To find out the influence of technological parameters on optical performance of fused optical fiber device, the fiber coupler was served as subject investigated by using the fused biconical taper machining as experimental setup. Fused fiber coupler's optical performances such as insertion loss, excess loss, directivity and uniformity were tested with the optical test system that was constituted of tunable laser and optical spectrum analyzer. Especially the relationship between optical performance and drawing speed was investigated. The experimental results show that the optical performance is closely related to process conditions. At fused temperature of 1 200 ℃, there exists a drawing speed of 150 μms, which makes the device's performance optimum. Out of this speed region, the optical performance drops quickly. At drawing speed of 200 μms, the excess loss is relatively small when the fused temperature is above 1 200 ℃. So the technological parameters have close relationship with optical performance of the coupler, and the good performance coupler can't get until the drawing speed and fused temperature match accurately.
To find out the effect of the shape of fused taper region on the optical fiber coupler, the fiber couplers were fabricated at different drawing speeds with a six-axes fiber coupler machine. The results, which were obtained fi＇om the shape of fused taper region measured with microscope, show that there is a close correlation between the cone angle and optical performance of fiber coupler. High-performance fiber coupler cannot be obtained until rheological shape is controlled accurately. The numerical analysis model, which was built based on generalized Maxwell viscoelastic theory, is resolved with ANSYS software. The calculated results accord with the experimental data. It can apply a theoretic basis for forecasting the shape of fiber coupler fabricated under the conditions of different technological parameters.
Based on viscoelastic theory, two new computational methods of solving linear equations and minimum value of the l-norm were put forward for transforming Kohlransch-William-Watts （KWW） function of viscoelastic materials to the generalized Maxwell model. The computational methods for the Maxwell model fitting were achieved in MATLAB software. It is found that fitting precision of the two methods is very high. The method of solving linear equations needs more fitting points and more numbers of Maxwell units. It makes the program of finite element analysis complex. While the method of solving minimum value of 1-norm can obtain very high precision only using less fitting points. These methods can fit not only experimental curve of KWW function, but also the experimental data directly.
