@article{liu_scalable_2025,

title = {A Scalable VCSEL-Array Optical Wireless Transmitter With Experimental Multi-Beam Prototype},

author = {Yi Liu and Wajahat Ali and Rui Chen and Nikolaos Bamiedakis and Ian H. White and Harald Haas and Michael Crisp and Richard V. Penty},

url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11189981},

doi = {10.1109/JLT.2025.3617131},

issn = {1558-2213},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-10-17},

journal = {Journal of Lightwave Technology},

pages = {1–7},

abstract = {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 homogenizer achieves uniform coverage at the receiver plane from each multi-mode VCSEL output. 1 m2 total coverage is achieved with each attocell covering an area of 400 cm2 at a range of 3 m. For a proof-of-concept demonstration a 1×3 channel VCSEL array-based transmitter prototype is experimentally tested. The performance is verified by demonstrating three channels achieving ∼ 0.12 mW/m2 uniform power with negligible optical interference to adjacent attocells (<-14 dB). With a simple receiver design using low cost, off-the-shelf components, each channel of the transmitter achieves ∼10 Gb/s throughput using OFDM within 7 cm lateral range and > 4 Gb/s within 12 cm lateral range at 3 m. The transmitter meets eye-safety restrictions and could be scaled to 250 Gb/s aggregate data rate by employing all 25 VCSELs with independent OFDM modulation.},

keywords = {Arrays, Free-space optical communication, Interference, Lenses, LRDC, Microoptics, Optical arrays, optical communication equipment, Optical fibers, Optical receivers, Optical transmitters, Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, verticalcavity surface-emitting lasers, Wireless communication},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}