Design and Analysis of Multi-Phase Buck DC-DC Converters for Li-Fi Attocell Drivers

Light fidelity (Li-Fi) is a visible light communications (VLC) system that employs the light emitting diodes (LED) lamps for wireless communications. The Li-Fi atto-cell driver systems use the lighting system fixtures to achieve two function; namely the illumination and communication functions. The Li-Fi systems are advantageous at using LEDs to transmit high speed communication signals without compromising their illumination at a good efficiency. The DC-DC converters represent the main core and the suitable choice of Li-Fi atto-cell drivers. The main challenges of Li-Fi atto-cell driver system is the implementation of complex communication modulation signals, such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), in addition to the driver efficiency deteriorations due to the communication signal. In addition, achieving high bit rate is essential requirement for communication systems that make design of dc-dc converter is of a challenging task. This paper presents a comparative case study of single phase and multiphase buck DC-DC converters for driving Li-Fi systems. The comparison includes the converter design, the efficiency, and the maximum achievable bit rates of each topology.