Photo receiver device of increased reliability and resistance to background lighting for FSO

Volodymyr Lipka; Yurii Dobrovolsky

doi:10.15222/TKEA2025.1-2.45

Volodymyr Lipka Rhythm optoelektronics shareholding company; Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsy, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4419-3356
Yurii Dobrovolsky Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsy, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0626-0594

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15222/TKEA2025.1-2.45

Keywords: photo-receiving device, background illumination, photodiode, automatic gain control, software reliability

Abstract

The exchange of information signals using optical channels is one of the main directions of development of modern telecommunication systems. Such communication channels include, in particular, the rapidly developing free space optical (FSO) technology. Since such communication is carried out in the open air, it is necessarily affected by optical interference, which is mainly created by solar radiation. Therefore, in FSO conditions, the issue of counteracting background illumination created by sunlight becomes relevant. It is capable of generating a large photocurrent of a photodiode that receives a useful optical signal. The question arises of how to filter the useful signal, which is transmitted at a certain wavelength (in our case, it is 980 nm), from the background signal of optical interference, which can suppress the useful monochromatic signal. This is especially important when the spectral ranges of sensitivity of the photodetector and the source of optical interference overlap.
Therefore, the purpose of the research and development was to create a design of a background-resistant photo-receiving device (PRD), operating at a wavelength of 980 nm, under the conditions of illumination of the photodiode by solar radiation.
To achieve the specified goal, a study of known technical solutions was conducted, which showed that the optimal design should be one that uses optical and electronic methods. In addition, the possibility of tracking the useful signal was shown, taking into account the time during which the photodetector reacts to irradiation of the working wavelength. Namely, the growth time of the photodetector. Thus, the counteraction to the background illumination of the photodetector consists in a combination of an optical cut-off light filter, an automatic gain control circuit that compensates for the component of the photocurrent caused by the constant frequency composition characteristic of solar radiation, as well as an algorithm for selecting the useful signal based on the growth time of the photodiode at the working wavelength. This selection, as well as the general operation of the PRD, is carried out and controlled using specialized software, which is loaded into the corresponding microcontroller. Studies of the created PRD have shown that it is resistant to background solar radiation of power up to 17 mW. A study of the reliability of the PRD and software has been conducted. The reliability of the PRD is at least 500 hours of operation.
The probability of failure-free operation of the software in the operating interval from 0 to 10 hours is at least 0.98.

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