Red InGaN Micro-LEDs on Silicon Substrates: Potential for Multicolor Display and Wavelength Division Multiplexing Visible Light Communication

Abstract

Red micro light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) on silicon substrates are crucial for the realization of large-scale, high-quality, low-cost micro-LED displays, and are also beneficial for high-speed visible light communication (VLC). In this letter, micro-LEDs with different sizes were fabricated. The maximum light output power density of the 20 μm pixel can reach 3.36 W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , which is 14 times higher than that of the largest pixel (150 μm). By adjusting the pixel size and injection current, a direct color shift from red to green can be observed. Moreover, multicolor emission with uniform brightness can be realized by adjusting duty cycle, which has broad application prospect in monolithic, multicolor displays. Despite the significant blue shift phenomenon, the peak wavelength of all pixels is still greater than 630 nm at the current density of 100 A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , which means that red light can be emitted in a large current density range to meet various application scenarios requiring different driving conditions. We have realized red, yellow and green micro-LED transmitters on Si substrate by changing the driving current density and modulation bandwidth up to 533.15 MHz is achieved when emitting green light. This is the report of red-emission micro-LEDs on Si substrates for visible light communication for the first time. And we proposed a proof-of-concept monolithic, multicolor wavelength division multiplexing scheme that achieved a total allowable transmission data rate of 2.35 Gbps. Such micro-LED is expected to be applied in multicolor displays, high-speed multi-channel VLC, color-tunable light sources, etc. In particular, due to its high integration and miniaturization, it is expected to be used in future practical application scenarios such as wearable communication devices and smartwatches.