Text-based LED data transfer is the idea of sending computer data as rapid on–off light flashes—like a torch blinked in a code—rather than as electrical shouts through copper. Researchers in the United States have shown a gallium nitride micro-LED that reaches an optical modulation bandwidth of 2.75 GHz while drawing only 25 milliwatts, a result they present as a new record for quantum-well micro-LEDs and a possible path to cooler, leaner links inside data centres.
The work comes from a team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Notre Dame and appears in IEEE Electron Device Letters. Lead author Abdelghany Abouelnagga said the group set out to test a common belief that making the device smaller always makes it faster.
Why lasers strain data centres
Large buildings packed with servers already move WhatsApp messages, video streams, social feeds and bank-app logins as beams of light. Those beams today often come from tiny lasers. Lasers can carry data well, but they consume a lot of electricity and run hot. When thousands run at once, both the power bill and the air-conditioning bill climb sharply.
Abouelnagga noted that about 90% of data-centre traffic travels less than 10 metres between racks. For those short hops, micro-LEDs are aimed as a lower-energy alternative that could still move the same loads while cutting heat that must be cooled away.
Finding the right tiny size
The researchers measured micro-LED diameters from 100 micrometres down to 2 micrometres. The smallest chips were not the best overall. A 5-micrometre diameter gave the strongest mix of bandwidth and power.
They reached that design through detailed semiconductor modelling of material flaws and unwanted parasitic effects, then built devices that followed that physics—tuning on paper before fabrication rather than guessing through blind trial and error.
Arrays and what comes next
The practical goal is short-range optical communication inside data centres. The team pictures two-dimensional arrays of these emitters, each carrying its own stream, so one small chip could raise total capacity without growing its footprint. That density matters for hyperscale operators such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon as workloads keep expanding. In that setting, text-based LED data transfer would sit alongside—or partly replace—power-hungry laser links on the shortest paths between racks.
Whether the lab record becomes everyday kit still depends on further engineering, but the published figures show energy-efficient LED technology can already switch light fast enough to matter for rack-to-rack traffic.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Scientists ne bohot chhoti LED banayi hai jo kam bijli pe data bhej sakti hai. Data centres mein aaj aksar lasers use hotay hain jo zyada bijli kharch karte aur garam ho jate hain. Is nayi LED ka record 2.75 GHz bandwidth aur sirf 25 milliwatt power hai. Agar ye technology aam ho gayi to cloud apps ke peeche jo servers hain un ka bill aur cooling kam ho sakti hai.
