What are the advantages of plastic optical fiber Plasti […]
What are the advantages of plastic optical fiber
Plastic optical fiber, Plastic Optical Fiber. It is a type of optical fiber (optical fiber) made of highly transparent polymers such as polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and polycarbonate (PC) as the core material, and PMMA, fluoroplastics, etc. as the skin material. ). Different materials have different light attenuation performance and temperature application range.
At present, the optical fibers used in communication optical cables are basically quartz optical fibers, which are composed of high-purity silica SiO2 and an appropriate amount of dopant. In recent years, plastic optical fiber (POF) has also been gradually developed, which is an optical fiber made of a light-transmitting polymer. Because the simple drawing process of mature polymers can be used, the cost is relatively low, and it is relatively soft and strong, with a large diameter (about 1mm) and low connection loss.
There are two main types of materials for making POF: one is PMMA (Polymer Polymethylmethacrylate); the other is Perfluorinated polymers.
Plastic optical fiber can be used not only for the last 100-1000 meters of the access network, but also for various vehicles, airplanes, and other vehicles. It is an excellent short-distance data transmission medium.
Plastic optical fiber is light, soft, and more resistant to damage (vibration and bending). Plastic optical fiber has excellent tensile strength, durability and small footprint. These advantages make the successful application of plastic optical fibers in automobiles particularly important. The interior of a typical luxury car consists of at least a few kilometers of copper wire and copper cable, which greatly increases its weight and cost. This is true of planes, trains and all other transportation.
Due to the large diameter and numerical aperture of the plastic optical fiber, the light transmission capacity is large. Plastic optical fibers have much higher bandwidth capabilities than copper-based transmission media (twisted pair and coaxial cables). The higher the transmission frequency, the lower the cost of using plastic optical fiber.
It is easy to cut, route, bond, polish and other processing of plastic optical fiber. Due to the large diameter, the installation of plastic optical fibers and the connection to devices, light sources, detectors, etc. become easy and low cost, and non-professionals are also capable of these operations. Preparing the connection of plastic optical fiber does not take more than 1 minute, and no special tools are required. Even the simplest scissors can be used to cut plastic optical fibers. The plastic optical fiber transceiver module uses red light with a wavelength of 650nm, which is very safe, and it is easy for users to judge whether the optical fiber connection is successful. In addition, the connection of the plastic optical fiber is not sensitive to the dust and debris left on the end surface.
Plastic optical fiber does not produce radiation and is completely immune to electromagnetic interference, radio frequency interference and noise. This is particularly important for video and audio distribution. Obviously, these interferences and noise affect the quality of images and services. The plastic optical fiber can be laid side by side in the same pipe as the copper cable or the same wire harness. Plastic optical fiber does not generate noise and will not negatively affect the current pipe network.
The cost of POF system is low. It is said that the cost of each connection for home consumer electronics, home networking and cars including audio, DVD, VCR, etc. is less than $20. So these devices can be bought in general stores.
It is not possible to eavesdrop on data transmission through plastic optical fiber, so plastic optical fiber is very suitable in some occasions with high security requirements.
Although quartz optical fiber is widely used in long-distance trunk communication and fiber-to-the-home, plastic optical fiber is called "civilianized" optical fiber, because the total cost of plastic optical fiber, related connecting devices and installation is relatively low. In the overall solution of fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the-desktop, plastic optical fiber is the supplement of quartz optical fiber, which can jointly build an all-optical network.
