Using Regular Semiconductor Illumination Arrays (Connected via Power Line Communications) for Visible Light Sensing

The need for technological devices to interact with one another is becoming more important in today's world, particularly with the rise of automated control systems. As data transfer speeds increase, more cables are required, leading to infrastructures overloaded with cables. To address this issue, the current paper reports on the development of a Power Line Communication (PLC) system that uses an AC power distribution network to reduce the number of wires needed for connecting the illumination modules for Visible Light Sensing (VLS) or Visible Light Communications (VLC). To achieve this, the operation and capabilities of PLC chips are considered in detail and are mainly used for indoor applications.In addition, combining those developments in the PLC technological domain with a state-of-the-art occupancy detection system has the potential to significantly decrease energy consumption in buildings. Although a person can be detected by disturbance of Line-of-Sight between the sender and the receiver, the most sophisticated systems use LIDAR-based scanning (Light Detection and Ranging). In the latter configuration that is considered in the current work, the sender and the receiver are co-located in the same place. This is accomplished by the development of a regular semiconductor illumination array in which LED (Light-Emitting Diode) elements serve both functions (i.e., receiver and transmitter) by setting them into forward or reverse bias mode. Having combined those developments with the existing building resources by means of PLC allows the estimated building occupancy based on that visible light sensing technology to be transmitted in a highly reliable and cost-effective way, with a special focus on environmental sustainability. This also requires an emphasis on the PLC network architecture, necessary for establishing communication between the LIDAR-enabled lights, each controlled with highly integrated system-on-chips that include a PLC baseband modem and analog front-end integrated circuits.