QLed-by-LED: Single-photon sensitive long-distance wireless networks using chip-scale technology

Published paper on high-sensitivity inter-satellite optical communications using chip-scale LED and single-photon detector hardware, relating to video above – https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.421101

As part of QuantIC’s partnership resource project with Clyde Space, they have made an experiment of transmitting data from a micro-LED transmitter to a SPAD receiver across Glasgow city centre. QuantIC researchers at the University of Strathclyde are developing single-photon sensitive data communications systems with extremely low size, weight, and power requirements. The technology is based on microscopic light-emitting diode (LED) transmitters and single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) receivers, and is being developed for use in cube-satellites, i.e. satellites with approximately the size of a shoe-box. A complete LED/SPAD system will occupy less than 5% of a cube-satellite and be able to transmit data between satellites over kilometre distances in space.
This video documents a major milestone towards this target by demonstrating data transmission across Glasgow city centre from The Lighthouse to the Livingstone Tower. In this experiment a data rate of 20 Mb/s – exceeding the requirements of many applications – is achieved over a distance of 750 m. These results confirm theoretical calculations that suggest that link distances of more than 100 km are possible at useful data rates (10 kb/s or more).
The video contains photographic and video footage of the experiment as well as visualisations of the geographic location created in Google Earth. The background music is from http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Thanks go to The Lighthouse for enabling access to their viewing platform.
Copyright: https://doi.org/10.15129/3da7087a-91a3-40be-9a83-7e412156db59 (CC-BY 4.0) .