Abstract: Blind mating of a rack and panel type fiber optic connector is accomplished by a course guide pin mounted within a connector mating block which is associated with a printed circuit board. The guide pin mates with a guide pin bushing provided in a chassis wall, thereby assisting in an initial nonangular movement of the conductors relative to one another and assisting in the parallel translation, as necessary, of a fiber-containing socket relative to a fiber containing connector pin. The floating part of the connector, specifically the socket, rides on a Teflon washer face and allows only lateral movement of the socket, so that there is effectively no or only minimal angular movement during the initial mating of the socket and the pin. Once the two have become initially mated, there is an accurate urging of the fiber optic pins together for extremely low loss abutment within the interior of the pin or jack portion of the rack and panel fiber optic connector.

Abstract: A single fiber connector for a pluggable card or module optical interconnection is formed of a connector socket that may be mounted to a printed circuit card or optical module and a connector pin that is attached to a housing or a suitable bulkhead by which the printed circuit card or optical module is to be supported. Each of the connector socket and the connector pin has an internally threaded axial bore for receiving and retaining a single optical fiber cable coupler from the end of which an optical fiber strand extends. Each pin and socket includes a further precision bore through which the fibers pass to abut end-to-end in the precision bore of the socket. The socket further has a tapered end male section that is inserted into a corresponding tapered end female section of the pin, with the fiber held by the pin being automatically guided into the precision bore of the male section of the socket as the printed circuit card or module is inserted into the connector on the bulkhead.