Electronic Links International Enters Agreement with NITTA Corporation
Posted December 15, 2005

Electronic Links International, Inc. ( www.electronic-links.com ), and Nitta Corporation ( www.Nitta.co.jp ) have entered into an agreement in the field of optical development, connectors and mating cable assemblies. These are for applications in home networking, automotive, avionic, marine, industrial, and medical markets.   Nitta, a multinational organization with   headquarters in Japan with 120 years of   strong manufacturing of high volume, high quality and low cost products, is to provide   manufacturing, worldwide logistics, financial and sales coverage within the Asia - Pacific region.   ELII is to continue focusing on worldwide marketing, standardization committees' activities,   engineering, and the selling of these products in North America and Europe.

Electronic Links International Introduces New Family of SMI Plug to Plug Cable Assemblies
Posted December 15, 2005
 


New York - December 16, 2005 Electronic Links International, Inc.   is introducing a new family of plug to plug cable assemblies in conformity with the form factor of the Small Multimedia Interface (SMI). These cable assemblies are specifically produced to address the avionic, marine and other applications where non flammability is a requirement. The optical cable used on them has a dual -primary and secondary - non flammable jacket that covers the POF core.

These cable assemblies are intended to mate with a printed circuit board socket connector also produced by Electronic Links. Both the plug used on the cable assembly and the socket are made in compliance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 61754-21). They canmeet the IEEE 1394b specification. The socket has integrated the light sources from Firecomms.  

The features and benefits are:

• Operate at S200 speeds, insertion loss is 3.0 db max with 500 cycles of durability
• Cable assemblies are up to 100 meters
• The mating force is 3.0 kgf max with an un-mating force of .5 to 3.0 kgf
• No EMI interference

Electronic Links International, Inc. is a US based company engaged in developing a variety of connectors and cable assemblies, both in copper and optical. The company's web site address is: www.electronic-links.com

Firecomms Unveils World’s First MOST FOT
Based on High-Speed Resonant Cavity LED
Posted November 15, 2005  

Tokyo, Japan - Firecomms Ltd. unveils the world’s first MOST® fiber optic transceiver (FOT) based on a high-speed resonant cavity LED. Announced today at the MOST Interconnectivity Conference Japan, Firecomms’ FCM011 MOST FOT pair delivers an additional 8dB of optical power over the specification. Firecomms’ FCM110R transmitter and FCM110D receiver are state-of-the-art four-pin, low-cost plastic packaged components that meet the MOST 1.1 physical layer specification for the POF optical interface. Digital input/output data conforms to TTL switching levels. The transmitter uses a novel high-speed RCLED source with an integrated lens designed to maximize coupling efficiency. This source provides high optical power of greater than -7 dBm with a low operating current of less than 25 mA, and fast rising and falling optical
edges of less than 4.2 ns.

Full release: Firecomms Release 11.15.05

Mitsubishi International
Launches New POF Related Website
Posted October 3, 2005  

New York, NY - Mitsubishi Rayon Co.,Ltd., a division of POFTO Corporate Member Mitsubishi International, has launched a new website detailing their current POF related activities:

http://www.fiberoptic-plastic.com

From the promotional materials:

The world's leading high-performance plastic fiber optics related cables, ESKA media, manufactured by Mitsubishi Rayon Co.,Ltd. are recognized for both their optical characteristics and their mechanical properties. Product applications range from lighting/illumination to sensing and data transmission (both internal and network operation). We offer a variety of grades with a range of cable jackets.

14th Int'l Conference on POF Papers Now Available
Posted September 28, 2005  

Hong Kong - The 14th International conference on Polymer Optical Fiber was held 19-22 of September at the Sheraton Hotel in Hong Kong. the conference was organized by the city University of Hong Kong's Optoelectronics research Centre. Sixty three invited and contributed papers were presented covering both technology and application of polymer optical fibers. Technology included fibers, sources, cabling, connectors and test and measurement. Of particular interest were two sessions on Microstructured Polymer Optical fibers. From the applications side, there were a number of papers on polymer optical fiber sensors covering a variety of applications.

A full table of contents can be seen at here.

Copies of the proceedings are available in hard copy and CD formats.

POF World East to be Held in Conjunction with IWCS
Posted September 1, 2005

Providence, Rhode Island - POF World East 2005 is being held in conjunction with IWCS to provide those in the wire and cable industry with perspectives on market opportunities in the field of Plastic Optical Fibers (POF) .

For the past several years, the POF World conference has been held in Silicon Valley. Now there will be two events, POF World East and West, to serve the two major POF markets." Attendees to POF World East will be able to visit the IWCS Conference and exhibit, November 13-16, as well as the KMI Conference which will also be co-located with IWCS.  

Full details: http://www.pofworld.com

POFTO Member COMOSS Provides
New Generation Multimedia Interface - SMI
Posted August 8, 2005

Taipei, Taiwan - July 5th, 2005 - COMOSS today releases a series of SMI-related products: 1394B to SMI OE converter , SMI Transceiver , SMI Connector (Plug) and SMI Patch Cord . Not only COMOSS manufactures single components for professional purpose, but also construct a complete solution for setting up home network. " We've foreseen tremendous market demands for home network, thus we develop and promote SMI as the perfect solution which interconnects devices such as HDTV, Set-up Box, DVD-Recorder, and PC" said by Steven Lai, International Marketing Manager of COMOSS Electronic Co., Ltd.

Full Release: COMOSS (08.08.05)

POF World 2005 Proceedings Now Availalble
Posted June 30, 2005

Santa Clara, California – POF World 2005 was a big success last week at the Santa Clara Convention Center, with some great presentations and demonstrations. The proceedings are now avialble for purchase and free download for attendees. POFTO Members receive a 20% discount on all proceeding purchases.

COMOSS Ready to Provide
Long Distance Firewire Total Solution
Posted March 28, 2005

Taipei, Taiwan – March 24,2005 - COMOSS today introduces the total
solution for long distance 1394 Firewire transmitting. With the
outstanding R&D capability, we’ve successfully integrated POF patch
cord, IDB1394 to POF Convertor, and IEEE 1394b cable ass’y into one
solution, providing reliable data quality in setting up home network or
embedded car network.

Full Release: COMOSS (03.24.05) Chromis Fiberoptics Announces
Perfluorinated Short Reach POF
Posted March 16, 2005

From the Data Sheets:

Until now, the simplicity of plastic optical fiber came with heavy price: low performance and a restriction to visible wavelengths. The Chromis GigaPOF line overcomes that tradeoff with low attenuation, IR-transparent perfluorinated polymer materials, a graded refractive index, and exacting geometric tolerances. GigaPOF-50SR easily supports Gigabit Ethernet and multigigabit applications at distances up to 100 meters. Fast Ethernet is supported up to 200 meters.

Full Data Sheets: GigaPOF-50SR | GigaPOF-120SR

Major Developments and Announcements
From POFTO Members at OFC 2005
Posted March 6, 2005

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, March 9, 2005 - The Plastic Optical Fiber Trade Organization (POFTO) will hold a press conference in Room 203a at the Anaheim Convention Center at 11:00 am on wednesday March 9 to introduce new members and their products which will be available for viewing at booth 3331. Press releases on the following are available in the press kit:1. GI -POF available for the First time in the U.S. from Optimedia and FiberFin | PDF
2. Firecomms Ltd. Provides Key Components for In-Vehicle Network | PDF
3. POF Installers Tool Kit for new SMI i-Link connectors | PDF
4. Electronic Links Int'l introduces IDB-1394 connector and cable assembly | PDF
5. COMOSS introduces IDB-1394 POF Transceiver & Evaluation Board | PDF
6. GCI POF Cable for LAN and Home Networks | PDF
7. POFWORLD 2005 to be held at Santa Clara Convention Center | PDF
8. POF 2005 to be held September 19-21, 2005 in Hong Kong
9. Chromis Fiberoptics Announces Perfluorinated Short Reach POF | PDF
10. Universities join POFTO as Corporate Members: Two universities have joined POFTO as corporate members, seeing the benefits of promoting their research activities, the new academic corporate sponsors are:

COMSET at Clemson University | PDF
http://www.ces.clemson.edu/comset

Instituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB) | PDF
http://www.photonlab.org

Firecomms Provides Key Components for
Renault In-Vehicle Fiber Optic Network
Posted February 21, 2005

Firecomms, an Ireland-based compound semiconductor company and POFTO Member, has unveiled the use of the company’s new high-speed fiber optic devices in a revolutionary new in-car entertainment system developed as a proof of concept for a demonstration vehicle designed by Renault RSA of France.

One of the first of its kind, the in-vehicle entertainment system utilizes a plastic optical fiber (POF) network to enable individual passengers to choose from entertainment or information provided by multiple sources. Because this POF network can transport up to four simultaneous video streams to touch-screen displays located in the front console and
rear seats, each passenger is able to choose independently from DVDs, digital TV, and video games.

Consumer Convenience Ports (CCP) are another unique feature supported by the POF network. Located throughout the vehicle, each CCP provides plug-and-play access via FireWire to many portable electronic devices, such as laptops, DVD/camcorders, MP3/CD players, iPods, or video game players.

Output from a connected portable device can be directed to a single passenger, or shared by all passengers in the vehicles.
The proof of concept network, demonstrated in the Renault Espace, also includes an embedded navigation system, and a camera for rear parking assistance. This proof of concept network can be seen in a short video produced by Renault on the 1394 Trade Association web site at . “Firecomms leads the development of devices to create next generation in-vehicle networks using POF, a low-cost optical alternative to traditional copper cabling,” says Firecomms CEO Declan O'Mahoney. “Its high bandwidth and ease of use, coupled with its high tolerance to vibrations and external influences make POF ideal for in-vehicle embedded multimedia networks.”

IDB-1394 is designed for high-speed multimedia applications that require large amounts of information to be moved quickly around a vehicle. IDB-1394 is built on IEEE-1394 (FireWire) technology that has already gained wide acceptance in the consumer electronics community.


Graded Index POF Arrives in the United States
Posted February 11, 2005After many promises by a number of manufacturers of plastic optical fiber (POF), a Graded Index POF is now available in the U.S.   For years, only a step index POF has been available for data communications which had a limited bandwidth for certain applications.   Now with a GI-POF, bandwidths of greater than 3GHz at 50 meters are possible. This optical fiber, GI-POF is a PMMA   (polymethyl-methacrylate) based and does not contain any refractive index modifying dopant. It has excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability. In addition, small multimedia interface (SMI) connectors and resonant cavity LEDs are becoming available from a number of sources.   Design engineers now have all the pieces required to design POF into their systems.   Full Story.
New IDB 1394 Socket
Posted January 26, 2005

POFTO Member, Electronic Links International, Inc. is introducing a new IDB 1394 socket in accordance with the IDB document 04 -005. The socket has integrated the new light POF sources from Firecomms. In addition to complying with the new printed circuit board foot print as identified by the new specification, the socket has a metal shell for providing EMI.    This socket is intended to mate with a mating,   plastic,   optical plug cable assembly,   also available from E.L.I.I.

Read Full Realease                           
POF Auto Day a Success
Posted December 9, 2004

Close to 50 representatives from Automakers and tier 1 suppliers heard the latest developments in POF applied to automobiles. According to a report from Infineon, in Europe the number of different model cars with MOST is now up to 30 and soon to be 40 which includes all price ranges from the lowest to the highest. Infineon reported that they had shipped 11 million transceivers to BMW and over 25 Million MOST Transmitter/receivers. Speakers also announced IDB 1394 interest and demonstrations by Nissan in Japan, Renault in France and KIA in Korea. Attendees were chagrined at the lack of interest by the U.S. automakers in POF. "Based on the feedback that we received from attendees, there is a need to have more "POF AUTO DAYS" but focused on actual experiences, reliability data, service data, lessons learned, and cost information," according to Paul Polishuk of IGI, the organizers of the event.

More Comments on POF 2004
Posted November 4, 2004

Commentary from
POFTO Member Whitney White of Chromis Fiberoptics

Some thoughts:1) In the Field of perfluorinated POF, Nexans announced a very exciting connector product. This connector replaces glue with an elestomeric boot that is slid into place to secure the fiber. It's a development that makes small-core POF much easier to use.

2) We (Chromis Fiber) announced two perfluorinated fiber products for short-reach applications. One has a 50 micron core and the other has a 120 micron core.

3) For the automotive market, ASTRI demonstrated some very nice VCSEL and MSM products tha operate well at high temperature.

4) Also for the automotive market, Schott is pushing for a glass fiber bundle product as an alternative to POF for high temperature applications.


Nissan Displays 400 Mbps Capable Auto at ITS WC
Updated October 26, 2004Nissan is displaying a new prototype vehicle at this year’s 11th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems that incorporates a multimedia platform capable of showing up to 4 moving images on an onboard screen at once. The prototype is designed to explore future developments in vehicle safety equipment, convenience features and in-vehicle entertainment. The car is fitted with one monitor in the front and another in the rear seat area. Depending on the chosen mode, the front seat monitor can display up to four images at one time from seven different cameras mounted at the front, side and rear of the vehicle, giving the driver all-round visibility including blind spots. Simultaneously, the rear seat monitor can show DVD images. The multimedia capabilities are made possible by the adoption of a high-speed 1394 optical fiber network communications system which allows a data transmission rate of 400 Mbps (mega-bites per second). Whereas conventional analogue cables are only capable of transmitting one image, the optical network communications system allows the transmission of multiple images. The application of optical fiber also means that the weight of the cables can be reduced to about one-half the weight of a conventional wiring harness. The 2004 ITS World Congress, which takes place in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, will open to the public from October 19 to October 24.

Original Press Release POF 2004 - 13th Annual International POF Conference
Updated October 12, 2004 POFTO Member and CEO of Luceat S.p.A., Alessandro Nocivelli
sent in the following report on POF 2004:
Luceat exhibit at POF 2004

The choice of the city for this year's POF Conference was almost obvious.
Nurenberg is the home city of the POF-Application Center, Europe's most
prestigious research institution in the field; and it's only 160km north of
Munich, home of BMW - the leader for POF usage in the automotive market.No wonder that this year's attendance was particularly high. Germany was obviously the most represented country, followed by Far East countries and other European nations.

For the first time, it was apparent to anyone that Far East is going to
become a "hot" area for POF and POF-based applications. While Japan still leads the race in terms of R&D and innovation, other countries like Corea, China and Taiwan show muscle with new PMMA-based GI-POF and POF-based devices.After years spent talking about perfluorinated GI-POF, many showed off
awesome results obtained with plain vanilla SI-POF. The Fraunhofer Institute demonstrated transmission at Gbps rates over 10m, while an European firm (Luceat, actually) introduced commercially available modules for transmitting data at up to 400m - with standard POF!A recurrent topic at every POF Conference has been the quest for the "killer application". Automotive is of course a booming market, with BMW planning to wire 1.4 million vehicles in 2005. Few benefit of this market though, with Infineon (active devices) and Gebauer & Griller (MOST cable) leading the lot.

This year, the most pronounced word at the conference has been "1394", or FireWire as Apple calls it. Domestic applications actually are a
promising market, although some technical issues have yet to be fully addressed before we can see a fully-fledged "POF house" based on this standard.

Most importantly, nobody knows whether in the end Ethernet, the standard which nobody likes and everybody uses, will win in the domestic market as well. And that has nothing to do with technical performances: it's just marketing.POF is getting stronger, and this year's conference proved it: but the pace
of growth and penetration in new markets has to increase, if we all want to succeed. It's no more the time to address technical issues, but to focus on creating working devices and proposing them to the market.Please also see Alessandro's report on flamability testing.


POF 2004 - Preliminary Photos Posted October 7, 2004 The first reports are back in from POF 2004 for in Nuremburg, and we will have a full review soon. For now here are some photo highlights:


The view from outside the conference center


Schafer exhibits new POF terminating equipment


POFTO members FO Systems and FiberFin


Infineon exhibits a BMW using POF technology

POFTO Members Report on CEDIA 2004
Posted September 15, 2004




The POFTO had a booth at CEDIA 2004 with six member companies participating

1. Fiberfin
2. Firecomms, Ltd.
3. Mitsubishi Rayon
4. Newnex
5. Information Gatekeepers Inc
6. Senko

Other literature available at the booth:

1. Asahi Glass
2. Luceat

This year's show had 25,000 attendees, up from 20,000 last year. The place was busting out at the seams with exhibitors in hallways and for the first time a substantial waiting list developed which could not be accommodated. Cedia 2005 will be in Indianapolis next year but will move to Denver for the next two years and then to Atlanta.

The POFTO booth had adequate traffic despite its location. Over 100 highly qualified leads were distributed to the participants. at the booth Fiberfin provided hands-on demonstations of connectorization, Mitsubishi showed a video POF link using 1394 and announced a HCS DVI link, Newnex had a demonstration of a POF repeater for 1394 operating at 200Mbps, and Senko had a DVI link over glass with transmitters and receivers built into the standard DVI connectors.

Other POF activity at the show included:

1. 1394 had a booth with a demonstration of a "Home Network" using both POF and Cat 5.

2. Fuji Film had a demonstration of a POF DVI link using graded index POF over 30 meters. It was in the Pioneer Corp. booth and used Pioneer plasma displays and electronics to interconnect.

In summary, this is the right show for POF. POFTO should have had some POF courses to offer. Certainly, they should be proposed to CEDIA for 2005. As in other shows, there was a widespread lack of knowledge about POF.

POF Tackles Automotive Requirements
posted: May 11, 2004

A featured article by Dr. Tami Freeman,
Deputy Editor FibreSystems Europe
In association with LIGHTWAVE Europe

Car makers looking to implement in-vehicle plastic fibre networks require high-bandwidth links, low costs and complete reliability, especially as they begin to exploit this optical infrastructure for safety-critical applications. Tami Freeman takes a look at some of the latest developments in the world of wired-up cars.
Read the Full Article

POFTO Mission Statement

The POFTO is an organization that has been established to promote the common business interests of its members and the POF industry. POFTO is an alternative to glass optical fiber that has been specifically designed to be a practical, low cost solution for high bandwidth data communications. The POFTO welcomes those whose interest and support can contribute to the success of this endeavor.

Primary Goals

• Promote industry awareness, acceptance and advancement of POF Accelerate the adoption and usage of POF products and services Encourage the application of POF and component systems.
• Promote the advancement and acceptance of POF standards

Some Benefits of Membership