Emerging light-emitting diodes for next-generation data communications

Aobo Ren; Hao Wang; Wei Zhang; Jiang Wu; Zhiming Wang; Richard V. Penty; Ian H. White

doi:10.1038/s41928-021-00624-7

Emerging light-emitting diodes for next-generation data communications

Aobo Ren, Hao Wang, Wei Zhang, Jiang Wu, Zhiming Wang, Richard V. Penty, Ian H. White

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

172 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The continuing development of consumer electronics, mobile communications and advanced computing technologies has led to a rapid growth in data traffic, creating challenges for the communications industry. Light-emitting diode (LED)-based communication links are of potential use in both free space and optical interconnect applications, and LEDs based on emerging semiconductor materials, which can offer tunable optoelectronics properties and solution-processable manufacturing, are of particular interest in the development of next-generation data communications. Here we review the development of emerging LED materials—organic semiconductors, colloidal quantum dots and metal halide perovskites—for use in optical communications. We examine efforts to improve the modulation performance and device efficiency of these LEDs, and consider potential applications in on-chip interconnects and light fidelity (Li-Fi). We also explore the challenges that exist in developing practical high-speed LED-based data communication systems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	559-572
Number of pages	14
Journal	Nature Electronics
Volume	4
Issue number	8
Early online date	23 Aug 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00624-7
Publication status	Published - 31 Aug 2021

Funding

We thank X. Li for valuable discussions and arguments. H.W. thanks D. Dong for the screen bar that helped when drafting this article. This work was supported by EPSRC (2015; EP/M015165/1), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61974014), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFB2203400), the ‘111 Project’ (B20030), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (ZYGX2019Z018), the Innovation Group Project of Sichuan Province (20CXTD0090) and the UESTC Shared Research Facilities of Electromagnetic Wave and Matter Interaction (Y0301901290100201). W.Z. thanks the financial support from EPSRC New Investigator Award (2018; EP/R043272/1) and H2020-EU grant (2018; CORNET 760949).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Instrumentation
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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10.1038/s41928-021-00624-7

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/004a7879-9728-4877-af4c-9125a8f9cb92/full

Cite this

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Emerging light-emitting diodes for next-generation data communications

Abstract

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