Effect of Sunlight on Photovoltaics as Optical Wireless Communication Receivers

This paper explores the effects of sunlight on using a low-cost off-the-shelf silicon solar panel as an optical wireless communication (OWC) receiver. A receiver circuit structure has been proposed to maximize simultaneous energy harvesting and data performance. An equivalent model for is discussed. By model, varying conditions performance OWC are estimated. Furthermore, experimental setup developed study verify simulated estimations. The consists 3.5 m link with full Transmission Control Protocol Internet (TCP/IP) network stack. system uses DC-biased orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) use available bandwidth efficiently. 940 nm laser device along off-axis-parabolic mirror used transmitter. maximum user throughput achieved over air 28.3 Mb/s while simultaneously power point tracking (MPPT) technique. peak harvested 4.5 W. stored in 38 Wh lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.