USE OF MEASURED FORCE AS AN INDICATOR FOR END FACE CONTACT IN MECHANICAL FIBER OPTIC SPLICING Nicholas Peterson, 1 Bradley Yost, 1 Elizabeth Meiser, 1 Eric Heard, 1 William Boyden, 1 Michael Block, 1 David Gafaglione, 1 Juock Namkung, 1 Joseph Tsang 2 and Mark Beranek 1 Naval Air Systems Command 1 Patuxent River, Maryland 2 China Lake, California Jeffrey R. DiMaio, Adam Haldeman, Joseph Murray, Kelum Randunu, Margaret Shaughnessy and Quynh-ho Taylor Tetramer Technologies Pendleton, South Carolina Mechanical fiber optic splicing using ultraviolet light (UV) curable adhesive to bond and index match optical fibers is well established [1-2].However; the current methods rely upon the operator to insert prepared optical fibers into the splice and determine the correct insertion distances manually. This paper describes the use of a computer controlled apparatus to insert the optical fibers as well as measure mechanical forces to indicate the correct end face contact. The aim of this effort is to develop a splicing method that can consistently produce low insertion loss mechanical splices. In addition to this method, this effort utilizes a new refractive index matching material developed by Tetramer Technologies. This material was designed to meet the requirements of MIL-PRF-24623/7 and MIL-PRF-28800F, while maintaining a shelf life of 6 months or longer without refrigeration, which is beyond the performance of state-of-the art commercial UV-curable optical resins [3-4]. Mechanical Splicing Apparatus An initial investigation was conducted to better understand the causes of high insertion loss in mechanical splices. It was determined that a major contributor to insertion loss was axial misalignment of the two fiber end faces. Even when using an index matching optical resin or gel, a gap of a single millimeter can introduce 10 dB of insertion loss to a splice. The goal of this project is to create a reliable and repeatable method to minimize this gap length and produce low insertion loss mechanical splices. Two methods were investigated; active optical imaging and mechanical force monitoring. This paper focuses on the latter method. The test apparatus, as shown in Figure 1, consists of two symmetrical fixtures. Each fixture consists of a v-grooved force gauge mounted on linear motion stage. Between these motion fixtures, is a third stage used to hold the glass capillary. The motion stages are moved towards the capillary, while the axial forces on each fiber are measured. The motion stages are controlled via a computer running LabVIEW, which also collects the data from the force gauges and from any optical measurement equipment. Figure 1: Mechanical Splicing Apparatus. The capillary is shown in the center in blue. 30 TuD4 (Contributed) 5:10 PM - 5:30 PM U.S. Government work not protected by U.S. copyright