PURPOSE: To provide the optical fiber array which has the larger degree of freedom in the number of optical fibers and the intervals thereof than the conventional groove type silicon chips by forming an electroplating layer at the ends of the array of coated optical fibers and substantially arranging the coated optical fibers at equal intervals with this layer, thereby fixing the entire part.
CONSTITUTION: This optical fiber array is constituted of plural coated optical fibers 4 formed by coating the optical fibers 2 with metal films 3. The electroplating layer 5 is formed at the ends of the coated optical fibers 4, by which the coated optical fibers 4 are arranged at substantially equal intervals and the entire part is fixed. The surfaces of the optical fibers 2 may be directly coated with the metal films 3, but usually these films are preferably formed at a thickness of several μm or below by an electroless plating method, vacuum vapor deposition method, etc., after the optical fibers 2 are coated with carbon films and further, the films are formed at the prescribed thickness by an electroplating method. The blank material thereof is copper, nichel, etc. The end faces of the respective coated optical fibers 4 of the resulted optical fiber array 1 are polished to a prescribed angle, in such as flat or sloped state.
MINAMIGUCHI HIROSHI
IKEGAMI SEIJI
KUROBA TOSHIAKI
