Patent 7095922 was granted and assigned to NGK Insulators on August, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A lensed fiber array is provided with lensed fibers whose front end faces are formed in a lens shape, a substrate in one of whose faces a plurality of grooves respectively matching said lensed fibers are formed, and a fixing member which aligns and fixes said lensed fibers by suppressing them against the grooved face of the substrate. The substrate, lensed fibers, and the fixing member are fastened to one another with adhesive. The front end faces of the lensed fibers are protruded from the front end face of either the substrate or the fixing member. This lensed fiber array can prevent deterioration in optical characteristics by preventing the adhesive from sticking to the front end faces of the lensed fibers.