High-speed underwater optical wireless communication using a blue GaN-based micro-LED

Abstract

High-speed underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) was achieved using an 80 μm blue-emitting GaN-based micro-LED. The micro-LED has a peak emission wavelength of ~440 nm and an underwater power attenuation of 1 dB/m in tap water. The -3 dB electrical-to-optical modulation bandwidth of the packaged micro-LED increases with increasing current and saturates at ~160 MHz. At an underwater distance of 0.6 m, 800 Mb/s data rate was achieved with a bit error rate (BER) of 1.3 × 10^-3, below the forward error correction (FEC) criteria. And we obtained 100 Mb/s data communication speed with a received light output power of -40 dBm and a BER of 1.9 × 10^-3, suggesting that UOWC with extended distance can be achieved. Through reflecting the light emission beam by mirrors within a water tank, we experimentally demonstrated a 200 Mb/s data rate with a BER of 3.0 × 10^-6 at an underwater distance of 5.4 m.

Underwater Optical Wireless Communications: Overview

“…In underwater optical communication, the connection between transmitter and receiver can be of two main types (see Figure 5) [20,51] For UOWC systems, the function of the transmitter is to transform the electrical signal in optical one, projecting the carefully aimed light pulses into the water. The optical light sources are based on LED or LD one [94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102].…”

Laser-based visible light communications and underwater wireless optical communications: a device perspective

“…While radio frequency (RF) can be used for underwater wireless communication, it suffers from very high attenuation in water which limits the transmission range [24][25][26]. Because of the limitations of the aforementioned alternatives, UWOC has received a lot of attention in recent years, and Figure 2 shows the recent progress in the field [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. These demonstrations range from test-bed experiments, such as presented in [32], and real environment tests [42].…”

Light based underwater wireless communications

“…Table I gives a brief summary of data rates and link distances achieved in recent UWOC system level demonstrations. [9][10][11][32][33][34]38,42,43) Another aspect of recent UWOC research is the channel modeling taking into account the effects of optical turbulence using experimental measurements. The probability density functions of laser beam intensity fluctuations due to salty and bubbly underwater channels under various channel conditions were experimentally obtained by Jamali.…”