Built-in Camera-based Visible Light Communication System with 95%-Efficiency LED Driver

Recently, LED-based visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as an alternative option for radio-frequency indoor communication. Due to the maturity of technology, high-speed photodiode receiver VLC is more popular but not convenient for applications using existing electronic receivers, such as built-in cameras on mobile devices. However, the relationship between the data rate from the VLC transmitter and the limit of the rolling shutter mechanism of the camera receiver has not been fully studied yet. In addition, there are still questions about how the design and control of a DC-DC LED driver should be adapted to the camera receiver. This article presents a theoretical and experimental relationship between the data rate generated from the VLC transmitter and the technical specifications of the camera (exposure time and shutter speed). A DC-DC LED driver, with an efficiency of 95%, is designed to demonstrate the full VLC system.