OPTICAL FIBER ARRAY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF

The present invention provides a high-density and high-precision optical fiber array which can stably be manufactured with excellent operability and which can maintain excellent characteristics while suppressing insertion loss with respect to optical parts by optimizing constituent parts of the high-density optical fiber array. The present invention also provides a manufacturing method of the optical fiber array. According to the optical fiber array, a plurality of V-grooves are formed in a V-groove substrate in parallel to each other. A plurality of optical fibers whose end coatings are removed are aligned in the V-grooves. The optical fibers are fixed, using an adhesive, between the V-groove substrate and a lid plate to be placed on the optical fibers. In the optical fiber array, an average value of pitches of the V-grooves is substantially equal to an average value of outer diameters of the optical fibers. A radius of curvature of fiber curl of each optical fiber is 8 meters or more.