LIGHTING APPARATUSES AND LED MODULES FOR BOTH ILLUMATION AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION
Lighting apparatuses and LED modules capable of both illumination and data transmission are disclosed. An exemplifying lighting apparatus has a LED module and a modulator. The LED module comprises a plurality of LED cells connected as a LED chain having two conductive pads. The light emitted from the LED module is visible. The modulator provides driving current to the LED module to transmit data.
1 . A lighting apparatus capable of simultaneously providing illumination and data transmission to a receiver, comprising:
an LED module capable of emitting visible light, comprising a plurality of LED cells connected as an LED chain having two conductive pads;
a modulator providing driving current to the LED module to transmit data through the LED module.
2 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the LED cells are of the same color.
3 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a first group of the LED cells is capable of emitting a first color and a second group of the LED cells is capable of emitting a second color different from the first one.
4 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the LED module is a single chip, and the LED cells are arranged as an LED array on a monolithic substrate of the single chip.
5 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the LED cells are series connected.
6 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the number of the LED cells is around 3˜80.
7 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an area of one of the LED cells is not more than 121 mil 2 .
8 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an area of the monolithic substrate is between 1.21*10 2 to 1*10 5 mil 2 .
9 . The lighting apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the modulator is of a modem coupled to and powered by grid power lines and receives the data from the grid power lines.
10 . An LED cell module, comprising:
a substrate;
LED cells monolithically formed on the substrate, wherein a first group of the LED cells is connected as a first LED chain, driven for illumination, and a second group of the LED cells is connected as a second LED chain for data transmission;
a first pair of conductive pads connected to the first LED chain and a second pair of conductive pads different from the first conductive pads, connected to the second LED chain.
11 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein the first pair of conductive pads and the second pair of conductive pads share a common conductive pad.
12 . The LED module of claim 11 , wherein the common conductive pad is coupled connected to a first-type contact layer of the first LED chain, and to a second-type contact layer of the second LED chain, the first-type and the second-type contact layers comprises different conductivities selected from the group consisting of p-type and n-type.
13 . The LED module of claim 11 , wherein the common conductive pad is coupled to a first-type contact layer of the first LED chain and to a first-type contact layer of the second LED chain, and the first-type is p-type or n-type.
14 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein one LED cell of the second LED chain occupies a cell area no more than 121 mil 2 .
15 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein at least one LED cell of the first LED chain is capable of emitting a first color, at least one LED cell of the second LED chain is capable of emitting a second color, and the first color is different from the second color.
16 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein all LED cells of the first LED chain are capable of emitting a first color, all LED cells of the second LED chain are capable of emitting a second color, and the first color is different from the second color.
17 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein the first LED chain comprises a first LED cell, the second LED chain comprises a second LED cell, and at least one of the first and the second LED cell comprises a wavelength conversion layer.
18 . The LED module of claim 17 , wherein at least one first LED cell of the first LED chain and at least one second LED cell of the second LED chain are located in a column of the LED array, and the orientation of the at least one first LED cell is different from that of the at least one second LED cell.
19 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein the number of the LED cells in the second LED chain is smaller than that in the first LED chain.
20 . The LED module of claim 10 , wherein the substrate has an area between 1.21*10 2 to 1*10 5 mil 2 .