Non-mechanical beam steering for high-speed optical wireless communications via electrowetting on dielectric

Abstract

Electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) is used for non-mechanical optical beam steering (OBS) in optical communication systems. High-capacitance ion gel is used to construct an efficient electrowetting interface that facilitates dynamic OBS. This integration facilitates precise control of beam steering and data transmission efficiency in optical wireless communication systems. An EWOD-based liquid prism (LP) manipulates beam direction via electrowetting. The theoretical framework is supported by the Young and Young-Lippmann equations for precise optical path control. We present a theoretical and experimental demonstration of a two-dimensional beam steering system using an EWOD-based LP, with beam steering up to 14.82° and 14.39° along the X and Y axes, respectively. The system achieves data rates of 1.9 Gbps in free-space optics (FSO) and 1.7 Gbps in underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) systems, with a measured bit error rate that adheres to the standard threshold of the forward error correction limit. Our results suggest that the EWOD-based LP system offers a compact, efficient, and versatile design for optical devices in both FSO and UWOC systems.