On overcoming photodetector saturation due to background illumination while maintaining high sensitivity by means of a tailored CMOS pixel

Abstract

Visible Light Communication is a good candidate to substitute, or at least to work along with Wi-Fi at indoor environments. Nonetheless, it still faces several challenges, like the necessity of receivers with high sensitivity and Dynamic Range. This follows from the large DC level of the high brightness LED and the intense levels of background illumination. We present in this paper a review of an integrated circuit topology, the Bouncing Pixel, that avoids signal saturation, achieving both High Dynamic Range and high sensitivity, suited to be implemented on a chip. The Pixel has the potential to be a good candidate for Li-Fi applications at the receiver node, especially for IoT applications.