A fluorescent antenna for white light visible light communications

Light emitting diodes are an important pillar of modern lighting systems that could potentially be used to transmit data and hence provide communications channels to augment WiFi. However, lighting LEDs have a limited bandwidth and so high signal to noise ratios (SNRs) are required if they are to transmit an acceptable data rate. Conventional optical concentrators could be used to increase the SNR at the receiver but they limit its field of view. In contrast, fluorescent concentrators can increase the receiver signal whilst preserving a wide field of view. In this paper, results are reported of experiments using a white LED as a transmitter and a receiver that includes a commercially available fluorescent fibre. Data rates at a bit error rate of 10 −3 are reported and a method of relating gain and OOK data rate is proposed