PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 5, NO.

2, 2009 129

Low Cost 1 × 2 Acrylic-based Plastic Optical Fiber Coupler with

Hollow Taper Waveguide
Abang Annuar Ehsan1 , Sahbudin Shaari1 , and Mohd Kamil Abd. Rahman2
1
Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2
Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract— A 1 × 2 Plastic optical fiber (POF) Y-coupler has been designed and fabricated
using a simple acrylic (PMMA) mold insert. The device is composed of three segments: an
input POF fiber, an intermediate hollow taper waveguide and output POF fibers. The acrylic
mold insert has been fabricated using EGX-400 desktop engraver machine with a spindle speed
of 15 K rpm and feed rate of 5 mm/sec. The engraved regions which is a form of U-groove allows
1 mm core step index PMMA POF fibers to be slotted into the mold insert. The short POF
fibers at the input and output ends are slotted inside the mold insert before the interfaces of the
taper waveguide. A top acrylic plate is then placed on top of the fabricated device and sealed.
The final device has been tested for both splitter and combiner operations for an effective power
of 1 mW. The device has an insertion loss of 10.48 dB. In the splitter operation, the device has a
splitting ratio of 52 : 48. In the combiner operation, the combined power is −11.15 dB for input
power of −11.90 dB and −12.05 dB.

1. INTRODUCTION
Plastic optical Fiber (POF) is a well known medium for short distance communication application
and it is finally making a way into the optical fiber market. It does not require any expensive or
special tool, no special training and no long technical procedures to operate. POF is basically an
optical fiber with large-core size with multimode characteristics, low cost, and robust characteristics.
In addition to short distance communication, POF is also being used in signaling, lighting and
decoration system. Other niche application of POF are in the automotive, entertainment, and
sensor industries [1]. In all of these applications, it is necessary to split or combine the optical
signals using passive optical components.
Among the passive components for POF applications, optical coupler plays an important role
that is borne out by the availability of a complete line of products. There have been many techniques
of assembling POF couplers. These techniques include (i) twisting and fusion (ii) side polishing
(iii) chemical etching (iv) cutting and gluing (v) thermal deformation (vi) molding (vii) biconical
body and (viii) reflective body [2].
The 1×2 POF coupler which has been fabricated here may be an alternative to that of the optical
1 × 2 POF coupler which was fabricated by IMM (Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz ) in Germany.
The insertion loss of the device by IMM is about 6 dB [3]. The fabrication technique requires several
additional steps including laser machining (excimer laser) for PMMA resist patterning and injection
molding for moulding. A similar device with circular cross section have also been fabricated by
Takezawa et al. [4] which showed low excess loss (1.91 dB). Nevertheless, the device requires the use
of injection molding tool which can increase the cost of making these devices. Hollow waveguides
on the other hand are waveguides where the inner section is hollowed. They have been previously
used in laser light delivery system for medical application [5, 6] where the radiation wavelengths
used are greater than 2 µm [6]. These devices are also being used for photonics integrated circuits
where temperature insensitivity is required [7, 8].
A 1 × 2 POF coupler has been designed using a simple acrylic-based mold insert. The POF
coupler device is composed of three sections: an input POF fiber, an intermediate hollow taper
waveguide and output POF fibers. Finally, based on the CAD design, mold insert of the device is
fabricated using a desktop engraver on an acrylic block. POF cable of 1 mm core size is inserted
at the input and output branches of the coupler. The POF coupler here is part of the passive
components that are being designed and fabricated to be used in a new portable optical access-
card system [9, 10]. This 1 × 2 POF coupler will be one part of the optical code generating device
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 5, NO. 2, 2009 130

where the other part will be the 1 × 2 asymmetric couplers. By using low-cost arcylic material
which can be easily obtained in large bulk sheet and low-cost desktop engraver system, we are able
to fabricate POF coupler with very minimum cost. The design and fabrication processes shown
in this paper illustrate the potential of low-cost acrylic material and a simple engraving technique
for producing POF coupler. Nevertheless, some modifications are required in order to improve the
optical performance of the devices which will be illustrated also along in this paper.

2. POF COUPLER DESIGN

The 1 × 2 coupler is the simplest coupler design where the input optical power is split into two.
The basic coupler design will utilize a simple 1 × 2 Y-coupler which is shown in Fig. 1. In this
coupler design, the splitting angle is set large at an angle of 53◦ , as shown in this figure.

Figure 1: CAD design of 1 × 2 POF Y-coupler with large splitting angle.

The input and output waveguides are constructed using POF fibers which are slotted into a
Y-shaped mold insert, shown in Fig. 2. The POF fibers are slotted until the fibers are positioned
just before the taper waveguide region as shown in this figure.

POF fibers

Hollow taper region

Figure 2: 1 × 2 POF Y-coupler block layout.

The slot width of the mold insert has been set at 1 mm which allow the POF fiber to fit in
firmly. The POF fibers used are standard SI POF with NA of 0.5, core size of 980 µm, refractive
indices of the core and cladding are 1.49 and 1.42 respectively. Due to the hollow structure of the
taper waveguide region, non-sequential ray tracing will not give a good result of the device optical
characteristics based simply on the acrylic material itself. However, the optical characteristics of
the hollow taper waveguide region can be modified by simply filling this space with low-cost UV
curable glue, normally used for connecting fibers and are easily available. The ray tracing results
for the UV-glue filled taper waveguide region will be shown briefly to illustrate how the simple
optical device can be constructed and ray traced easily. Fig. 3 shows the device construction of the
1 × 2 POF coupler with the UV-glue filled taper waveguide region and the ray tracing results for
this device is shown in Fig. 4.

Cladding Output POF

n=1.0 n=1.49

Input POF Cladding n=1.0

n=1.49

Taper waveguide n=1.56 Cladding n=1.49

Figure 3: 1 × 2 POF Y-coupler block layout with UV-glue filled taper waveguide region.
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 5, NO. 2, 2009 131

Figure 4: 1 × 2 POF Y-coupler ray tracing diagram.

The output power for the POF couplers have been obtained from the ray tracing plot. The
output signal measured at the output ports of the 1 × 2 POF coupler is 0.24 mW and 0.25 mW.
The insertion loss of this device is about 6 dB whereas the excess loss of this device is about 3 dB.
3. POF COUPLER FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT
In this project, a rigid mold insert is designed and fabricated using a micro engraving tool. We have
used acrylic material as the main substrate and cladding region for the taper waveguide. The RI
of the acrylic material used is about 1.49. The waveguide design is then engraved onto the acrylic
substrate using EGX-400 desktop engraver tool.
The fabrication start with the acrylic sample positioned onto the workpiece of the machine. The
machine parameters are configured using a CAD/CAM machining software. Milling tool size of
0.5 mm is used and spindle speed of 15,000 rpm and feed rate of 5 mm/sec have been utilized. After
the mold insert has been fabricated, short SI POF fibers (10 cm) are inserted into the engraved
slots (input and output ports) until the fibers are positioned just before the taper waveguide region.
Fig. 5 illustrates the steps taken in the fabrication of the 1 × 2 POF coupler.

POF fibers

(a) (b)
Hollow
taper region

(c) (d)

Figure 5: 1 × 2 POF Y-coupler fabrication step, (a) acrylic mold inert with engraved U-grooves, (b) POF
fibers insertion, (c) POF fibers alignment, (d) enclosed POF coupler.

The insertion and excess loss of this device has been tested using a light emitting diode (LED)
at a wavelength of 650 nm using Advanced Fiber Solution FF-OS417 and optical meter OM210.
The effective input power Pin is 0 dBm. The output power detected at both output ports are
P1 = −10.1 dB and P2 = −10.48 dB. The insertion loss of this device is about 10.48 dB. The effective
tap-off ratio or the splitting ratio is 52 : 48. The high loss is expected due to the hollow structure
of this device. Similarly in the combiner operation, the device exhibit high loss as expected due to
the hollow taper waveguide region. The output power detected for each input port individually are
Pout (1) = −11.90 dB and Pout (2) = −12.05 dB. The output power detected when both input ports
are activated are Pout (combine) = −11.15 dB. These values correspond to the expected result for a
combiner where the combined output power will be halved.
The fabricated devices are shown in Fig. 6. The acrylic-based mold insert for 1×2 POF couplers
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 5, NO. 2, 2009 132

are shown in Fig. 6(a) and a close up view in Fig. 6(b). The connected 1 × 2 POF coupler is shown
in Fig. 6(c).

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 6: Fabricated 1 × 2 POF coupler, (a) Y-Coupler mold insert, (b) close view of the taper region, (c)
Y-coupler with POF fibers.

4. CONCLUSIONS
Low cost 1 × 2 POF coupler with hollow taper waveguide has been designed and fabricated. This
device is part of our initial work on an optical code generating device for a portable optical access-
card system. The POF coupler has been fabricated using cheap acrylic material and fabricated
using a desktop engraving system. The device structure is composed of input POF fiber, middle
hollow taper waveguide and output POF fibers where the hollow structure can be modified by filling
this area with cheap UV curable glue. The insertion loss of the hollow structure device is still high
at 10.48 dB but the device has been shown to work in both splitter and combiner operation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi MARA for the financial support on this
project and machining facilities, and to the Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics
(IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for providing the simulator tool Zemax.
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