0.5-Gb/s OFDM-based laser data and power transfer using a GaAs photovoltaic cell

Fakidis, John and Videv, Stefan and Helmers, Henning and Haas, Harald (2018) 0.5-Gb/s OFDM-based laser data and power transfer using a GaAs photovoltaic cell. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 30 (9). pp. 841-844. ISSN 1041-1135 (https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2018.2815273)

[thumbnail of Fakidis-etal-IEEE-PTL-2018-laser-data-and-power-transfer-using-a-GaAs-photovoltaic-cell]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Fakidis_etal_IEEE_PTL_2018_laser_data_and_power_transfer_using_a_GaAs_photovoltaic_cell.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (349kB)| Preview

Abstract

In this letter, we demonstrate for the first time the additional capability of high-speed data communication for single-junction photovoltaic (PV) cells. A record 3-dB bandwidth of 24.5 MHz is reported for a gallium arsenide (GaAs) PV cell. The PV cell is shown to achieve a power efficiency of at least 42% when irradiance of 0.46 W/cm2 is received from 847-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitted laser. Optimized bit-and-power-loaded optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is applied to use the communication bandwidth most efficiently. With this, a data rate of 0.5 Gb/s is achieved for a 2-m OFDM-based laser link. To the best of our knowledge, the reported data rates achieved with a GaAs PV cell as the detector are the highest for simultaneous optical wireless information and power transfer.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)