| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/D501008/1 |
| Title: |
Optical wireless communications for micro-machines |
| Principal Investigator: |
O'Brien, Professor D |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Engineering Science |
| Organisation: |
University of Oxford |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 November 2005 |
Ends: |
31 January 2009 |
Value (£): |
295,635
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Electronic Devices & Subsys. |
Networks & Distributed Systems |
| Optical Communications |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Communications |
Electronics |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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As complete machines and processing systems become smaller in scale, with complete systems having dimensions of 100s of microns, to microns and below the problem of providing communications with and between these structures becomes acute. The scale of the outside world remains constant, whilst the scale of these complete systems continues to shrink. The semiconductor technology 'Roadmap' predicts it will be possible to build electronic systems of the order of tens of microns in size within the next decade or so.Locating and communicating with such' smart dust' is a formidable challenge, and free-space optical data links are an excellent candidate to provide low-power wireless communications between these elements. Retro-reflecting data transceivers that do not require a source of light can be built into the smart dust, and provide the communications require to network these elements. Such a system can be used for environmental sensing, mapping and other functions.The programme aims to demonstrate ad-hoc optical wireless networking between liquid-crystal based retro-reflecting transceivers and to investigate how this would scale to systems that will exist over the next decade. Low power CMOS electronics will be combined with low voltage liquid crystal modulators and the necessary optics in order to achieve this. Data from these experiments will be used together with models to predict the future performance of such systems
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ox.ac.uk |