1432 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO.

5, MARCH 1, 2022

26 Gbit/s LiFi System With Laser-Based

White Light Transmitter
Changmin Lee , Mohamed Sufyan Islim , Member, IEEE, Sovan Das, Adrian Spark , Stefan Videv, Paul Rudy,
Binith Shah, Melvin McLaurin, Harald Haas , Fellow, IEEE, and James Raring

(Invited Paper)

Abstract—We demonstrate a high-speed light fidelity (LiFi) com- IR LDs have experienced a new surge in demand for the rapidly
munication system deploying ultra-high brightness laser-based growing sensor market where they provide the sensor signals
white light illumination sources in a surface mount device (SMD) in a wide range of sensors such as time-of-flight (ToF) distance
packaging platform. The LiFi transmitter SMD source provides
450 lumens of white light output with a brightness of 1000 cd/mm2 sensors and coherent detection distance sensors to enable full
in a dual wavelength configuration comprising blue and infrared 3-dimensional (3D) imaging in LiDAR systems due to their,
(IR) emitting laser diodes within the SMD. First, we present high- high speed, long coherence length, low noise, and high pulse
speed data transmission beyond 25 Gbit/s over a 3 meter channel repetition capability [3], [4].
distance with the combined data rates from the blue and IR lasers Gallium nitride (GaN) based LDs emitting in the visible
in the single SMD. Next, we present a 2.8 Gbit/s data rate with the
dual wavelength laser SMD light source using a side-emissive fiber wavelength spectrum have been emerging over the past two
as the transmitter. This work proves the viability of LiFi systems decades in blu-ray optical disc data storage, direct laser diode
deploying laser-based white light sources operating at very high based projection displays, phosphor converted projection dis-
data rates with the visible light and communication signal delivered play systems, and most recently in advanced solid state lighting
in conventional free-space transmission architectures along with technology [5]–[9]. The unique properties of LD-based solid
novel configurations using side-emitting fibers.
state lighting include higher luminance white light emission for
Index Terms—Emissive fiber, laser diode, light fidelity increased range and directionality, smaller light emission areas
(LiFi), modulation, optical communication, optoelectronics, solid- for more compact sources, and drastically higher modulation
state lighting, surface mounting device (SMD), visible light
communication, wireless communication (VLC).
bandwidth than traditional LED based solid state lighting [10],
[11]. By offering 10X to 100X the brightness of LEDs, 10X
the range of LEDs, and optics that are 1/10 the size of those
I. INTRODUCTION required for LEDs, LD-based lighting systems offer unique
value propositions in many lighting applications. Moreover, the
ASER based technologies have been widely developed
L for different markets over recent decades. Traditionally,
laser diodes (LDs) emitting in the infrared (IR) have been
inherent inclusion of the LD in the light source enables LD-based
solid state lighting to expand to more advanced markets such as
automotive and all mobility applications, smart infrastructure,
in high demand for optical telecommunication applications as
depth sensing, full 3D sensing, augmented reality and virtual
transmitters sources [1], [2]. The inherent high-speed charac-
reality display systems, and medical applications wherein LEDs
teristics such as the high modulation bandwidth as well as
offer limited performance [12]. In addition, these LD-based
narrow linewidth to minimize dispersion in optical fibers for
white light sources can function as high-speed transmitters
dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) make LDs ideal
for data links in communication systems, similar to infrared
transmitter sources in communication systems. More recently,
LDs found in traditional optical communication systems, but
within a multi-function light source for both lighting and data
Manuscript received August 1, 2021; revised October 5, 2021; accepted transmission.
October 27, 2021. Date of publication November 4, 2021; date of current version Laser-based light fidelity (LiFi) technology has been consid-
March 2, 2022. (Corresponding author: Changmin Lee.)
Changmin Lee, Paul Rudy, Binith Shah, Melvin McLaurin, and ered as a strong candidate for next generation communication
James Raring are with Kyocera SLD Laser, Inc., Goleta, CA 93117 systems complimenting 5G technology and beyond. Radio fre-
USA (e-mail: clee@kyocera-sldlaser.com; prudy@kyocera-sldlaser.com; quency (RF) based communication is facing growing congestion
bshah@kyocera-sldlaser.com; mmclaurin@kyocera-sldlaser.com; jraring@
kyocera-sldlaser.com). and interference challenges associated with the limited available
Mohamed Sufyan Islim, Sovan Das, Adrian Spark, Stefan Videv, and Har- spectral bandwidth of 300 GHz wherein only a small portion is
ald Haas are with the LiFi Research and Development Center, University allocated for wireless communication [13]. The channel conges-
of Strathclyde, G1 1RD Glasgow, U.K. (e-mail: m.islim@strath.ac.uk; so-
van.das@strath.ac.uk; adrian.sparks@strath.ac.uk; stefan.videv@strath.ac.uk; tion in multi-use RF allocations leads to significant reliability
harald.haas@strath.ac.uk). and interruption issues. Moreover, the expected demand for
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at wireless bandwidth is supposed to increase by 12000 times
https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2021.3124942.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2021.3124942 over the next 20 years. This is based on 60 percent compound

0733-8724 © 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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 LEE et al.: 26 Gbit/s LiFi SYSTEM WITH LASER-BASED WHITE LIGHT TRANSMITTER 1433

TABLE I system while providing the capability for extremely high data
RECENT DEMONSTRATIONS OF LASER-BASED LIFI
rates of over 20 Gbit/s by utilizing both OFDM and WDM
[31]. Unlike LEDs with broad emission spectra, the narrow
spectral width of LDs allows for efficient WDM and low optical
interference with the two blue LDs operating at peak wave-
lengths spaced by only a few nanometers. This result showed
the capability of high density WDM with the laser-based SMD
platform.
In this work, we present a laser-based white light source that
integrates an IR LD and a blue LD into a single SMD package
to utilize the dual wavelengths and form communication links
∗Tx: transmitter, LD: laser diode, R: red, G: green, B: blue, OOK: on-off keying,
Gb/s: Giga bit per second, QAM: quadratic amplitude modulation, OFDM: orthogonal-
with the blue wavelength and the IR wavelength. Due to the
frequency division multiplexing, SMD: surface mount device, WDM: wavelength very wide wavelength spacing, the optical interference of the
division multiplexing two channels is expected to be negligible in this LiFi system.
The SMD based transmitter technology integrating multiple
LDs allows for straightforward scaling of the data rate through
annual growth rate of mobile data traffic [14], [15]. A convenient WDM without adding excessive complexity to the Tx design
solution to this looming spectral crunch is to utilize the IR of communication system. Specifically, it is possible to utilize
and visible spectrums which offer 800 THz of unregulated and WDM with N communication channels covering the visible and
uncongested spectrum. Further, the narrow spectral linewidth IR spectrum by integrating multiple LDs within a single SMD
of LDs can maximize spectral usage efficiency. Such commu- package, enabling a novel transmitter and white light source
nications systems based on visible and IR wavelengths provide architecture for LiFi applications.
high security since the signal of light is contained to the area it In the first section of this work, we demonstrate a 26 Gbit/s
is transmitted within, without leaking through walls where the LiFi communication system using a laser-based SMD with its
signal can be intercepted by unknown entities with a malicious white light emitted through a launch optic connected for free
intent. Although confined to the area or room the transmission space transmission from the Tx module. In this first system, the
originates, it should be noted that the transmission link may data link was established over free space from the output of the
not require a strict line of sight (LOS) condition because LiFi launch optic of the transmitter module to the receiver positioned
systems have been shown to enable signal detection and a 3 meters away (launch optic system). In the second section of
secure link even with reflections from walls and other surfaces this paper, 2 Gbit/s data transmission is demonstrated using
[16]. It is also important emphasize that LiFi systems such as fully packaged transmitter and receiver units. In this second
those described here are proven to work in direct sunlight with system, the data link is established from the transmitter unit
negligible impact to the system performance [17]. emitting white light along the length of a side emissive fiber to
The performance of initial LiFi studies were significantly the receiver unit (emissive fiber system). It is noted that data
limited by low 3 dB bandwidth of conventional LEDs in transmission using side-emissive fiber is a totally new concept
10∼100 MHz range. When micro-LEDs and superluminescent for LiFi systems that could find use in many communication
diodes (SLEDs) are utilized as transmitters for visible light applications.
communication, the 3 dB bandwidth can be increased up to
1∼2 GHz, enabling higher data rates, but these solutions come
with drawbacks or lower light output and/or lower efficiency II. DUAL LASER BLUE + INFRARED INTEGRATED SURFACE
MOUNTING DEVICE
[18]–[21]. Increased data rates for a given 3 dB bandwidth is
maximized by implementing high order modulation scheme Fig. 1(a) shows the 7 mm × 7 mm sized SMD package inte-
such as quadratic amplitude modulation (QAM) Orthogonal grating a blue LD emitting at about 450 nm, an IR LD emitting
Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), adopting technol- at about 850 nm, and a phosphor element. The SMD package
ogy from conventional wireless communication platform and includes wedges to support the LDs with the wedges designed
combining with optical communication in LiFi systems. With such that both laser beams are incident on the phosphor element
inherently better frequency response, LD-based LiFi enables at an angle optimizing the excitation spot position, size, and
much higher 3 dB bandwidth of up to several GHz using high angular distribution of the Lambertian emitted white light. As
power LDs that can efficiently generate many hundred lumens shown in Fig. 1(b), the light emitted from the two LDs is incident
of white light [22]–[24]. More than 2 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s were on the center of the phosphor surface, wherein some of the blue
achieved by simple on-off keying (OOK) and QAM modulation, light emitted from the blue LD is converted to yellow light.
respectively, from a laser-based LiFi system in [25]–[30]. Table I As a result, a bright white light comprising unconverted blue
summarizes recent reports of laser-based LiFi systems. light from the blue LD and a broad, longer-wavelength yellow
Recently, we demonstrated a more advanced LiFi system light derived from the conversion of the blue laser light by the
using a laser-based white light source that integrated two blue phosphor element is emitted. The 850 nm emission from the IR
LDs with slightly shifted lasing wavelengths into single surface LD is reflected off the phosphor surface in the same spot location
mount device (SMD) package as a transmitter. This laser-based that the white light is emitted from to create an overlapping white
white light SMD source offers high design flexibility in the LiFi light and IR light Lambertian emission from the phosphor. This
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 1434 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2022

Fig. 2. Experimental system of dual laser LiFi system.

the laser-based sources can well exceed 1000 cd/mm2 resulting

in a Lambertian white emission similar to LEDs, but with 10X
to 100X higher luminance [33]. Based on the first principal law
of etendue, the higher brightness enables drastically improved
collimation of the emitted white light to increase the white light
range and deliver more photons to a target at distance relative to
larger area LED source with similar luminous flux output. This is
significantly beneficial for free-space communication over long
distance wherein the increased illumination range also results
in increased communication link distance by maintaining high
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) through the wireless channel.
In summary, the laser-based white light SMD can offer supe-
rior illumination compared to LEDs along with increased data
rates from higher bandwidth, higher spectral usage efficiency
with the narrower linewidth providing WDM capability, and
increased transmission range due the higher brightness versus
LED in LiFi systems. Moreover, outside the scope of this work,
the inclusion of IR LDs in the white light source can also enable
further functionality including IR illumination, depth sensing,
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the SMD light source with two LDs operating with
blue and IR wavelengths. (b) Cross-section schematic for dual wavelength and full 3-dimensional LiDAR imaging.
emission from blue and IR LDs in the SMD.
III. HIGH SPEED PERFORMANCE OF LAUNCH OPTIC LIFI
combined Lambertian emission is collimated using conventional SYSTEM FOR IR/WHITE LASER SMD
optics to create colinear propagating beams of IR and white light. The experimental setup for the launch optic LiFi system
Since the white light and scattered/reflected IR light are emitted is shown in Fig. 2. An arbitrary waveform generator (AWG,
from the SMD in a Lambertian pattern and are incoherent, the Keysight M8195A) was connected to the Tx module to generate
laser-based SMD light source is eye-safe and certified by IEC data signal of high order modulation schemes. The data signals
standards [32]. are combined through a bias-T(ZFBT-282-1.5A+) and ampli-
The widely separated blue and IR spectra from the two lasers fied by an amplifier (SHF-S216A). The Tx module is designed
in the SMD light source are expected to fully avoid optical for the white light and IR emission to be coupled through
interference. A unique feature of the SMD light source platform a fiber for delivery to a remotely positioned launch optic. The
is that it allows the integration of multiple LDs from different fiber coupling efficiency is highly dependent on the fiber core
material systems emitting at significantly different wavelengths diameter, the numerical aperture of the fiber, and coupling optics,
to be combined and emitted from the same spatial location on but it should be noted that the drastically higher brightness of the
the phosphor. Since the data is transmitted with the directly laser-based white light source enables improved (∼10X) fiber
emitted blue laser emission and IR laser emission rather than coupling efficiency. A high-speed oscilloscope (DSA 90804A)
with the phosphor converted yellow emission, the data rates are is used to read out the signals received from two high speed
not limited by the long lifetimes associated with the phosphor photodetectors (PDs, HSA-X-S-1G4-SI). The free space link is
conversion process. The SMD platform can scale to 4 or more set at a distance of 3 m from Tx to Rx. Two WDM channels are
laser emitters with varying wavelengths. In this work, the blue established on the two different wavelengths with the blue and
+ IR SMDs generate 450-500 lumens of white light from an the IR links separately received and signal-processed at the Rx
emission spot of 300∼400 µm diameter using a single blue LD by using bandpass filters at each PD.
along with the IR emission at 850 nm. The white light luminous Each communication channel is modulated with Direct Cur-
flux can be increased to 1000 lumens with two blue LDs, while rent (DC) biased Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
enabling dual channel WDM communication links if the lasing (DCO-OFDM). OFDM utilizes adaptive bit and energy loading
wavelengths are sufficiently separated [31]. Luminance levels of over the bandwidth to maximize the channel usage based on the
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 LEE et al.: 26 Gbit/s LiFi SYSTEM WITH LASER-BASED WHITE LIGHT TRANSMITTER 1435

Fig. 3. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over the bandwidth for LDs of blue (BLD)
and IR (IR-LD).

available channel capacity [20]. Compared to a single carrier

modulation, OFDM is computationally effective due to the use of
single-tap equalizer [34]. A random bit stream of quadrature am-
plitude modulation (QAM) is generated as data signal. The QAM
symbols were loaded into orthogonal narrow-band sub-carriers.
The OFDM frame size is set up to NFFT = 1024 subcarriers and
a cyclic prefix of NFFT = 5 was found experimentally sufficient
to mitigate any inter-symbol-interference.
The SNR performance is first characterized to estimate the
channel condition and obtain the channel state information
(CSI), which is required to equalize the frequency response of the
complete system. This is also required to perform the adaptive
data loading on each channel of the two wavelengths, as shown
in Fig. 3. The IR LD shows an almost flat channel and an SNR
of around 30 dB up to 1 GHz, and an SNR of more than 20 dB
up to 1.5 GHz. The high roll-off above 1.5 GHz is primarily due
to the bandwidth of PD and package. The SNR of the blue LD
Fig. 4. Bit-loadings with data rate (DR) at different bit-error-rate (BER) for
is measured at 10∼20 dB with more ripples over the bandwidth (a) IR LD and (b) blue LD. .
than the IR LD. The lower SNR of the blue LD link could largely
be due to the Si-based PD having about half of the responsivity
at 450 nm compared to 850 nm as a dominant reason, with other appropriate modulation index is selected for each subcarrier
possible contributing factors such as thermal noise contribution based on its SNR estimated and independent of SNR of the
from two different laser chips and electrical noise contribution other sub-carriers. The blue LD achieved maximum modulation
to the amplifier by different bias and signal intensity of two LDs. level of only 64-QAM due to lower SNR as shown in Fig. 4(b).
The ripples in the blue LD SNR curve are believed to result In real world, advanced error correction techniques have higher
from the impedance mismatch including the wire-bonding vari- overheads rather than FEC limit of 3.8 × 10−3 for wireless links
ation and RC parasitic from different chip dimensions. When [35]. For example, with a staircase code, we can handle a higher
compared with the IR LD, the blue LD has a higher driving initial BER which after error correction can be reduced. The
current and lower resistance, which leads to a greater impedance maximum overhead of such a code is 33.3% but it can also be as
mismatch. Further RF optimization of the SMD package is low as 6.25%, which would be capable of reducing the input BER
required to improve the SNR over broadband frequencies up on the order of 0.7∼2 × 10−2 down to 10−15 [36]–[36]. In LTE
to 2 GHz to enable higher data rates. systems, the block error rate (BLER) target is generally defined
The blue LD and IR LD were individually driven at differ- as 10% giving 3.5 × 10−6 of the error corrected BER. Therefore,
ent bias current with separate bit loading of M-ary QAM for a peak data rate of between 93.75% and 85% of the over the
subcarriers over the bandwidth. The IR LD is able to achieve air transmission rate can be achieved with a uncorrected BER
bit loading up to 512-QAM at the bit-error-rate (BER) passed of roughly 5% even though it can vary depending on channel
the error correction target of 5.6 × 10−2 , which we define condition. Based on this, 5.6 × 10−2 limit with 3∼5% overheads
here as LTE target for soft decision with higher overheads than can be acceptable target with higher overheads to reduce the
forward error correction limit (FEC). Adaptively load more input BER down to 10−6 than typical FEC limit. The fast Fourier
power and bits over the bandwidth depending on SNR at a given transformation (FFT) is used at the Rx to process the received
frequency as shown in Fig. 4(a). In adaptive power loading, the OFDM signal followed by a single-tap equalizer and QAM. The
sub-carriers with lower channel gain are loaded with a higher recovered M-QAM constellations for the highest three M-ary
power to compensate for the loss. In adaptive bit loading, the levels of each channel are shown in Fig. 5.

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 1436 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2022

Fig. 5. M-QAM constellation symbols for (a) IR LD and (b) blue LD individ-
ually driven from the SMD.

Fig. 7. (a) Schematic of LiFi system transmitting data over side-emissive fiber
from dual laser SMD. (b) Photo of LiFi system setup with complete Tx and Rx
units.

IV. DEMONSTRATION OF SIDE-EMISSIVE FIBER LIFI

SYSTEM
The laser-based white light SMD source offers unique design
flexibility for innovative LiFi systems. In this section we present
a novel LiFi system architecture designed to both emit white
Fig. 6. BER versus data rate achieved in IR (IR-LD) and blue (BLD) LDs. light and transmit data along the length of a side-emissive fiber
optic as shown in Fig. 7(a). This side-emissive fiber system is
ideal for dual function applications by both providing an ambient
The BER versus achieved data rate for the blue LD and IR LD 1-dimensional white light source with illumination along the
communication links is plotted in Fig. 6. The maximum data rate length of the fiber as well as the transmitter emission source in
at FEC floor was 6.1 Gbit/s and 12.33 Gbit/s for the blue and the the LiFi data link. The very high brightness of the white light
IR LD, respectively, resulting in 18.33 Gbit/s as a combined data emitted from the SMD enables efficient collimation with small
rate. With LTE error correction limit, the combined maximum optics to provide high optical coupling efficiency into fiber optic
data rate reaches up to 26 Gbit/s with 10 Gbit/s and 16 Gbit/s cables with relatively small core diameters of ∼1 mm or less to
for the blue and the IR LD, respectively. The measurement is enable a brilliant looking line source of white light. Using LEDs,
performed by driving the two LDs individually because of the Tx the coupling efficiency into the same size fiber would be an order
driver board configuration used in this work, which can easily be of magnitude lower.
configured for simultaneous operation as was already proven in This side-emissive fiber LiFi system consists of fully pack-
our previous report [31]. However, we believe it is fair to directly aged Tx and Rx modules. The Tx module of this system utilizes
combine the two data rates to accurately calculate the aggregate the same dual laser SMD design with a blue LD emitting at
data rate if the LDs operate simultaneously since there should about 450 nm and IR LD emitting at about 850 nm, and a
be no appreciable optical or electrical interference as reported phosphor for white light generation. The two lasers in the SMDs
in [31]. This result along with the previous report demonstrates are independently driven to create two WDM channels in the
the viability of utilizing WDM in laser-based LiFi systems. This data link. The emitted light from the SMD package is coupled
result expands into the IR spectrum by combing visible and IR into the side-emissive optical fiber as a data link. The total
emitting wavelengths LDs into a single SMD. In this way, the length and diameter of looped fiber is 1.8 m and 1.2 × 10−3 m,
number of LDs emitting across the visible and IR spectrums can respectively. Therefore, considering the fiber as a long cylinder,
be increased to N to scale the data rate by N using WDM without the total surface area of the fiber which emits light is calculated
substantial increase in the system complexity. to be 6.78 × 10−3 m2 . The center of the looped side-emissive

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 LEE et al.: 26 Gbit/s LiFi SYSTEM WITH LASER-BASED WHITE LIGHT TRANSMITTER 1437

fiber is placed at the focal point of a parabolic reflector unit

at the Rx to maximize the photon reception at the PD, and the
PD has a one-inch collimating optic as shown in Fig. 7(b). The
reflector enveloping around the side-emissive fiber has a length
of 3 × 10−1 m. The fiber is contained within a reflective trench,
which exposes only part of the fiber to the receiver and can be
considered as a longitudinal-half cylinder with length equal to
the parabolic reflector and diameter equal to the width of fiber.
Hence, only a part of the light emitted by the exposed surface area
inside the reflector is captured by the receiver. The surface area
of the fiber exposed to the receiver is calculated to be 5.65 × 10−5
m2 . The side-emissive fiber with the reflector unit is placed at
6.2 cm from the Rx optics to achieve the optimal performance.
The transmitter data signals are generated by an AWG at a
sampling rate of 16 GSa/s with 25 symbols/sample. The effective
communication bandwidth for this system is 320 MHz. The
communication bandwidth is lower than previous system using
the launch optic transmission due to the limited bandwidth of the
drive circuit in the Tx module, impedance mismatch between the
LD and drive circuit, and the type of PD used in the Rx module.
In this configuration an avalanche PD (APD, SAR1500H4) with
a 1.5 mm diameter of active area is used to achieve higher
sensitivity instead of the positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) PD
used in the experiment described in section III. The APD is used Fig. 8. (a) SNR and (b) Adaptive bit-loading over the bandwidth for blue and
because the optical power incident on the photo-receiving device IR channels measured from side-emissive fiber.
is much lower compared to that in the launch optic transmission
system. With a PIN PD a large bandwidth can be achieved at
the cost of reduced sensitivity. Whereas, with a large active area
APD, extremely high sensitivity can be achieved at the cost of
bandwidth and noise performance. However, the degradation in
noise performance is compensated up to certain extent by using
some digital filtering and sample averaging at the oscilloscope.
A high-speed oscilloscope (MXR608A) with extended digital
signal processing capabilities is used to capture the received sig-
nal from Rx module. The sampling frequency of the oscilloscope
is set to 1.6 GSa/s to avoid aliasing the received signal with
the high frequency noise and harmonics. The analog-to-digital
converters’ (ADC) resolution is set to 13-bit to achieve better
precision while sampling the received analog signal. This en-
Fig. 9. BER versus data rate including highest QAM constellation symbols
ables the high-resolution mode of the oscilloscope (HRO) which achieved in IR (IR-LD) and blue (B-LD) LDs for side-emissive fiber LiFi system.
averages the digital samples at 2.6 times, further reducing the
measurement noise floor down to 81 µVrms at 50 Ω input. Lastly,
a brick wall filter with cut-off frequency at 320 MHz is enabled IR LD. For qualitative comparison, the constellation diagrams
on the oscilloscope to reject any residual high frequency noise. for the highest achieved modulation index for both the blue
The rest of the signal processing algorithms are implemented in LD and the IR LD are provided as insets of Fig. 9. For FEC
MATLAB. target, the highest modulation index achieved in the IR LD and
Fig. 8(a) shows the estimated SNR for the two laser channels. the blue LD is 64-QAM and 16-QAM, respectively. For the IR
As discussed in previous section, the IR LD has a higher SNR LD, the peak data rate measured at 1.3 Gbit/s with a BER of
of 20 dB with a flat band compared to that of the blue LD 1.19 × 10−3 . Similarly, for the blue LD the peak data rate is
with a SNR of 10 dB, which largely results from the lower measured at 758.9 Mbit/s with a BER of 2.6 × 10−3 . For LTE
PD responsivity in the blue wavelength region. The overall target with higher overhead, the same 64-QAM is achieved with
SNR of two LDs is lower than launch optic system because the IR LD and 32-QAM is achieved from the blue LD as the
the side-emissive fiber Rx module captures only 0.83% of the highest modulation index. The highest data rates are measured
total optical power irradiated by the surface of the fiber. The in the IR LD and the blue LD were 1.8 Gbit/s with a BER
DCO-OFDM modulation scheme is applied by using adaptive of 1.37 × 10−2 and 1.0 Gbit/s with a BER of 1.68 × 10−2 ,
bit and power loading for dynamic channel condition based on respectively, which is well within more practical limit of optical
SNR as shown in Fig. 8(b). Fig. 9. shows the achieved data rate wireless communication. This results in a combined data rate of
along with the BER performance for both the blue LD and the 2.8 Gbit/s.
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 1438 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2022

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 LEE et al.: 26 Gbit/s LiFi SYSTEM WITH LASER-BASED WHITE LIGHT TRANSMITTER 1439

Changmin Lee received the Ph.D. degree in materials emphasizing photonics Melvin McLaurin received the Ph.D. degree in materials from the University
from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), CA, USA, in 2017. of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, in 2007 for his work on the growth
During his Ph.D., he pioneered on the development of laser based visible light of non-polar and semi-polar orientations of GaN with molecular beam epitaxy.
communication and LiFi. He is currently a Senior Engineer with Advanced He is currently the Senior Principal Scientist with Kyocera SLD Laser where
Development R&D Group, Kyocera SLD Laser, Inc. He particularly focused on he leads the Advanced Development Research and Development Group. He
studying about semi-polar III-nitride laser diodes for high speed performance. has coauthored 15 conference and journal papers and more than 140 patents.
He has coauthored 37 conference and journal papers related to diode lasers, His primary research interests include development of semi-polar and non-polar
optoelectronics, and LiFi. GaN edge emitting laser epitaxial designs and novel edge emitting laser chip
fabrication process development. In 1989, he was the recipient of the McDon-
ald’s Certificate of Acheesement for being an ‘”A” – “B” Student’.

Mohamed Sufyan Islim (Member,IEEE) received the M.Sc. degree in signal

processing and communications and the Ph.D. degree in digital communica-
tions from The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K., in 2014 and 2019,
respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the LiFi
Research and Development Centre, University of Strathclyde. He has coauthored
14 conference papers, 17 journal papers, two book chapters and two patents.
His main research interests include optical OFDM, LiFi, and optical wireless Harald Haas (Fellow, IEEE) FREng FRSE FIEEE FIET received the Ph.D.
communications. In addition, he was the recipient of the IEEE communications degree from The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K., in 2001. He is
chapter prize for the best M.Sc. project in 2014. a Distinguished Professor of Mobile Communications with the University of
Strathclyde and the Director of the LiFi Research and Development Centre.
He also set-up and Co-Founded pureLiFi Ltd which it currently is a Chief
Scientific Officer. He has authored more than 550 conference and journal papers.
Sovan Das received the B.E. degree in telecommunication engineering from the Haas’ main research interests include optical wireless communications, hybrid
PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India, in 2017. He is currently working optical wireless and RF communications, spatial modulation, and interference
toward the Ph.D. degree in optical wireless communication with the University coordination in wireless networks. His team invented spatial modulation. He
of Edinburgh. He is also currently working as a Development Engineer with introduced LiFi to the public at an invited TED Global talk in 2011. LiFi was
the LiFi Research and Development Centre, University of Strathclyde, U.K. His listed among the 50 best inventions in TIME Magazine in 2011. He gave a second
primary research interests include photovoltaics as FSO receivers, LiFi, optical TED Global lecture in 2015 on the use of solar cells as LiFi data detectors and
wireless communications and autonomous aerial robotics. energy harvesters. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement
Award from the International Solid State Lighting Alliance. In 2019, he was
the recipient of the IEEE Vehicular Society James Evans Avant Garde Award.
Adrian Sparks biography not available at the time of publication.
Haas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) in 2017.
In the same year he was the recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research
Merit Award and was elevated to IEEE Fellow. In 2018, he was the recipient of
Stefan Videv received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering and computer the three-year EPSRC Established Career Fellowship extension and was elected
science and the M.Sc. degree in communications, systems and electronics Fellow of the IET. Haas was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
from Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. He (FREng) in 2019.
received the Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K., in 2013
for his thesis titled “Techniques for Green Radio Cellular Communications.” He
is the Director of Engineering for the LiFi Research and Development Centre. As
the Director of Engineering, Stefan leads industry engagement, all prototyping
and development work, as well as driving the technology roadmap continued
renewal and implementation. He has coauthored mored than 60 conference and
journal papers as well as more than ten patents. His research interests include
high performance energy efficient wireless networking, rapid prototyping and James Raring received the Bachelors of Science degree in materials engineering
machine learning. from California Polytechnique State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA, in
2001, and the Ph.D. degree in materials science from the University of California,
Santa Barbara, CA, USA, in 2006. While earning the Ph.D. degree and is as
a Postdoctoral Researcher with the University of California, Santa Barbara,
Paul Rudy received undergraduate physics the B.S. degree from Duke Univer- CA, USA, Dr. Raring developed an advanced photonic integration platform
sity, the Doctoral degree in physics from the University of Rochester, and the based on indium phosphide to demonstrate the world’s first single-chip 40 Gb/s
MBA degree from USC. Dr. Rudy is the Co-Founder, CMO, and SVP of Business optical transceiver. Dr. Raring has more than 200 patents and applications and
Development with KYOCERA SLD Laser, a Leader in the commercialization of has authored or coauthored more than 100 technical papers and conference
GaN based laser light sources. Paul has worked in the field of photonics for more presentations. As the Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Kyocera SLD Laser,
than 20 years, and has extensive experience in photonics general management, Dr. James Raring leads the organization in the commercialization of LaserLight
technical product marketing, business development, and product management. products based on KSLD’s breakthrough gallium nitride laser diode technology.
He has more than 75 patents and has authored more than 100 technical marketing Previously, Dr. Raring was the Vice President of Laser Engineering and a
papers and conference talks. Prior to KSLD, Paul worked as the Director of founding employee with Soraa Inc. where he played a key role in the company’s
Marketing with Coherent, the world’s largest commercial laser manufacturer, launch in 2008. Prior to his role with Soraa Inc, Dr. Raring was a Senior Member
specifically working to commercialize laser devices based on gallium arsenide. of Technical Staff with Sandia National Laboratories in the Photonic Integrated
Circuit (PIC) Group.

Binith Shah biography not available at the time of publication.

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