en.Wedoany.com Reported - Researchers at the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a chip-scale optical wireless communication system based on near-infrared lasers, achieving a data transmission rate of 362.7 Gbps over a 2-meter free-space optical link, with an energy consumption of approximately 1.4 nanojoules per bit—about half the energy per bit transmitted by comparable Wi-Fi systems. The system is built around a compact 5×5 vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array, in which 21 active lasers can independently transmit their respective data streams, increasing total network capacity through multiple parallel connections.

A key innovation of the system lies in the beam-shaping optics, which organize the emitted light into structured illumination areas with minimal overlap between regions, enabling different beams to serve different users or devices simultaneously through independent illumination zones. In tests, four concurrent beams achieved multi-user operation with a combined data rate of approximately 22 Gbps and illumination uniformity exceeding 90% in the target area. This optical wireless system is not intended to replace Wi-Fi or cellular networks but can complement existing infrastructure in high-density indoor environments such as offices, hospitals, and data centers, where bandwidth demand continues to grow.