Injection molded plastic multifiber connector realizing physical contact with fiber elasticity

We have proposed and demonstrated a fiber physical contact connector. This connector aligns multiple bare fibers in microholes individually and realiz es physical contact by using the buckling force of the fibers themselves. T he prototype is injection molded plastic and has a size of 7 x 24 x 3 mm fo r 8 fibers at a 0.25-mm pitch. The average insertion and return losses for single-mode fibers are under 0.2 dB and over 60 dB. These losses are stable in environmental tests.