1.5 Gbit/s multi-channel visible light communications using CMOS-controlled gaN-based lEDs

Zhang, S., Watson, S., Mckendry, J., Massoubre, D., Cogman, A., Gu, E., Henderson, R., Kelly, A. and Dawson, M. (2013) 1.5 Gbit/s multi-channel visible light communications using CMOS-controlled gaN-based lEDs. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 31(8), pp. 1211-1216. (doi: 10.1109/JLT.2013.2246138)

Abstract

An on-chip multi-channel visible light communication (VLC) system is realized through a blue (450 nm) GaN-based micron-size light-emitting diode (micro-LED) array integrated with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. When driven by a custom-made CMOS driving board with 16 independent parallel data input ports, this micro-LED array device is computer controllable via a standard USB interface and is capable of delivering high speed parallel data streams for VLC. A total maximum error-free data transmission rate of 1.5 Gbit/s is achieved over free space by modulating four micro-LED pixels simultaneously using an on-off key non-return to zero modulation scheme. Electrical and optical crosstalk of the system has also been investigated in detail and the further optimization of CMOS design to minimize the crosstalk is proposed.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS), micro light-emitting diodes , multi-channel, parallel data transmission, spatial-multiplexing, visible light communications
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Watson, Dr Scott and Mckendry, Dr Jonathan and Kelly, Professor Anthony and Zhang, Dr Shuailong
• Authors: Zhang, S., Watson, S., Mckendry, J., Massoubre, D., Cogman, A., Gu, E., Henderson, R., Kelly, A., and Dawson, M.
• Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics; T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
• Journal Name: Journal of Lightwave Technology
• Journal Abbr.: JLT
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 0733-8724
• ISSN (Online): 1558-2113