Plastic Fibre Optics 

A plastic fibre is equivalent to optical multi mode glass fibres. Where glass fibre are used for long distance and high speed data transmission, plastic fibres are commonly used for local area networks for data and signal transmission. Nowadays, the transmission losses with 12 dB / 50 m of these fibres are significantly higher than those of the glass fibres. A lot of effort is taken to remove this disadvantage, since the manufacturing and installation costs of plastic fibres are comparably low. For signal transfer at short distances, optical plastic fibre play an important role. Especially in harsh environments ,for example, high voltage power stations, signal transfer via light and plastic fibre can be performed almost free of noise. The light transfer in all plastic fibres (APF) is achieved by using a plastic core which is coated with a material to obtain a step index profile. Typical diameters are 1 mm for the core which simplifies the coupling of light compared to glass fibres significantly. Also the preparation process, the cutting of the fibre can be done with a simple cutter blade instead of using special cleaving tools as is the case for glass fibres.
The goal of this experimental system is to teach and train the handling with and the signal transmission via optical plastic fibre. As a transmitter, a green and red LED is used to demonstrate independent dual wavelength data transmission in a single fibre. The radiation of the LED is coupled by means of a Y coupler into the fibre. The light at the exit of the fibre passes a dichroic beam splitter plate which is coated in such a way that the green radiation will be totally reflected whereas the red radiation is transmitted. Two photo detectors convert the light signal into electrical signals which are amplified by the receiver module and can be either displayed on a two channel oscilloscope that are for further investigation or connected to two loudspeakers provided. The transmitter unit contains two independent drivers for both the LED as well as internal modulators. Other signal sources can be connected directly

Principle of operation

The radiation of the green and red LED is launched to the plastic fibre PF by means of the Y coupler. The lens (L2) focuses the radiation which has passed the fibre onto the two photo detectors (PD1) and (PD2). The dichroic beam splitter (DBS) separates the two wavelength ranges (green and red) emitted by the LED. By independent modulation, the „red“ and „green“ channel of the LED two optical signals can be transferred via one fibre without crosstalk. The quality of the channel separation depends on the separation characteristic of the dichroic beam splitter.