An Optically Powered Video Camera Link

An optically powered camera sensor link is demonstrated. Power and data are transmitted over a 62.5-mum multimode glass fiber. Uncompressed video with 640 times 480 pixels resolution is streamed continuously at 100 Mb/s as soon as the fiber is illuminated with sufficient optical power. No energy has to be stored at the sensor location in batteries with limited capacities and lifetimes. Inexpensive fiber optics and low-power state-of-the-art electronics are used to make >100 mW available at sites which have no direct access to an electrical network. There is a complete electrical isolation between the remote camera unit and a base station.