Key Findings
A research team led by Can Bayram has set a world record for modulation bandwidth in a blue GaN microLED, reaching 2.75 GHz. This performance was achieved using a device with a 5µm diameter, which also demonstrated stability and linearity under extreme current densities. The findings, published in IEEE Electron Device Letters, provide a technical roadmap for integrating these emitters into high-bandwidth optical interconnects.
Technical Details
The team fabricated and tested blue microLEDs across nearly two orders of magnitude in size, with diameters ranging from 100µm down to 2µm. Technical analysis using Smith-chart measurements of RF power delivery revealed that standard, larger microLEDs are primarily limited by junction capacitance. Reducing the device diameter significantly lowered this capacitance, enabling the record-breaking speeds.
However, the study identified a performance ceiling below the 5µm threshold. Further miniaturization increases current-spreading and contact resistances, leading to an impedance mismatch with standard 50-Ω radio-frequency systems. The researchers identified p-contact optimization and pad engineering as the necessary next steps to overcome these resistances and further increase performance.
Background and Context
Optical interconnects are being explored to address the energy and bandwidth bottlenecks of conventional electrical copper links in data centers and high-performance computing. MicroLED arrays are considered strong candidates for these applications due to their compact footprint and potential for scalable, massively parallel, and error-free optical data links.
Significance and Outlook
By unifying measurements of impedance, linearity, and modulation across a vast scaling range, the researchers have established a clear pathway for creating dense, low-energy optical channels. This development aims to reduce packaging complexity in future optical networks, potentially breaking the data bottleneck for next-generation AI and high-performance computing through massively parallel optical communication.
Source: https://compoundsemiconductor.net/article/125685/275GHz_record_bandwidth_for_GaN_microLED
Get our weekly technology intelligence — free
Receive an infographic that lets you judge at a glance whether each field’s analysis report is worth reading.
Subscribe Free — Weekly Tech Intelligence
By subscribing, you’ll receive Troy-Technical’s weekly technology intelligence newsletter.
- Your email and selected fields are used only to deliver the newsletter.
- We never share your information with third parties.
- You can unsubscribe anytime via the link in each email.
See our Privacy Policy for details.
Takes about a minute · Unsubscribe anytime
