Abstract
All-plastic optical-fiber (POF), short-distance (≤100 m) data links have attracted much attention recently (see, e.g., Refs. 1 and 2) because they may offer a low-cost alternative to conventional silica fiber for computer-interconnect applications. Until now, the convenient handling, splicing, and connectorizing properties of commercially available 1-mm-core-diameter, step-index, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) POF have been undermined by the assumption that < 1-MHz· km modal bandwidth is available. Recent work has shown,3 however, that the modal bandwidth may be increased by using a low numerical aperture (N.A.) launch condition. The remaining bandwidth limitation is then well approximated by a first-order low-pass filter characteristic and may be removed with a matched differentiator4 or compensated for by a speed-up network at the transmitter. Computer-data-link capacities in excess of 500 Mbit/s over the 100-m distances typical of this application are then theoretically possible without requiring elaborate source coding.
© 1993 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
Yin Shao, Rui Cao, Yue-Kai Huang, Philip Nan Ji, and Shaoliang Zhang
OW3J.5 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2012
Arup Polley and Stephen E. Ralph
OWB2 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2008
C. Patrick Caputo, Patrick J. Decker, and Stephen E. Ralph
OWB2 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2011