Plastic optical fiber

Plastic optical fiber (POF) or polymer optical fiber is an optical fiber that is made out of polymer. Similar to glass optical fiber, POF transmits light (for illumination or data) through the core of the fiber. Its chief advantage over the glass product, other aspect being equal, is its robustness under bending and stretching. Since 2014 a full family of PHY transceivers have been available in the market enabling the design and manufacturing of home networking equipment delivering Gigabit speeds into the home. One of the most exciting developments in polymer fibers has been the development of microstructured polymer optical fibers (mPOF), a type of photonic crystal fiber. Traditionally, PMMA (acrylic) comprises the core (96% of the cross section in a fiber 1mm in diameter), and fluorinated polymers are the cladding material. Since the late 1990s much higher performance graded-index (GI-POF) fiber based on amorphous fluoropolymer (poly(perfluoro-butenylvinyl ether), CYTOP) has begun to appear in the marketplace. Polymer optical fibers are typically manufactured using extrusion, in contrast to the method of pulling used for glass fibers. PMMA is used as the core, with a refractive index of 1.49. Generally, fiber cladding is made of fluorinated polymers (refractive index