The illumination design space using laser diodes in visible light communication

• Published in: Conference record of the Industry Applications Conference pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Teixeira, Lucas, Loose, Felipe, Barriquello, Carlos Henrique, Marcos Alonso, J., Reguera, Vitalio Alfonso, Dalla Costa, Marco Antonio
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 10.10.2021
• Subjects: Bandwidth; Diode lasers; Energy conversion; Laser diodes; Light emitting diodes; Lighting; Optical fibers; Radiation effects; Transmitters; Visible Light Communication
• ISSN: 2576-702X
• DOI: 10.1109/IAS48185.2021.9677254

The use of Laser Diodes (LD) already finds place in applications such as medicine, scanning, Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) and fiber optic communications. Recently the application of LD in illumination arises in projectors and vehicular headlights. The wider light modulation bandwidth is an interesting feature of the LD, which represents an advantage over LEDs, specially for Visible Light Communication (VLC). Therefore, this study presents an analysis of the LD application for simultaneous lighting and communication purposes. For this goal, the LD electrical and optical behavior is briefly reviewed and a mathematical static model of a commercial LD is used to perform a simulation-based analysis. It is presented a design space that considers dimming, communication signal variance and lighting efficacy range when using an LD for VLC. With regard to dimming range, it does not significantly differ using an LED or an LD. However, the LD has a clear advantage when light is modulated because it can provide stronger signal for communication while keeping high lighting efficacy. LEDs are subject to a trade-off between signal amplitude and lighting efficacy in VLC and it was shown that using LDs this effect os less pronounced.