Research Data supporting "A Scalable VCSEL-Array Optical Wireless Transmitter with Experimental Multi-Beam Prototype"

A 5×5 VCSEL-array based optical wireless communication multi-beam transmitter is designed and simulated. Each element of the array addresses a separate spatial attocell. A microlens-array based homogeniser achieves uniform coverage at the receiver plane from each multi-mode VCSEL output. 1 m2 total coverage is achieved with each atto-cell covering an area of 400 cm2 at a range of 3 m. For a proof of concept demonstration a 1x3 channel VCSEL array - based transmitter prototype is experimentally tested. The performance is verified by demonstrating three channels achieving ~ 0.12 mW / m2 uniform power without any optical interference to adjacent attocells. With a simple receiver design using low cost, off-the-shelf components, each channel of the transmitter achieves ~10 Gbps throughput using OFDM within 7 cm lateral range and > 4Gbps within 12 cm lateral range at 3m. The transmitter meets eye-safetly restrictions and can be scaled to 250 Gbps aggregate data rate by employing all 25 VCSELs with independent OFDM modulation

本研究设计并仿真了一款基于5×5垂直腔面发射激光器（Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser, VCSEL）阵列的光无线通信多光束发射机。该阵列的每个发射单元对应一个独立的空间超小蜂窝。采用基于微透镜阵列的匀光器，可使每个多模VCSEL的输出在接收平面实现均匀覆盖。在3米的传输距离下，单个超小蜂窝的覆盖面积为400平方厘米，整体总覆盖面积可达1平方米。为开展概念验证演示，本研究对一款基于1×3通道VCSEL阵列的发射机原型进行了实验测试。实验结果验证了该发射机的性能：三个通道可实现约0.12 mW/m²的均匀功率分布，且不会对相邻超小蜂窝产生任何光学干扰。采用低成本商用现货组件搭建简易接收机的前提下，在3米传输距离下，该发射机的每个通道在横向偏移7厘米范围内可依托正交频分复用（Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM）技术实现约10 Gbps的吞吐量，在横向偏移12厘米范围内可实现超过4 Gbps的吞吐量。该发射机符合眼部安全限值要求，若启用全部25个VCSEL单元并采用独立OFDM调制，可实现总计250 Gbps的聚合数据速率。