupling loss that is due to only
one of the three misalignments have been reported
[7,8]
.
The formula for loss that is due to axial separation
misalignments is

0
2
2 0 0
0
4.343
X
n A
L X
t e

| |
=
|
|
\ .
8
The formula for loss that is due to lateral offset
misalignments is

2
2
0
4.434ln 1
2
z
Z
L
n

te

|
= +

(
\ .

(
|
(
|
9
The formula for loss that is due to angular tilt
misalignments is

2
0 0
tan
4.343 L
n A
u
u
e

=


(
(
10
The SMF used for the collimators is Corning SMF-28 fiber
with a core diameter of 8.3 mm and a 125-mm cladding.
When it is used at the 1550nm wavelength,the SMF has a
10 m mode field diameter which indicates that
0
5.05 m e =
and a numerical aperture of 0.12. The TEC fiber
used for the collimators at 1550 nm wavelength with a
30 m mode field diameter which indicates that
0
15 m e =
and a numerical aperture of 0.04.The quarter-pitch Selfoc
GRIN lenses are 4.8 mm long and 1.8 mm in diameter, with a
refractive index of on axis and a gradient
constant
0
n 1.5916 =
1
A 0.3265mm

= .Using above parameters into the

formulas (8)(9)(10) . The calculated coupling loss against
axial separation misalignment is shown in Figure. 3 .
Figure 3 the coupling loss of SMF and TEC fiber collimator
axial separation misalignment
The calculated coupling loss against lateral offset
misalignmentis shown in Figure. 4 .

Figure 4 the coupling loss of SMF and TEC fiber collimator
lateral offset misalignment
The calculated coupling loss against angular tilt
misalignmentis shown in Figure. 5.
Figure 5 the coupling loss of SMF and TEC fiber collimator
angular tilt misalignment
The calculated results show the loss of SMF collimator
is least sensitive to axial separation misalignment and lateral
offset misalignment and very sensitive to angular tilt
misalignment.So SMF collimator requires high mechanical
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The 9th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN2010)
Nanjing, China, 24-27, October, 2010
precision to alignment the Gaussian beam axis.But high
mechanical precision is very difficult to achieve.
The calculated results also show the loss of TEC fiber
collimator is greatly reduced sensitive to angular tilt
misalignment.So we can greatly reduce mechanical precision
to reduce the insert loss of FORJ.
4 Manufacturing and testing of Single-channel
fiber optic rotary joint
We fabricated small-scale batches single-channel single-mode
fiber optic rotary joint by TEC fiber collimators Show in
Figure.6.

Figure 6 single-channel single-mode FORJ samples
The insertion loss at 1550 nm wavelength of FORJ was
tested with a LD light source. The maximum insertion loss in
rotation is less than 1.27dB,and rotation variation of insert
loss is less than 0.42dB .The testing result show in table 1.
Serial number
Insert loss
dB
Rotation Variation
dB
001 0.56-0.90 0.34
002 0.96-1.27 0.31
003 0.63-1.02 0.39
004 0.85-1.25 0.40
005 0.76-1.18 0.42
Table 1 Single-mode FORJ insertion loss testing (@ 1550nm)
The FORJs must qualified for a temperature shock
range of 40 C up to + 85 C.The testing result of FORJs
were showing in Figure.7.
Figure7 temperature shock testing of FORJs
The attenuation of FORJs is varying within a range of
< 0.39 dB while temperature shock range of 40 C up to +
85 C in 80 minutes. The average variation of insertion loss is
0.22dB.
5 Conclusion
It has been demonstrated, that a single-channel single-mode
fiber optic rotary joint for optical data transmission based on
well designed TEC fiber collimator, and a rotating can be
manufactured with very low optical insertion loss. The
characteristics of the TEC fiber to reduce insert loss of
angular tilt misalignment in the FORJ are shown. We study
the influence of misalignment on coupling efficiency when
the SMF collimator and TEC fiber collimator is employed.
We manufactured small-scale batches single-channel
single-mode fiber optic rotary joint by TEC fiber collimators.
The maximum insertion loss in rotation is less than
1.27dB,and rotation variation of insert loss is less than
0.42dB .
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The 9th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN2010)
Nanjing, China, 24-27, October, 2010