Optical Coupling Methods for Cost-Effective Polymer Optical Fiber Communication

Author

Chandrappan, Jayakrishnan ; Jing, Zhang ; Mohan, Ramkumar Veppathur ; Gomez, Philbert Oliver ; Aung, Than Aye ; Yongfei, Xiao ; Ramana, Pamidighantam V. ; Lau, John H. ; Kwong, Dim Lee

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., A*STAR, Singapore, Singapore

Volume

32

Issue

3

fYear

2009

Firstpage

593

Lastpage

599

Abstract

In this paper, we report cost-effective light coupling methods for polymer optical fiber (POF) communication. Here, we compare the various optical coupling schemes in detail. By optical simulations, we analyze the conventional light coupling schemes, namely the direct coupling, lens coupling, and lensed fiber coupling. The simulation studies reveal that a lensed fiber tip particularly at the receiver side improves the light coupling efficiency to a great extent. The optimized lensed POF design confers an 85% coupling efficiency. Lensed POFs are realized with two low-cost fabrication methods. The characterization of the lensed POF are carried out to evaluate the lensing properties and hence to optimize the fabrication process.

Keywords

lenses; optical design techniques; optical fibre communication; optical fibre couplers; optical fibre fabrication; polymer fibres; POF fabrication method; direct coupling; lens coupling; lensed fiber coupling; optical coupling method; optical simulation; polymer optical fiber communication; Characterization; detector; fabrication; lensed fiber; optical coupling; polymer optical fiber; simulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components and Packaging Technologies, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1521-3331

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TCAPT.2008.2011559

Filename

4802004