Abstract: Optical rotary connectors (ORC) belong to a new generation of newly created optical devices capable of providing continuous optical communication between objects mounted on a common axis of rotation. Due to the wide bandwidth, contactlessness and insensitivity to electromagnetic interference, ORC allow you to reliably transmit various digital and analog signals from rotating objects to stationary ones on broadband fiber-optic communication lines, as well as to take contactless information in optical form from fiber-optic sensors of physical quantities mounted on rotating objects. This brings the telemetry of rotating objects to a qualitatively new much higher level. In this work, we developed a broadband multimode single-channel ORC, built on the basis of ball optical lenses made of optical sapphire. The comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies of this ORC have been conducted. Its design is characterized by high manufacturability, ease of assembly and many times less requirements for the accuracy of size and shape of individual structural components, assemblies and assemblage of such ORC compared to those built on the basis of gradient rod lenses.

Keywords: Fiber optic rotary joint, Fiber optic collimator, Graded-index (GRIN) lenses, Ball lenses.

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