Development of Hard Plastic Clad Fiber (HPCF)-Compatible Devices and Demonstration of HPCF-PON

We report implementation and packaging of a whole line-up of hard plastic clad fiber (HPCF)-compatible devices: HPCF pigtailed 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, HPCF pigtailed GaAs PIN photodiode, and 4times4 HPCF power splitter. Using these devices, an all-HPCF 4times4 passive optical network (PON) link suitable for short reach optical networks was successfully constructed. The PON link was operating well at a data rate of 1.25 Gb/s. The structures of the devices and their fabrication processes are discussed in detail along with characterizations of transmission performance by measuring the eye diagrams