Co-Time Co-Frequency Full-Duplex Visible Light On-Chip Communication Using a Pair of InGaN/GaN Quantum-Well Diodes

Co-time co-frequency full-duplex (CCFD) communication is challenging for radio frequency communications due to the overwhelming self- interference. For visible light communications, it was reported that two light-emitting diodes could construct a half-duplex communication link, but no CCFD communication using two diodes have been realized. In this work, we introduce an on-chip CCFD system using a pair of micrometer-scale InGaN/GaN multiple quantum-well diodes, which can detect and emit light at the same time. Maximum-likelihood estimator is derived and applied to extract the useful signal from the received mixed signal. The proposed CCFD system provides a promising way to decrease the size of on-chip optical communication systems and portable optical communication devices, and it can also reduce the number of optical devices in optical fiber communications and wireless optical communications without introducing much extra cost.