Optical receptacle and optical module provided with same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9273996-B2
Application number	US-201314381903-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 18, 2013
Priority date	Mar 5, 2012
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

An optical receptacle includes a light dividing surface that divides light from a light-emitting element into monitor light and coupling light to be coupled with an optical transmission body using total reflection. The light dividing surface includes a first curved surface that protrudes to the side opposite to a first surface from a first virtual reference surface having a slope angle of angle α[°] in relation to the first surface on a photoelectric conversion device side of an optical receptacle main body and a second curved surface that is connected to the first curved surface and protrudes to the side opposite to the first surface from a second virtual reference surface having a slope angle of angle β[°] in relation to the first surface, in which α and β satisfy α>β>critical angle.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical receptacle that is capable of optically coupling a light-emitting element and an optical transmission body in a state in which the optical receptacle is disposed between a photoelectric conversion device and the optical transmission body, the photoelectric conversion device having the light-emitting element and a light-receiving element that receives monitor light for monitoring light emitted from the light-emitting element, said optical receptacle comprising:
a first surface on the photoelectric conversion device side of an optical receptacle main body on which the light from the light-emitting element is incident and from which the monitor light directed towards the light-receiving element is emitted;
a light dividing surface that is disposed on a second surface of the optical receptacle main body on the side opposite to the first surface so that the light from the light-emitting element that has been incident on the first surface is internally incident on the light dividing surface, and that divides the internally incident light from the light-emitting element into the monitor light and coupling light to be coupled with the optical transmission body using total reflection;
a monitor light reflecting surface that is formed by an inner slope of a recessing section formed in a recessing manner on the second surface in a position on the side opposite to the total reflection direction of the monitor light and the coupling light in relation to the light dividing surface, and that reflects the monitor light that has been incident from the light dividing surface side towards a position on the first surface corresponding to the light-receiving element; and
a third surface on the optical transmission body side of the receptacle main body from which the coupling light that has passed through a section of the recessing section further towards the second surface side than the monitor light reflecting surface is emitted towards the optical transmission body, wherein
the light dividing surface includes
a first curved surface that is formed protruding to the side opposite to the first surface from a first virtual reference surface having a slope angle of angle α[°] in relation to the first surface, and
a second curved surface that is connected to the first curved surface and is formed protruding to the side opposite to the first surface from a second virtual reference surface having a slope angle of angle β[°] in relation to the first surface, wherein
α and β satisfy a following conditional expression (1)
α>β>critical angle  (1)

a portion of light from the light of the light-emitting element is internally incident on the first curved surface at an angle of incidence that is greater than the critical angle and totally reflected as the coupling light, and
a remaining portion of light from the light of the light-emitting element excluding the portion of light is internally incident on the second curved surface at an angle of incidence that is greater than the critical angle and less than the angle of incidence on the first curved surface and totally reflected as the monitor light.

2. The optical receptacle according to claim 1 , wherein:
the second curved surface is disposed on the first surface side in relation to the first curved surface.

3. The optical receptacle according to claim 1 , wherein:
the first curved surface and the second curved surface are free-form surfaces.

4. The optical receptacle according to claim 1 , wherein:
a first lens face is formed on the first surface, the first lens face enabling the light from the light-emitting element to be incident towards the light dividing surface; and
a second lens face is formed on the third surface, the second lens face emitting the coupling light towards the optical transmission body so as to converge the coupling light.

5. The optical receptacle according to claim 4 , wherein:
respective surface peaks of the first curved surface and the second curved surface are disposed on a virtual plane that includes an optical axis on the first lens face and an optical axis on the second lens face.

6. The optical receptacle according to claim 1 , characterized in that wherein:
the monitor light reflecting surface is a total reflection surface composed only of the inner slope of the recessing section disposed so that the monitor light is internally incident at an angle of incidence that is greater than the critical angle.

7. An optical module comprising:
the optical receptacle according to claim 1 ; and
the photoelectric conversion device having the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element that receives monitor light for monitoring light emitted from the light-emitting element.

Assignees

• Enplas Corp

Inventors

• Tanazawa Masahiro

Classifications

• G02B6/4286

  Optical modules with optical power monitoring · CPC title

• G01J1/0411

  using focussing or collimating elements, i.e. lenses or mirrors; Aberration correction · CPC title

• G01J1/0414

  using plane or convex mirrors, parallel phase plates, or plane beam-splitters · CPC title

• G02B6/4214 Primary

  the intermediate optical element having redirecting reflective means, e.g. mirrors, prisms for deflecting the radiation from horizontal to down- or upward direction toward a device (G02B6/4246 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01J1/4257 Primary

  applied to monitoring the characteristics of a beam, e.g. laser beam, headlamp beam (monitoring arrangements for lasers in general H01S3/0014) · CPC title