Thermal Influence on Plastic Optical Fibers: A Reliability Study

In the last years, the phenomenon called Fourth Industrial Revolution has promoted an intense digitalization of data and the automation of several processes in real-time, bringing concepts such as the internet of things, smart cities and cloud computing. From this scenario, optical fibers have become key elements as optical sensors or, mainly, composing optical networks due to the possibility of transmitting data in high frequency over long distances without big losses. In the specific case of optical fiber sensors, other important points also have contributed to their popularization. In the face of this increase in interest in optical fiber devices, this work presents a reliability analysis from a brief study of how thermal effects may affect the operation of devices based on POFs and also aims to identify failure modes after performing accelerated life tests. This study was subdivided into two different steps: firstly, the behavior of the optical power level was measured during all heating processes and, after this first step, also performed analyses using microscopy to locate possible mechanical changes in POFs structures.

Keywords: Plastic optical fiber, Accelerated life testing, Fault diagnosis, Prognostic health management, Reliability engineering.

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