Glass Fibers Instead of Copper Cables

Physorg.com, accessed 3 Aug 2006 Fiber-optic systems transport data at an unrivaled speed. Until now, however, it has only been worth using them to interconnect large numbers of customers. They are too costly for individual connections or for networking machines in a factory. The reason is that the optoelectronic components that transmit light information, receive it, switch it and convert it into electrical signals are made of special inorganic materials such as semiconducting compounds or ceramics. This makes them very expensive. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin have developed an alternative made of low-priced plastics. Read more