Super Receivers for Visible Light Communications
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Ali W
(2022)
A Gigabit VLC Receiver That Incorporates a Fluorescent Antenna and a SiPM
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Ali W
(2021)
The Impact of the Length of Fluorescent Fiber Concentrators on the Performance of VLC Receivers
in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Manousiadis P
(2019)
Optical Antennas for Wavelength Division Multiplexing in Visible Light Communications beyond the Étendue Limit
in Advanced Optical Materials
Manousiadis PP
(2020)
Organic semiconductors for visible light communications.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Tavakkolnia I
(2021)
Organic photovoltaics for simultaneous energy harvesting and high-speed MIMO optical wireless communications.
in Light, science & applications
Yoshida K
(2020)
245 MHz bandwidth organic light-emitting diodes used in a gigabit optical wireless data link.
in Nature communications
| Description | The demand for wireless communications is growing exponentially, with much of that demand for indoor short-range wireless to replace what a decade ago would be fixed ethernet connections. WiFi 6, 5G and a range of RF based wireless standards have been developed to meet this demand. Whilst WiFi can provide high 'headline' data rates it is often not stable in environments with high user density, and achieved data rates are orders of magnitude lower than the technology can provide. This is a symptom of an overused shared resource. The search for new spectrum continues, with millimetre wave cellular being pursued and Visible and Infrared communications interest is growing rapidly. Most recently the interest in optical wireless has seen large industrial concerns such as Signify and Airbus taking an interest. Signify, for instance install LiFi where there is high user density and the need for simple reliable connections with low-latency and stable throughput (such as a press-room for instance). A key part of any optical link is the receiver-this should have maximum sensitivity and be able to collect light over a wide field of view and a large area. Conventional optical systems such as lenses and optical concentrators are subject to fundamental physical constraints (étendue) that limit the ability to collect light. Once light is collected a photodetector/amplifier combination that operates close to the fundamental limits (either poisson or shot-noise) is desirable. I this project we have developed very sensitive and wide field-of-view optical receivers that combine fluorescent concentrators with Single Photon Avalanche Detector (SPAD) arrays known as silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs). The fluorescent concentrators absorb light over a wide field of view and large area, using a thin waveguiding layer of fluorescent molecules that convert the absorbed photons to a new wavelength, and this light is trapped in the waveguide and propagates to a small SiPM photodetector. Measured performance of these structures is now >5x the theoretical maximum of the etendue-limited traditional approach. Silicon photo-multipliers can have quantum-limited sensitivity, large areas and can support high-data rates. The Oxford and St. Andrews team, in the EPSRC funded super-receiver project have demonstrated world record results for these components, including: (i) World record date rates (>2.5Gbit/s) using SiPMs (ii) World leading gains for fluorescent concentrators- (iii) World leading understanding of both these devices (iv) Proof of concept demonstrations of both MIMO and WDM approaches to using these devices |
| Exploitation Route | These components could be integrated in mobile phones and laptops to receive data in future optical WiFi networks. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Transport |
| Description | Two patent applications were filed for inventions related to the research. Broader impacts of this work is recorded against grant ref EP/R00689X/1 |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Title | A Gigabit VLC Receiver That Incorporates a Fluorescent Antenna and a SiPM (dataset) |
| Description | |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/datasets/a-gigabit-vlc-receiver-that-incorporates-a-fluore... |
| Title | Data for: "Organic Photovoltaics for Simultaneous Energy Harvesting and High-Speed MIMO Optical Wireless Communications" |
| Description | The source data underlying Figs. 3,4,6 and 7 of the main paper and supplementary Figs. S1-S4, S6-S8 are provided as source data files. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/01bf34cf-889a-4f8c-b1ad-8bf482443228 |
| Title | High speed visible-light communication using organic light-emitting diodes based on fluorescent and phosphorescent emitters (dataset) |
| Description | Visible light communications (VLCs) using organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are a promising technology because of unique features of OLEDs such as arbitrary sizes and shapes, and providing a glare-free illumination. However, the reported best data transmission rate of OLEDs in VLC, so far, are quite low (~50 Mbps), even in unpractical short data link (12.5 cm). To enhance the data rate, high signal-to-noise-ratio and high modulation bandwidth is required. Here, we report a systematic investigation of OLEDs, in particular, the influence of light emitting materials and device size. Because both points are related on both signal-to-noise-ratio and the bandwidth, and they have fundamental trade-off in data rate, the understanding of the influence on the data rate will be basics to improve furthermore the date rate. However, in the early stage of development of OLEDs for VLCs, their influence were not investigated. Through the investigation, we found that a conventional fluorescent emitter, 2,5,8,11-tetra-tert-butylperylene, with the smallest device area of 1.2 × 10-3 cm2 are important to achieve higher data transmission rate. That means that the enhancement of data rate by increasing the bandwidth is much effective than the enhancement of the data rate by increasing radiance. Through these investigation, we achieved a record data transmission rate of 663 Mbps with an implementation of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, which is the 13 fold improvement of the data rate from the best data rate reported so far even in more practical 2 m data link. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk:443/portal/en/datasets/high-speed-visiblelight-communication-using-o... |
| Title | Optical Antennas for Wavelength Division Multiplexing in Visible Light Communications beyond the Étendue limit (dataset) |
| Description | |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk:443/portal/en/datasets/optical-antennas-for-wavelength-division-mult... |
| Title | COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, METHOD AND SYSTEM |
| Description | The present disclosure describes a receiver (112) for a wireless optical communications system (110). The receiver (112) includes an optical element (116) for receiving an optical signal (114) including at least one spectral component. The optical element (116) spatially separates at least one spectral component from at least one other spectral component of the optical signal (114). |
| IP Reference | WO2019025758 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | ongoing |
| Title | RECEIVER ASSEMBLY, DATA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM, AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS METHOD |
| Description | A receiver assembly (100) and data communications method are disclosed. In one arrangement, a receiver assembly (100) comprises a concentration stage (14). The concentration stage (14) receives radiation via an input surface (120) and outputs concentrated radiation via an output surface (122). The concentration stage comprises a wavelength converting member (6) that converts radiation to longer wavelength radiation. An optical element (102) is provided which is such that if a plane wave of radiation is incident on the optical element a spatial distribution of radiation derived from the plane wave on the input surface of the concentration stage varies as a function of a direction of incidence of the plane wave relative to the optical element. A plurality of detectors (42) are provided, each detecting radiation output from a different portion of the output surface of the concentration stage. |
| IP Reference | WO2018015726 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | ongoing |