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Cost-effective up to 40 Gbit/s transmission performance of 1310 nm directly modulated lasers for short to medium range distances.

No abstract

Graded-index polymer optical fibers (GIPOFs) are being developed as important high-speed communication media for short-and medium-distance applications. Polymer fibers including the step-index versions have a large core-diameter (500-1500 pm) to ease system connectorization and a large numerical aperture (0.2-0.9) to allow for efficient launching from semiconductor lasers or light emitting diodes. Furthermore, they show a complete immunity to EMI/EMC (electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility) and a great resistance to mechanical damage as a consequence of the intrinsic flexibility of the polymer material. On the other hand, the graded-index type POF can combine these properties with a large capacity for digital transmission. Accordingly, the GIPOF as a physical transmission medium is foreseen to be the best candidate for the replacement of the metallic cables traditionally used in customer premises networks (CPNs), interconnect and access links. The utilization of conventional glass optical fibers (GOFs) could also be envisaged in these applications, but the corresponding connectors are expensive and the whole system cost would be inevitably high.