As demand for faster internet data transmission increases, existing radio spectrum capacities are reaching their limits, prompting researchers to explore new methods like Visible Light Communication (VLC). VLC utilizes visible light for high-speed data transmission, serving as a promising alternative to Wi-Fi due to its secure, interference-free, and energy-efficient capabilities.
Visible Light Communication (VLC), an emerging and promising wireless technology, utilizes visible light for high-speed data transmission. Positioned as a potential successor to traditional Wi-Fi and indoor wireless communication methods, VLC leverages previously untapped visible light spectrum resources, offering a solution to the increasing issue of frequency congestion.
VLC offers several advantages, including data security, immunity to electromagnetic interference, lack of licensing requirements, and rapid response times. One particularly noteworthy feature of VLC is its dual functionality of providing illumination while simultaneously transmitting data. This dual-use capability not only reduces operational costs but also minimizes unnecessary energy consumption, making it an energy-efficient option.
The potential applications of VLC are extensive, spanning areas from automotive and indoor communication to mobile positioning services. VLC is compatible with environments where radio waves are prohibited, further enhancing its versatility and applicability. Among these applications, micro-LEDs have emerged as strong contenders for next-generation full-color VLC technology due to their superior characteristics, such as high brightness, fast response times, low power consumption, and excellent color modulation capability.
In recent years, InGaN-based micro-LEDs have garnered attention for their versatile applications. However, despite the ability to achieve full-color lighting by adjusting indium content, there are significant challenges to address. In long-wavelength InGaN-based micro-LEDs with high indium content, the pronounced quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) adversely impacts performance by reducing the overlap of electron-hole wavefunctions, thereby decreasing radiative recombination rates, reducing emission efficiency, and limiting bandwidth. Furthermore, to enable wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) in VLC, minimizing wavelength shifts and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) is critical to preventing cross-channel interference.
In response to these challenges, a research team led by Haozhong Guo, Director of the Semiconductor Institute at Hon Hai Research Institute (HHRI) and Chair Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), collaborated with Dr. Yuheng Hong of HHRI, research teams from NYCU, National Taiwan University (NTU), and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia to develop long-wavelength micro-LED arrays for VLC applications. By adjusting the indium content in the quantum wells (QWs) of InGaN-based micro-LEDs using the same epitaxial structure, the team successfully produced yellow and red micro-LEDs, as shown in Figure 1. Notably, both the yellow and red 30μm×8 micro-LED arrays demonstrated high external quantum efficiencies (EQE) of 11.56% and 5.47%, respectively. In terms of transmission performance, the InGaN-based yellow micro-LED achieved a modulation bandwidth of 630 MHz, while the red micro-LED reached 418 MHz. Furthermore, when utilizing orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission, the yellow micro-LED array achieved data transmission rates of up to 1.5 Gbit/s.
These results highlight the immense potential of long-wavelength InGaN-based micro-LEDs to drive advancements in high-speed VLC and microdisplay technologies, offering transformative opportunities across various technological domains. The findings, titled “Advancing high-performance visible light communication with long-wavelength InGaN-based micro-LEDs,” have been published in the leading international journal Scientific Reports. Further details can be found at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57132-9.
In recent years, the rapid development and widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have led to a substantial increase in demand for data centers. To handle vast amounts of data and complex computations, data centers must support high-speed, low-latency, and low-power data transmission. However, traditional copper-wire transmission faces numerous limitations, including crosstalk, signal loss, high power consumption, and bandwidth bottlenecks, making it difficult to meet the growing demand for data transmission. This research demonstrates the great potential of long-wavelength InGaN micro-LEDs in high-speed VLC, chip-to-chip interconnection, and microdisplay technologies. As AI technologies continue to evolve, micro-LED array optical communication is expected to play an increasingly important role in future data centers, driving technological innovation and industrial upgrading in this field.
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