Design and implementation of an avalanche photodiode array receiver for fluorescent-antenna-based visible light...

Visible light communication (VLC) is emerging as a promising technology for future communication systems, with extensive applications in indoor networking, wearable devices, and underwater transmission. Fluorescent antennas (FAs) have demonstrated significant potential in enhancing the field-of-view (FoV) of optical receivers through their absorption and re-emission characteristics. However, a critical mismatch exists between the distributed side-emission pattern of FAs and the concentrated photosensitive area of photodetectors. To address this issue, we propose a novel photodetector design, to the best of our knowledge, employing an array of photodiodes specifically configured to match the spatial emission profile of FAs. Experimental results reveal that the proposed detector achieves higher power gain while maintaining comparable bandwidth to the conventional detector with almost the same photosensitive area. This work presents a cost-effective, high-performance detection solution that significantly improves the performance of wide-FoV VLC systems.