FIBER OPTIC CABLE WITH ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS AT BOTH ENDS
A fiber optic cable is disclosed, a fiber optic cable containing multiple optical fibers within an enclosure, where the fibers are divided into two groups, the first group of fibers being arrayed together and the second group being free fibers. The arrayed fibers are used to carry signals that are desired to be maintained in synchronization with each other, while the free fibers are used to carry signals whose synchronization with other signals is not important. In one example, four optical fibers form a linear array, and two free optical fibers are arranged on two sides of the linear array.
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This invention relates to a data transmission cable using optical fibers and having electrical connectors at both ends, and related fabrication methods.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is directed to a connecting device for a fiber optic cable for converting electrical signals and optical signals to each other, and a cable device having a fiber optic cable and such connecting devices at both ends.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the descriptions that follow and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims thereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a fiber optic cable containing multiple optical fibers within an enclosure, where the fibers are divided into two groups, the first group of fibers being arrayed together and the second group being free fibers. The arrayed fibers are used to carry signals that are desired to be maintained in synchronization with each other, while the free fibers are used to carry signals whose synchronization with other signals is not important.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
Chinese utility model patent application No. 201020599351.6, filed Nov. 4, 2010 and granted on Jul. 20, 2011 as CN 201903673 U (hereinafter “the CN '673 patent”), is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The CN '673 patent describes a connecting device for use with an optical fiber cable for data transmission. As shown in
Embodiments of the present invention improves the connecting device described in the CN '673 patent by separating the various internal components, which are contained in a single housing in the CN '673 patent, into two groups and arrange them in two separate housings. An embodiment of the present invention is schematically illustrated in
As shown in
The second part 120 of the connecting device 100 has a first electrical connector 121 disposed on a housing 122. The first electrical connector 121 is designed to electrically and mechanically connect with the second electrical connector 112 of the first part 110. The connectors 112 and 121 are not required to comply with any commonly recognized standard, so long as they can mate with each other. Contained inside the housing 122 are an optical transceiver block 123 including a plurality of optical transceivers (such as laser diodes (LD) and/or photo detectors (PD)), and an optical fiber positioning block 124 for receiving and positioning a set of optical fibers 125 from an optical fiber cable 127. The optical transceivers, which are electrically connected to the first electrical connector 121 by a set of wires 126, convert optical signals to electrical signals and vice versa. The optical fiber positioning block 124 positions the end of the optical fibers 125 relative to the optical transceivers such that light signals are transmitted between the optical transceivers and the optical fibers. Either the optical transceiver block 123 or the optical fiber positioning block 124 or both may include optical elements such as lenses, reflectors, etc. to direct the light signals. Preferably, the optical fibers 125 include multiple fibers for transmitting various signals. In one example, six optical fibers are used for transmitting HDMI signals, four of which carry the Tc, T0, T1 and T2 signals, and two carry the SCL, SDA, HPD, CEC, and ARC signals in a multiplexed manner. The chip 114 carries out the necessary multiplexing/demultiplexing functions.
The optical transceiver block 123 and the optical fiber positioning block 124 may have any suitable structures. In one example, the optical transceiver block 123 has a structure similar to the combined structure of the an optical component positioning block 4, the a lens block 5, and the optical transceiver block shown and described in
In the previously disclosed structures shown in
In the embodiment illustrated in
The external connectors 111 and 111A and the electronic components within the connecting devices 100 and 100A may be the same or different. When they are different, the cable device may function as an adaptor or converter, which converts electrical signals complying with one standard to electrical signals complying with a different standard. When the two external connectors 111 and 111A are the same or comply with the same standard, the cable device may function as an extender or connector cable to connect two external devices located remotely with respect to each other. For example, one practical application of the cable device 101 is an HDMI to HDMI fiber optic connector for connecting a TV at one end (the receiving end) and a DVD player or another source device at the other end (the transmitting end).
In one particular example, the cable device 101 is an adaptor with an Apple Lightening connector, or an Apple 30-pin connector, or an MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) connector at one end, and an HDMI connector at the other end. Such a cable will allow an Apple device such as iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod™ or other mobile devices to be connected to an HDTV or other HDMI-compatible display device, so that the images seen on the mobile device can be displayed on the screen of the HDTV or the other HDMI-compatible device. Lightening and 30-pin are two types of connectors used by various versions of Apple's iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod™ devices. MHL is a standard mobile audio/video interface. The signal conversion schemes between Lightening, 30-pin or MHL and HDMI are known, as Lighting connector to HDMI adaptors, 30-pin connector to HDMI adaptors and MHL to HDMI adaptors are known and commercially available from various sources, even though these adaptors use electrical rather than optical cables for signal transmission. In such an adaptor cable, either the Lightening or 30-pin connector, or the HDMI connector, or both, may be made as a two-part structure by implementing embodiments of the present invention.
Referring back to
Second, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in
Further, because the connection (i.e. connectors 112 and 121) between the first part 110 and second part 120 is s pure electrical connection without involving any optical signals, the connection is not prone to problems relating to connecting two optical fibers.
It should be noted that
The fiber arrangements described above has certain advantages. Because the Tc, T0, T1 and T2 signals are required to be synchronized as much as possible, the four fibers carrying these signals should be formed into an array so that the changes in their relative lengths are minimized when the cable bends or is coiled up. When multiple fibers are formed into an array, such as shown in
In the example illustrated in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modification and variations can be made in the connecting device and related methods of the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations that come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A fiber optic cable comprising:
- a plurality of optical fibers; and
- an enclosure the encloses the plurality of optical fibers,
- where the plurality of optical fibers includes two groups of optical fibers, the first group of optical fibers being arrayed together and the second group of optical fibers being free fibers.
2. The fiber optic cable of claim 1, wherein the first group includes four optical fibers forming a linear array, and the second group includes two optical fibers arranged on two sides of the linear array.
3. The fiber optic cable of claim 1, wherein the first group of optical fibers are adhered to each other by an adhesive material.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 6, 2015
Publication Date: Nov 26, 2015
Applicant: Celerity Technologies Inc. (Irvine, CA)
Inventors: Xiaolin Tong (Irvine, CA), Tony Cheng (Laguna Niguel, CA), Yumei Zhan (Kunshan), Junxing Cao (Kunshan)
Application Number: 14/820,432