Avago Technologies announces enhancements to plastic-optical-fiber product family

Avago Technologies has announced their latest product enhancements to the popular Versatile Link POF (plastic-optical-fiber) product family. This product platform has become widely adopted for industrial communications and control links for industrial applications. Avago POF products offer infinite voltage isolation and EMI immunity performance that far exceeds what traditional copper cables can achieve. POF cables can weigh up to 75% less then copper cables, while providing similar or greater performance with a 50% tighter bend radius at comparable cost. "The enhanced Versatile Link POF product family is already an industry-standard for robust industrial communications" said Bernd Luecke, Director of Marketing for Avago Industrial Fiber Optic Products in Regensburg, Germany. "The enhancements Avago has released now give designers more capability to integrate their designs and achieve lower cost without compromising on performance or circuit isolation." Designed for robust industrial networking applications, communications over POF offers key benefits versus copper-based implementations. Since optical fiber has no metal in its construction, the communication link has infinite isolation between nodes at the same time and since light is used to transmit the signals there are no effects from or creation of electromagnetic interference (EMI) on the transmission line. There are additional challenges of copper cables caused by the longer assembly time and labor costs due to the steps needed for cable prep (stripping multiple layers of insulation, tinning the strands, soldering multiple wires, and terminating the foil shield). Testing an assembled copper cable is also slightly more complex than POF as copper requires tests for continuity, shorts, opens, and breakdown voltage. The new Versatile Link products from Avago offer system designers integrated digital logic (TTL) interfaces for both transmitter and receivers. Integrated circuits within the Versatile Link components manage the translation from electrical-optical signals on both ends. These new products are the first Versatile Link parts to offer 3.3 V and 5 V power supply options. Avago Technologies Product deeplink