LED driver performance analysis for joint visible light communication and illumination

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient way to implement On-Off keying (OOK) modulation for visible light communication (VLC) while keeping high power efficiency of illumination function. We analyze the impact of the modulation on output current variations controlled by a buck regulator. The inductor used in the power supply needs to be optimized for a low current ripple during long sequences of 1 or 0 while the value should be kept low for low series resistor and high frequency resonance. Finally, experimental results using off the shelf components demonstrate a VLC communication at 2.5 Mb/s optical data rate while offering a 82.4% power efficiency.