Solar-Panel Receiver design for Optical Wireless Communications and Simultaneous Energy Harvesting

Abstract: This paper presents a completely different design model from before of an optical wireless communications receiver by using solar panel as a photo detector. Simultaneous data transmission & energy harvesting can be done using proposed system. A modulated light signal can be converted into an electrical signal by using a solar panel which doesn�t require any external power. User can use a generated energy for the system or this energy can also use to prolong the operation time of system. This paper focuses on the parameters which are considered important for the design of system using solar panel applied for simultaneous communication & energy harvesting. This paper describes actual practical implementation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Described system can establish a communication link with data rate of 11.84 MBPS for received optical signal.

Keywords: Photodetector, energy harvesting, multi-crystalline silicon solar cells, OFDM.