Driving LED in a Nanosecond Regime by a Fast Operational Amplifier

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that LEDs can generate nanosecond-scale optical pulses using a fast operational amplifier, challenging the belief that LEDs are unsuitable for high-speed optical signal generation.

Contribution

It introduces techniques to produce nanosecond square pulses from LEDs and validates the approach through experimental results and computer simulations.

Findings

Achieved 1-2 ns rise and fall times in LED pulses

Controlled emission intensity via supply voltage

Validated results with OrCAD and PSPICE simulations

Abstract

It is widely believed that the generation of high speed optical signals is not the job for an LED. However this work is done to show that there are techniques which can be used to produce nanosecond square pulses from a diode. Rise and fall times of a typical 10ns long signal were 1-2 ns and the intensity of the emission could be controlled by the supply voltage. The wavelength of the radiation was 472 nm, which is blue in colour, but any longer or even shorter wavelengths can similarly be used. The consistency of the experiment and its theoretical model was analysed by computer simulations using OrCAD and PSPICE.