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.