Membrane-Based Receiver/Transmitter for Reconfigurable Optical Wireless Beam-Steering Systems

In this paper, a novel integrated optical wireless receiver/transmitter is presented. The device is realized on an InP membrane platform where active and passive components are integrated monolithically. It can be reconfigured to either receiver mode or transmitter mode, by simple control on the operation mode of a photodetector (short SOA). Demonstration of the receiver mode in an indoor optical wireless system has shown 17.4-Gbps OFDM signal transmission, illustrating the potential of this concept.