Data Transfer through Beam Steering using Agile Lensing

摘要

This paper presents a data transfer scheme using multi-focus tunable lenses. The design involves the use of a standard laser source and a variable focus agile lens to steer to the laser beam that passes through the lens. In our proposed system, the beam steer angle depends on an input electrical signal which drives the tunable lens. Therefore the beam steer angle is made to follow the variations in the input electrical drive signal. This is extremely interesting for data transfer applications as the data signal can be used as the input drive signal to the lens. The laser beam is steered according to the input data voltage levels and when the beam is incident on a photo-detector of a finite size, only a fraction of its total incident optical power is received by the photo-detector. This power contribution is proportional to the fraction of the total number of photons per unit area which are incident on the active area of the detector. The remaining photons which are not incident on the photo-detector do not contribute to the received power at the photo-detector. We present the theory of beam steering through a tunable lens and present a theoretical framework which governs data transfer through the proposed method. We also present the transfer function of the proposed system which helps us to calculate its essential theoretical performance parameters such as modulation depth and bit error rates. We also present experimental results to demonstrate efficient data transfer through the proposed method. As tunable lenses are primarily deployed in motion-free multi-focus cameras hence most of the modern portable devices such as cellphones and tablets use these lenses to operate the in-built variable focus cameras that are part of these devices. Because tunable lenses are commonly present in several different portable devices, the proposed method of data transfer between two devices is highly promising as it expands the use of the already deployed tunable lenses with minimal changes to the fundamental architecture or operation of any portable device.