Science Daily February 16, 2022
The greatest problem in using solar panels for underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) systems is the limited bandwidth of the solar panel, which was originally optimized for energy harvesting rather than communication. Researchers in China studied the fundamentals of the solar array and proposed series-connected solar arrays for high-speed underwater detection. As they increased the size of the solar array from 1×1 to 3×3, the −20-dB bandwidth increased from 4.7 MHz to 24.2 MHz. To further improve the frequency response, they applied a reverse bias on the array. With a reverse bias voltage of 90 V, the −20-dB bandwidth of the proposed 3×3 solar array was extended to 63.4 MHz. Using this set up they achieved a data rate of 150 Mbps over a 35-m underwater channel with a frequency domain equalizer. According to the researchers their system shows that off-the-shelf solar cells have great potential in high data rate UWOC systems…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ