Industry News
A Greatly increased interest in Plastic Optical Fiber
Plastic optical fiber (POF) has always been "lurking in the background" in fiber optics; a specialty fiber useful for illumination and low speed short data links. There is now a greatly increased interest in POF, as R&D has given it higher performance to go along with its ease of installation and low cost.
Plastic optical fiber（POF）is large core step-index fiber with a typical diameter of 1 mm. This large size makes it easy to couple lots of light from sources and connectors do not need to be high precision. As a result, typical connector costs are 10-20% as much as for glass fibers and termination may be as easy as cutting with a razor blade! Being plastic, it’s also rugged and easy to install without fear of damage.
From an optical standpoint, conventional Plastic optical fiber
(POF) is much lower in performance than glass fiber. It has a loss of 0.15-0.2 dB per meter at 650 nm and its bandwidth is limited by its large NA and step-index profile. However, it is adequate for running short links, such as inside of instruments or within a room for desktop connections up to 50 meters. And of course in automobiles, where it has gained a foothold with the new MOST and Flexray networks.
But recent developments in Plastic optical fiber (POF) technology have led to low NA POF that offers higher bandwidth and graded-index POF (GI-POF) that combines the higher bandwidth of graded-index fiber with the low cost of Plastic optical fiber (POF). Current designs of GI-POF offer up to 2 GHz bandwidth at distances of 100 meters, but manufacturing problems have hampered its adoption. Recent developments in a new laser (VCSEL of vertical cavity surface emitting laser) promise extremely low cost, high power, high speed transmitters.
Plastic optical fiber (POF) offers promise for desktop LAN connections. It can be installed in minutes with minimal tools and training. Bandwidth exceeds anyone’s estimates for the next decade. Prices are competitive with copper. Standards groups are now looking at options for (POF). Plastic optical fiber (POF) could prove the next viable desktop connection.
