PAUL POLISHUK
In just the past three years, European automotive manufacturers have installed
25 million nodes of plastic optical fiber
Straight optical fiber
Scattered light rays
Negative bending
Less scattered light rays
Positive bending
More scattered light rays
O. ZIEMANN
(POF) in more than 40 vehicle models. FIGURE 1. Sensors using plastic optical fiber embedded within the frame-
The Media Oriented Systems Transport work of an automobile can be used to provide pedestrian protection. The
or MOST Cooperation (Karlsruhe, Germany; transmission signal changes when a surface-treated zone on the fiber is
www.mostcooperation.com) is the name for bent. Analysis of the signal from several parallel fiber strands allows the
the group of automakers, suppliers, software system to determine the nature of the object impacting the vehicle. The
sensor can distinguish between a human and an inanimate object, trig-
developers, and end users continuing to devel- gering the hood to lift and softening the impact if a human is struck.
op the optical-fiber standards for higher
speeds, higher temperatures, and tighter European auto manufacturers Why POF?
bend radii within automobiles. When the European auto
Formed in 1998 by BMW and Daimler- have rapidly implemented manufacturers were look-
Chrysler, among others, the MOST Coop- ing for a replacement for
eration was established principally to de- plastic optical fiber, in copper-wire harnesses in
fine the MOST technology—a multimedia automobiles, they want-
fiberoptic network with standard hardware part because of the MOST ed a technology that was
and software interfaces optimized for auto- Cooperation standard. Now readily available, easy to motive applications. As the major invest- terminate, immune to
ment in this standards activity increases the standard is paving the radio frequency and elec-
and large-volume purchases drive prices tromagnetic interference,
down, suppliers and automakers are look- way for plastic optical fiber in and low in cost. Step-
ing to expand the use of the MOST stan- index POF was readily
dard into other areas such as consumer other consumer markets. available and even though
electronics and home networking. the losses were high com-
pared to glass, it was a
PAUL POLISHUK is president of Information Gatekeepers (IGI), 320 proven commodity and definitely cheap. Further, low-cost Washington St., Suite 302, Brighton, MA 02135-3356, and secre- tary of the Plastic Optical Fiber Trade Organization (POF TO); e-mail: light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could be used and simple con- ppolishuk@igigroup.com; www.igigroup.com. nectors could be molded. The use of glass was considered but
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