Georgia Tech, VI Systems demo 25 Gbps over plastic optical fiber

VI Systems GmbH says that researchers at The Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated 25-Gbps error-free data transmission over 100 m of 80 μm-diameter core plastic optical fiber (POF) using one of VI Systems’ V40-850C 850-nm vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs).

The coupling tolerances necessary to reach error-free transmission (defined as a bit error ratio <10-12) were as high as ~35 µm, according to VI Systems.

VI Systems says that plastic optical fibers are more typically used at data rates from 50 Mbps to 1 Gbps in automotive and home network applications using light near 650 nm. However, the company says that it will target the V40-850C VCSEL at proprietary optical links and active optical cables at 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps (likely using arrays), Fibre Channel at 14 Gbps and 28 Gbps, and Infiniband FDR (14 Gbps) and EDR (26 Gbps) applications.

The V40-850C VCSEL is available in a 250 x 250 µm single die size or as 1x4-channel or 1x12-channel chip array. Product samples are available now.

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