Plastic Optic Fiber—An Evolving Technology

Plastic Optic Fiber (POF) is an established, continually evolving technology available since the early 1980s. From the outset, it was a technology not highly visible for years. At times, it was utilized as a media product within another product, attached to a variety of opto-couplers or light sources. Primarily it was intended to transmit information of functional digital data transfer for many sensing concepts and for small form illumination. In addition, the very nature of POF technology brings to engineering many of the attributes of glass fiber optic technology. But, the extensive functions of POF lend themselves to much wider product uses including medical instruments, data control and networks, automotive use, and a host of industrial concepts. At the same time, POF offers low-cost solutions for short-range communications, and a majority of defined illumination requirements.