An Analytic Connector Loss Model for Step-Index Polymer Optical Fiber Links

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 31; no. 16; pp. 2769 - 2776
• Main Authors: Werzinger, Stefan, Bunge, Christian-Alexander, Loquai, Sven, Ziemann, Olaf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 15.08.2013; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Analytical models; Applied sciences; Approximation methods; Circuit properties; Connector modeling; Connectors; Couplings; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides; Mathematical model; Numerical models; Optical and optoelectronic circuits; Optical fiber communications; optical fiber coupling; Optical fibers; Optical telecommunications; polymer optical fibers; power budgeting; ray-tracing; standardization; step-index optical fibers; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Performance evaluation; Integrated optics; Connector; Mode coupling; Polymer fibers; Worst case method; Standardization; Optical coupling; Modeling; polymer optical fibers; Numerical aperture; Uniform distribution; Linear combination; Connector modeling; Ray tracing; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber; Optical links; power budgeting; Step index; ray-tracing; Mismatching; Steady state; Simulation; step-index optical fibers; Analytical method; optical fiber coupling
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2013.2273492

The authors report on an analytic connector loss model for step-index polymer optical fibers (SI-POF). The model describes the non-linear dependencies for combinations of the most important intrinsic and extrinsic influence parameters like Fresnel reflections, mismatches in numerical aperture (NA) and core diameters, as well as lateral, longitudinal and angular offsets. As connector losses strongly depend on the mode distribution, expressions for the mode-dependent coupling efficiencies for the various influence parameters are derived. This way, the model can handle any rotationally symmetric mode distribution including the uniform mode distribution (UMD) and the equilibrium mode distribution (EMD) in the steady-state. It is shown that for step-index fibers, lateral and longitudinal offsets can be handled in a similar way, which reduces the overall effort for the mathematical description. For the typical case of identical fibers, the authors also derive easy-to-apply approximations for a combination of lateral and longitudinal offsets under UMD and EMD conditions. The results are in good agreement with ray-tracing simulations and are evaluated for the cases of identical fibers and the worst case parameter constellation for the SI-POF in the IEC A4a.2 fiber class.