Data Communication Using Blue GaN-on-Si Micro-LEDs Reported on a 200-mm Silicon Substrate

In this letter, Gallium Nitride (GaN) blue micro-Light-Emitting-Diodes (
$\mu $
LEDs) reported on a 200-mm Silicon substrate are utilized for multi-Gb/s data transmission. The manufacturing process is compatible with CMOS integrated circuit design, paving the way for fully integrated transmitters for
$\mu $
LED-based visible light communications (VLC) or chip-to-chip interconnects. Fiber-guided transmission has been realized using direct current optical-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) modulation, and a data rate of 5.9 Gb/s at a Bit-Error-Rate (BER) of
$3.8\times 10 ^{-3}$
is reported using a single
$50 \times 50~\mu $
m2 blue
$\mu $
LED. This data rate was further improved to reach 15.5 Gb/s in the case where the
$\mu $
LED is only limited by its non-linear distortions instead of the system’s noise, highlighting the high linearity of GaN
$\mu $
LEDs.