Simultaneous Wireless Data and Power Transfer for a 1-Gb/s GaAs VCSEL and Photovoltaic Link

We study the trade-off between energy harvesting and data communication for a two-meter wireless gallium-arsenide vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser and photovoltaic link. The use of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing with adaptive bit and power loading results in a peak data rate of 1041 Mb/s at a bit-error ratio (BER) of 2.2×10−3 under short-circuit conditions. The receiver is shown to provide power harvesting with an efficiency of 41.7% under the irradiance of 0.3 W/cm 2 and simultaneous data communication with a rate of 784 Mb/s at a BER of 2.8×10−3 . The experimental system is envisioned to become a paradigm for next-generation wireless backhaul communications and Internet-of-Things applications.