A 3-Gb/s Single-LED OFDM-Based Wireless VLC Link Using a Gallium Nitride $\mu{\rm LED}$

TLDR

Gallium nitride μLEDs possess a 3‑dB bandwidth of at least 60 MHz, far exceeding that of commercial white LEDs. The authors aim to demonstrate a high‑speed visible‑light communication system using a single 50‑µm GaN μLED. They employ OFDM modulation, pre‑ and post‑equalization, and adaptive data loading to fully exploit the μLED’s bandwidth. The system achieves over 3 Gb/s, the fastest single‑LED VLC reported to date.

Abstract

This letter presents a visible light communication (VLC) system based on a single 50- μm gallium nitride light emitting diode (LED). A device of this size exhibits a 3-dB modulation bandwidth of at least 60 MHz - significantly higher than commercially available white lighting LEDs. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is employed as a modulation scheme. This enables the limited modulation bandwidth of the device to be fully used. Pre- and postequalization techniques, as well as adaptive data loading, are successfully applied to achieve a demonstration of wireless communication at speeds exceeding 3 Gb/s. To date, this is the fastest wireless VLC system using a single LED.