expanded beam optic (FO) (EBO)
An Expanded Beam Optic (EBO) is a lens coupling that disperses and thus magnifies the light beam from a single mode fiber.
The EBO lens is located in the FO connector and widens the light beam, which is only 9 µm thin, to 285 µm. The opposite pole is again an EBO lens which, as a converging lens, focuses the broadened light beam back to the diameter of the monomode fiber.
The EBO connector has the advantage that, in contrast to other fiber optic connectors with physical contact( PC), it is insensitive to axis misalignment and to dust; however, it has a much higher insertion loss. It is similar to the lens connector with the difference that the EBO lens is spherical or hemispherical and has much more dispersion and bundling than the lens coupling.
EBO connectors are used in automotive technology in the MOST bus.