| CPC G02B 6/4243 (2013.01) | 17 Claims |

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1. An apparatus comprising:
an optical fiber array unit comprising:
an opposing pair of grooved plates, each grooved plate of the opposing pair has an array of parallel fiber-holding grooves having a groove pitch P; and
at least three rows of optical fibers having longitudinally aligned ends thereof held between the opposing pair of grooved plates, with at least some of the optical fibers in each of the at least three rows touching two optical fibers of an adjacent one of the at least three rows; and wherein the groove pitch P of the array of parallel fiber-holding grooves of each grooved plate is approximately √2d, where d is an outer diameter of at least some of the optical fibers held between the opposing pair of grooved plates.
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