OLEDs—the same organic light-emitting diodes found in smartphone screens and smartwatches—could soon send data as well as light. This project redesigns OLEDs to emit light faster, enabling them to carry information for optical wireless communication, or LiFi. The problem is straightforward: Wi-Fi and mobile networks, which use radio waves, are struggling to keep up with the ever-growing number of internet-connected devices. Optical communication offers a faster, more secure alternative within rooms, but most LiFi systems rely on specialised LEDs or lasers. OLEDs are already everywhere—in displays, watches, and fitness trackers—so if they can also transmit data, everyday screens could become communication hubs without needing extra hardware. The team will build red, green, and blue OLEDs side by side, sending separate data streams on each colour to triple transmission speed. Their target is 30 gigabits per second over one metre—ten times faster than the current OLED record. They will also create larger OLED arrays to send information in multiple directions. If successful, this work would set a world record and demonstrate that displays themselves can double as data transmitters. That could eventually let a phone screen beam a video to a nearby laptop, or a smartwatch send health data to a monitor, without any radio signal.
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Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are a remarkable light-emitting and display technology, found throughout our lives in smartphones, watches, fitness monitors and some televisions. The purpose of this proposal is to explore their use for high speed optical communication. This would enable display to display communication and light sources to send information to smart devices. OLEDs are attractive for this emerging field of “LiFi” because they are simple to make, can emit a range of colours, are already present in many displays, and can readily be integrated into everyday objects. Optical communication is fast and secure, and can complement existing mobile communications and Wi-Fi which use radio waves, particularly within rooms. We will adjust the design of OLEDs to enhance their emission rate, and so enable them to send data faster. We will then develop red, green and blue OLEDs side by side and use each colour to send a data stream – enabling data to be transmitted approximately three times faster than for a single colour OLED, with the aim of setting a world record data rate for OLED data transmission of 30 gigabits per second (over a distance of 1 metre), ten times faster than the current record. This will be achieved by a combination of advances in OLED design, and improvements in how data is encoded to be sent by OLEDs. In addition we will make larger arrays of OLEDs so as to be able to send information in multiple directions. The research is important because of the ever-growing need for data communication as more and more devices are connected to the internet. We will demonstrate the potential of OLEDs for optical communication and provide proof of principle for subsequent use of displays for communications. Our work will expand the range of uses of OLEDs, provide a new platform for LiFi and set a new world record for OLED based data rates.
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