Full-Duplex Underwater Wireless Optical Communication Links based on Micro-Led Arrays

This paper presents full-duplex underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) links based on Micro-Led arrays. At the transmitter, a gallium nitride (GaN) Micro-Led arrays via flip-chip technology is utilized. Experimental results reveal that within a UWOC system, this array can reach a maximum transmission distance of 50 m, with a data rate of 90 Mbps and a bit-error-rate (BER) of 3.41×10⁻³. At the receiver, a Micro-Led is put forward as a photo-detector, and its performance in a UWOC system where a 375 nm laser diode (LDs) serves as the transmitter is validated through experiments. The experimental outcomes demonstrate that a 100 µm Micro-Led array can reach a maximum received data rate of 120 Mbps with a BER of 2.12×10⁻³. The UWOC system based on the Micro-Led array is capable of striking a balance between high-speed and long-distance transmission. Thus, it is viable to apply Micro-Leds concurrently to both the transmitter and receiver of a UWOC system, and it holds broad application prospects in the future.