TREE NEWS update: Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Notre Dame have set a world record for quantum-well LED optical switch performance. Their gallium nitride micro-LED achieved a modulation bandwidth of 2.75 GHz at just 25 milliwatts of power, offering a low-energy alternative to lasers for short-reach data-center optical interconnects. The 5-micron device, detailed in IEEE Electron Device Letters, targets the roughly 90% of data-center traffic that travels less than 10 meters.
Micro-LED optical switch sets world record with 2.75 GHz bandwidth
AI take
The significance here is less about raw speed than about the power budget: delivering gigahertz-class modulation from a micro-LED rather than a laser could reshape the economics of the short-reach links that dominate data-center traffic. It matters to optical interconnect suppliers and data-center operators weighing energy per bit, though a lab record at 25 milliwatts is a long way from a deployable transceiver. The open question is whether the device's efficiency and bandwidth hold up outside the lab and at the volumes short-reach interconnects demand.
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