US 11,923,900 B2
Optical wireless communication receiver with large photodetector surface area, large field of view and high bandwidth
Antonius Marcellus Jozef Koonen, Eindhoven (NL)
Assigned to TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN, Eindhoven (NL)
Appl. No. 17/773,457
Filed by TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN, Eindhoven (NL)
PCT Filed Oct. 30, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/080594
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 29, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/084108, PCT Pub. Date May 6, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/928,625, filed on Oct. 31, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0393759 A1, Dec. 8, 2022
Int. Cl. H04B 10/00 (2013.01); H04B 10/11 (2013.01); H04B 10/67 (2013.01)
CPC H04B 10/11 (2013.01) [H04B 10/67 (2013.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical wireless communication (OWC) receiver configured to receive an incoming optical beam modulated with data and output an electrical output signal comprising the modulated data, the OWC receiver comprising:
a lens configured to receive the incoming optical beam;
a plurality of photodiodes positioned at a distance from the lens and positioned at or proximal to a focal plane of the lens, each of the plurality of photodiodes configured to receive a fraction of the incoming optical beam and generate a photocurrent in correspondence with photons received from the fraction of the incoming optical beam, wherein the plurality of photodiodes are arranged in a two-dimensional array comprising rows and columns, and wherein outputs of the columns are combined and their photocurrents are summed; and
an amplifier connected to combined outputs of the columns of the two-dimensional array and configured to convert the summed photocurrents into an output signal of the amplifier;
wherein interconnections of the photodiodes of the two-dimensional array are configured to form at least two parallel branches of photodiodes, and wherein each of the parallel branches comprises a cascade of at least two photodiodes forming a combined photodetector surface.