Coverage of a shopping mall with flexible OLED-based visible light communications

Abstract

Visible light communications (VLC) can utilize light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to provide illumination and a safe and low-cost broadcasting network simultaneously. In the past decade, there has been a growing interest in using organic LEDs (OLEDs) for soft lighting and display applications in public places. Organic electronics can be mechanically flexible, thus the potential of curved OLED panels/displays devices. This paper provides unique characteristics of a flexible OLED-based VLC link in a shopping mall. We show that, for curved OLED the radiation pattern displays a symmetry, which is wider than Lambertian. A number of scenarios of VLC system with flexible OLED are analyzed. Numerical models for the delay spread and optical path loss are derived, which followed a 2-term power series model for both empty and furnished rooms. We show that using a full-circular OLED for both empty and furnished rooms offers a uniform distribution of emitted power for the same transmission link spans. The link performance using full and half-circular OLED in an empty room shows that the average optical path losses are lower by 5 and 4 dB, compared with the furnished room.