Underwater Optical Communication
ApplyProject Description
More than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. The oceans and seas play a critical role in many of the Earth’s systems including climate, weather and food production cycles. Even though underwater communications have been under research since long time ago, most of the underwater world still remains unexplored so far. To further explore the underwater environments, developing efficient communication technology is of crucial important.Underwater wireless transmission can be achieved through radio, optical, or acoustic waves. Transmission of signal through radio water is limited to a few tens of meters. Although long distance transmission of acoustic waves has been demonstrated, transmission of signal through this technique offer a low data rate of 20 kbps.In this project,our goal is to develop a high data rate line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight underwater wireless optical communication system using highly coherent, either broad or narrow beam divergence semiconductor lasers. When developed, this giga-bit bandwidth, kilometer range underwater communication system will enable many novel applications includes seafloor survey, underwater oil field exploration, etc.



About the
Researcher
Boon S. Ooi
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professor Ooi's research is primarily concerned with the study of semiconductor lasers and photonic integrated circuits. Specifically, he has contributed significantly to the development of practical technologies for semiconductor photonics integrated circuits, and the development of novel broadband semiconductor lasers, multiple-wavelength lasers and superluminescent diodes. Most recently, he focuses his research on the areas of GaN-based nanostructures and lasers for applications such as solid-state lighting and visible light communications.
Desired Project Deliverables
Demonstrate the transmission of high bit-rate signals in water channel using laser diodes.