Many of us remember plastic optical fiber in cars as far back as the 60's. Then it was used for illumination purposes. Perhaps a piece of plastic fiber ran from the dash lights to the ash tray to provide light, or perhaps the vehicle utilized plastic fiber from the headlights to the dash to indicate that the headlights were on. As time went on, Plastic Fiber improved in quality to the point where it became useful to carry data as pulses of light.

Today, Plastic Optical Fiber is becoming common for two applications:

For Data Communication systems, Plastic Fiber is the solution that fits between copper pairs and glass fiber. Many people feel that plastic fiber is the quickest way to bring fiber to the desk or throughout the home.

For Illumination, Plastic optical fiber has come into its own and is now a part of the illumination requirements for many casinos and buildings.

First let’s look at the data communications aspect of plastic Fiber.

The plastic optical fiber system, or any fiber optic system, in it’s most basic form, consists of a digital electrical signal which is changed to a pulsating (digital) light signal. This signal is then sent through the optical fiber to the receiver as light, and turned back into an electrical digital signal. This system consists of four basic components:

• Transmitter
• Optical Cable
• Connectors
• Receiver

We don’t count connectors on a copper system usually because loss should be negligible, but with optical fiber, and especially plastic fiber, every pair of connectors or splice represents a loss that must be calculated.

As with any new product, if we are to want to use it, and learn the new technology, we must see some advantages. It has to make our life easier, bring us business or in some way have positive advantages. Plastic Fiber has just that.

Some of these advantages are:

Wide Bandwidth: is the increased capacity to carry information and at the speed of light. Of course, this is because the wavelength of light is 500nm (billionths of a metre).

Electromagnety Immunity: Unlike copper cables, fiber optic cables do not pick up or radiate (EMI) electromagnetic radiation. Because of this, signals do not get distorted and the fibers offer a high standard of error-free transmission. We can run fiber optic cable close to high voltage cables, large motors or switching equipment. Many factories use fiber optics because of it's immunity to EMI. Motors switching on and off cause interference that can throw a computerized piece of equipment out of sequence.The big car manufacturers and car part plants are our best example at this time. Most of their robots have been built with plastic fiber optics.

Security: Eavesdropping, with a copper cable, is easy, but with fiber, a tap will introduce an error, and a detectable loss.

Light Weight: Plastic fiber is a fraction of the weight of copper with a weight ratio of about 3:1. This weight is important in aircraft and ships.

Small Size: A fiber optic cable is smaller than its copper counterpart. A plastic fiber might be as little as 960 microns in diameter, about the diameter of a nail. A fiber optic cable will often replace several copper pair because of the greater signal carrying capacity.

Safety: Optical fiber is a dielectric and does not carry electricity. There is no spark, shock or fire hazard, it cannot cause explosions. It is intrinsically safe. Fiber optics works well in hazardous locations.

Cost: Because of the improvements in the fiber Optic cable and accessories it is now considered by most people to be the most cost effective system to install in a new installation, or for a major system upgrade. The only speed limitation on optical fiber is the electronics. As we start coming to the end of this decade we see an overwhelmingly large number of new products to provide cheaper and easier installation of fiber optic systems both in the home and in industry. These products include quick and simple connectors for the plastic fiber.

Maintenance: Optical fiber systems are considered the most reliable for data communications. Some companies claim that maintenance and down time is less than 20% of what is required for copper systems.

Ease of Use: Many copper installers learn fiber and eventually find that it is easier to install without problems and if there are faults, they are easier to identify and correct. Plastic Fiber is installed and connectorized with simple hand tool.

Plastic optical fiber for data communications will have a plastic core and a plastic cladding.

Compared to other fibers, these have high losses and lower bandwidth, or information carrying capacity. Plastic fiber seems to be the accepted medium for the in-between range of category 5 copper and glass fiber. Plastic is now accepted for ATM use of up to 50 meters.

Typical plastic applications are increasing and include:

• Automotive
• Process Sensors
• LANs
• Robots
• Machinery
• High Voltage Switchgear
• Drive Units

Plastic fiber is rapidly becoming more popular for industrial use. The industry appears waiting with baited breath for the next generation of low loss plastic fibers.