Photonics

High-bandwidth USB Over Infrared

Along with Sasha Zbrozek and Petr Johanes, I designed a two-channel transmitter/reciever board. Using two LED arrays, with 650nm and 700nm wavelength light, we were able to transmit simultanious two-way serial communication. Because we used low-power LED arrays, we were able to power the entire board off of USB power. However, this also meant that we needed sensitive optical and electrical filtering.

This project was awarded the Agilent Design Award by the Stanford University Electrical Engineering Department, an award given each year for the most exceptional student design project in an undergraduate electrical engineering class. You can read our report here: Johannes, Lambert, Zbrozek, Constructing Free Space Optical Tranceivers, 2010