Plastic optical fiber (POF), or Polymer optical fibre, is an optical fiber which is made out of plastic. POF produced materials are mainly divided as two types:

 

One is polymethyl methacrylate polymer PMMA (Polymer lymethylmethacrylate);

And the other is a fluoropolymer (Perfluorinated polymers).

 

POF has been called the “consumer” optical fiber because the fiber and associated optical links, connectors, and installation are all inexpensive. Due to the attenuation and distortion characteristics of the traditional PMMA fibers are commonly used for low-speed, short-distance (up to 100 meters) applications in digital home appliances, home networks, industrial networks (PROFIBUS, PROFINET), and car networks (MOST). The perfluorinated polymer fibers are commonly used for much higher-speed applications such as data center wiring and building LAN wiring.