Monolitic Hybrid Transmitter-Receiver Lens for Rotary On-Axis Communications

High-speed rotary communication links exhibit high complexity and require challenging assembly tolerances. This article investigates the use of optical wireless communications (OWC) for on-axis rotary communication scenarios. First, OWC is compared with other state-of-the-art technologies. Different realization approaches for bidirectional, full-duplex links are discussed. For the most promising approach, a monolithic hybrid transmitter-receiver lens is designed by ray mapping methodology. Ray tracing simulations are used to study the alignment-depended receiver power level and to determine the effect of optical crosstalk. Over a distance of 12.5 mm, the lens achieves an optical power level at the receiver of −16.2 dBm to −8.7 dBm even for misalignments up to 3 mm.