Optical Communications

Dr Martin J.N. Sibley studied at the University of Huddersfield (then the Polytechnic of Huddersfield), UK, obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering in 1981. He stayed on to do a PhD, conferred in 1984, researching preamplifiers for optical receivers. This work was sponsored by British Telecom Research Laboratories (BTRL) and resulted in the first preamplifier to be fabricated in IC form. A BTRL Research Fellowship followed, examining the practical design of a Digital Pulse Position Modulation (DPPM) coder and decoder. Theoretical predictions showed that DPPM could out-perform Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) and practical results obtained using the DPPM coder and decoder confirmed the predictions. He continues to research this area today. In 1986 Martin joined the academic staff at the University of Huddersfield. His main research area is optical communications, in particular the practical implementation of Visible Light Communication (VLC) using high power LEDs, and coding schemes for highly dispersive optical links such as plastic optical fibre. He is also involved in research work concerned with the open-area detection of concealed weapons. He has acted as consultant to several blue-chip companies. Martin has published over 80 conference and proceedings papers as well as four textbooks in the fields of electromagnetism, optical communications and telecommunications. He is a Member of the IET and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.