WDM over POF: the inexpensive way to break through the limitation of bandwidth of standard POF communication

Abstract

Polymer Optical Fibers (POF) are used in various fields of applications, e.g. in the automotive industry or the in house communication technology. Applications in these fields require increasingly more bandwidth, therefore developers become tasked with finding new solutions to increase the technical efficiency of all communications equipment. One solution is wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). WDM allows the transmission of information over more than just a single wavelength (color) and thus greatly increases the POF’s bandwidth. Different wavelengths which are jointly transmitted over the fiber must be separated to regain all information. These separators are called Demultiplexers. There are several systems available on the market, which are all afflicted with certain disadvantages. The most common and grave disadvantage almost all of these systems exhibit is their costly production, which makes them unsuitable for today’s price sensitive mass markets. Hence the goal of this paper is to develop an inexpensive Demultiplexer for WDM transmission over POF. The fundamental idea is to separate the chromatic light in its monochromatic components with the help of a prism with low reciprocal dispersive power. The prism and the other assemblies which are needed to adjust the optical path could be manufactured in injection molding technology. This manufacturing technique is a very simple and cost-efficient way to produce a Demultiplexer for POF.