Improving Performance of a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) VLC Receiver Using Pre-Equalization

The most sensitive photodetectors that can be used in optical wireless communication (OWC) receivers are silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Unfortunately, in addition to the usual finite bandwidth, these devices have a non-linear response. Evidence is presented which shows that the finite bandwidth is the more important of these two non-ideal characteristics and that the use of decision feedback equalization (DFE) to compensate for the SiPM’s bandwidth can incur a significant power penalty. This power penalty is the motivation for an investigation into the potential benefits of zero-pole pre-equalization. The results of this investigation show that, despite the need to restrict the peak-to-peak signal applied to the transmitter, pre-equalization increases the achievable higher data rates.