近年來，由於塑膠光纖傳輸損耗不斷改善，加上其具備機械性質強韌與低成本的好處，在許多應用上已取代傳統電纜和玻璃光纖。
本研究提出三種不同塑膠光纖端面形狀，並探討其對塑膠光纖與發光二極體間光耦合效率的影響，方法上，實驗與光學追跡模擬同時進行，實驗結果印證所建構之光學追跡模式的可行性。
文中首先分析球型光纖透鏡對塑膠光纖耦合效率的影響，採用EPO-TEK 353ND 環氧化樹脂當作透鏡材料，結果顯示，球型透鏡可以有效改善光耦合效率。另一種由球型光纖透鏡衍生而來的端面圓化式光纖透鏡也於文中提出，結果不但證明其具有與球型光纖透鏡一樣的耦光效果，還具備成型容易與安裝方便的好處。文中還採用另一種反射式光纖端面，為平錐式光纖端面，此種設計，藉由發生於錐緣的內全反射，改變入射光路徑以提升光耦合效率，實驗與理論結果同時證明反射式端面能更有效提升光耦合效率。
藉由光線追跡模組，不同類型塑膠光纖也於文中做探討，結果顯示光纖與光源發射面積之相對尺寸為影響光耦合效率增加比例最重要因素。

The fiber-optics communication device with a plastic optical fiber (POF) has become a technology of increasing interests. The attenuation of commercial available POF has been improved to tens of decibels per kilometer. Due to its flexibility and high alignment efficiency, it has been widely used in many areas.
In this study, different end shapes of POF have been proposed to increase the coupling efficiency of a POF from a surface emitting LED. Both the experiments and a ray tracing simulation are performed to investigate the coupling scheme. Experimental results also illustrate the feasibility of using ray tracing model in POF end shapes design.
The effect of ball fiber lens on coupling efficiency is studied first. Lens material is EPO-TEK 353ND two parts epoxy. The result indicates that the ball fiber lens can improve the coupling efficiency significantly. A more impact end shape modified from the ball fiber lens is proposed in this study, i.e. a thin tip-rounded fiber lens. Numerical and experimental results show the tip can work as good as a ball fiber lens does. A reflection-styled end shape has also been proposed in this thesis, i.e. a taper-ended POF. In this design, the taper edge serves as a reflector to bend the rays incident on it by total internal reflection. The maximum efficiency achieves a great improvement from the previous design.
Further study on the various fiber types with different sizes and numerical apertures have also been studied by the ray tracing model.

Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------
i
List of Figures --------------------------------------------------------------
iv
List of Tables ---------------------------------------------------------------
ix
Nomenclature ---------------------------------------------------------------
x
List of Abbreviations ------------------------------------------------------
xiii
摘要 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
xiv
Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------
xv
Chapter 1 Introduction -----------------------------------------------------
1
1-1 Evolutions and Applications of Optical Communication Sys-
tems with Plastic Optical Fibers (POF) --------------------------
1
1-2 Methods for Increasing Coupling Power of Optical Fibers ---
2
1-3 Motivations and Methods -----------------------------------------
4
1-4 Contents --------------------------------------------------------------
6
Chapter 2 The Simulation Model of LED-POF Optical Communic-
ation System ----------------------------------------------------
7
2-1 Optical Communication System with LED and POF Devices
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
7
2-2 LED Optical Characters -------------------------------------------
7
2-3 POF Optical Properties --------------------------------------------
9
2-4 The Simulation Model in Software Zemax ---------------------
10
2-4-1 LED Model in Software Zemax -----------------------------
11
2-4-2 POF Model in Software Zemax -----------------------------
13
Chapter 3 The Effects of Different End Shapes of POF on Butt Co-
upling Efficiency -----------------------------------------------
24
3-1 Equipments and Experimental Setups ---------------------------
24
3-2 Flat-ended POF -----------------------------------------------------
26
3-2-1 Formation of Flat-ended POFs ------------------------------
26
3-2-2 Flat-ended POF Analysis and Butt Coupling Efficiency
--------------------------------------------------------------

27
3-3 Ball-lensed POF ----------------------------------------------------
30
3-3-1 Material Properties of EPO-TEK 353ND ------------------
30
3-3-2 Formation of Ball-lensed POFs -----------------------------
31
3-3-3 Ball-lensed POF Analysis and Butt Coupling Efficiency
--------------------------------------------------------------

32
3-4 Tip-rounded POF ---------------------------------------------------
35
3-4-1 Formation of Tip-rounded POFs ----------------------------
35
3-4-2 Tip-rounded POF Analysis and Butt Coupling Efficienc-
y -----------------------------------------------------------

36
3-5 Taper-ended POF ---------------------------------------------------
39
3-5-1 Formation of Taper-ended POFs ----------------------------
40
3-5-1-1 Chemical Etching processes of POFs -----------------
40
3-5-1-2 Hot-drawing processes of POFs -----------------------
43
3-5-2 Taper-ended POF Analysis and Butt Coupling Efficienc-
y -----------------------------------------------------------

44
3-6 Summary -------------------------------------------------------------
46
Chapter 4 Parameter analyses and Discussions ------------------------
103
4-1 Maximum Transmission Distance --------------------------------
104
4-2 Sensitivity of Coupling Efficiency to Misalignments ---------
105
Chapter 5 Conclusions -----------------------------------------------------
111
5-1 Summary -------------------------------------------------------------
111
5-2 Further Works -------------------------------------------------------
112
5-2-1 Bandwidth and Attenuation of POFs -----------------------
112
5-2-2 Higher Level Devices ----------------------------------------
113
Reference --------------------------------------------------------------------
114
Appendix --------------------------------------------------------------------
117
A-1 Tunneling Rays in a Cylindrical Optical Waveguide ---------
117
A-2 Attenuation of Tunneling Rays -----------------------------------
118
A-3 Tunneling Rays in this Work -------------------------------------
119
A-3-1 Definition of a Fractional Value ---------------------
120
A-3-2 Set a Reference Position -------------------------------------
121
A-3-3 Experimental Results ----------------------------------------
122

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