I am currently trying to design and build a wireless laser communication system and hoping to achieve at least 10 Mb/s. To do this, I realize I need a laser module that is optimized for pulsing at least 10 MHz. To keep power consumption low, I am restricting my laser's transmit power to a maximum of 5 mW.
After a brief Google Search, I find a few TTL laser diodes, but only optimized for 50kHz which still isn't fast enough for what I'm after. One that met my requirement is a Newport's laser optimized for 100MHz TTL (LQD1550-05E) but the cost is up to $2000! That of course is a little too expensive and I'm hoping to keep my budget under $200.
I've also been using this project (Laser Transceiver (laser data link)) as a guide to building my laser transceiver where their data rate is also around 10 Mb/s. Unfortunately, the description here does not mention specifically the manufacturer or the origin of that laser diode. But the website mentions their laser diode was only $3 euro which is really interesting because it's no-where near the Newport laser's $2000 cost.
So I was wondering if anyone with experience with digital communication using lasers can recommend laser modules that are optimized for pulsing, but is not so expensive like that Newport's laser. I'd prefer it to be at least under $100. Cheers!
After a brief Google Search, I find a few TTL laser diodes, but only optimized for 50kHz which still isn't fast enough for what I'm after. One that met my requirement is a Newport's laser optimized for 100MHz TTL (LQD1550-05E) but the cost is up to $2000! That of course is a little too expensive and I'm hoping to keep my budget under $200.
I've also been using this project (Laser Transceiver (laser data link)) as a guide to building my laser transceiver where their data rate is also around 10 Mb/s. Unfortunately, the description here does not mention specifically the manufacturer or the origin of that laser diode. But the website mentions their laser diode was only $3 euro which is really interesting because it's no-where near the Newport laser's $2000 cost.
So I was wondering if anyone with experience with digital communication using lasers can recommend laser modules that are optimized for pulsing, but is not so expensive like that Newport's laser. I'd prefer it to be at least under $100. Cheers!