1 Gbit/s transmission over step-index plastic optical fiber using an optical receiver with an integrated equalizer

A single chip optical receiver with an integrated large-diameter photodiode, transimpedance amplifier, two stages active equalizer, post amplifier and 50 Ω driver is used for gigabit transmission over PMMA step plastic optical fiber (SI-POF). The large-diameter photodiode with an antireflection coating optimized for red light. The integrated equalizer enables the presented optical receiver to reach 1 Gbit/s over 50 m SI-POF at bit error ratio of 10− 6. An error free (< 10− 9) 1 Gbit/s data rate over 40 m standard PMMA step-index plastic optical fiber is also achieved.