At the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) in September 2026, Raysolve showed an evaluation system for multicore optical fiber transmission using Micro LEDs. The approach arranges many tiny light-emitting elements and sends multiple streams of data simultaneously as light.
In short-reach communication for AI, there is demand for technologies that both expand transfer bandwidth and cut power consumption. Against this backdrop, companies that have traditionally worked on display technology have begun developing Micro LEDs as light sources for optical communication.
TrendForce also ran an article dated September 28 introducing companies' efforts shown at CIOE, from Micro LED light sources to optical interconnect systems.
However, the power-efficiency figures presented at the show mix numbers measured for the Micro LED alone with numbers that whole optical interconnect systems are targeting. Distinguishing which equipment each value covers also clarifies what Micro LED optical interconnects must overcome before reaching practical use.
Transmitting multiple channels simultaneously over multicore fiber
The evaluation system Raysolve developed with partner companies transmits optical signals from multiple Micro LEDs simultaneously through multicore optical fiber.
According to the company's CIOE announcement, it is conducting verification with system integrators under realistic use cases, aiming for integration into next-generation AI computing infrastructure.
What was demonstrated this time is progress to the stage of sending light emitted by Micro LEDs into an actual transmission path and communicating over multiple channels.
In optical interconnects using Micro LEDs, bandwidth is expanded by operating many small light sources at once. Rather than making a single channel extremely fast, the idea is to raise overall transfer speed by increasing the number of channels that can be sent in parallel.
Raysolve positions gallium nitride (GaN) Micro LEDs as a candidate light source to replace indium phosphide (InP) lasers in short-reach applications requiring high-density parallel communication.
There is also much in common with technology cultivated for Micro LED displays.
Techniques for arranging tiny light-emitting elements at high density and processes for mass production at the wafer level can also be applied to optical communication, which lines up many light sources.
On the other hand, for communication use, the light must be switched on and off rapidly to carry data, the emitted light must be guided efficiently into the fiber, and interference between adjacent channels must be suppressed.
Raysolve is also working on technologies to raise Micro LED modulation speed, to shape spreading light and direct it into the fiber, and to reduce crosstalk between channels.
Enkris offers a concrete example of a Micro LED light source itself.
According to the company's official announcement, it developed a Micro LED light source that can be manufactured on 8- to 12-inch wafers using a GaN-on-Si method, which forms GaN on a silicon substrate.
At a current density of 500A/cm², the −3dB bandwidth, which indicates response speed to modulation, was 1.6GHz.
However, the 1.6GHz figure shows how fast the Micro LED itself can respond; it is not the data transfer speed of an entire optical interconnect system.
Enkris explains that it sped up the recombination of carriers involved in light emission by adjusting the light-emitting layer and device structure. It also says that shrinking the light-emitting area reduced the device's electrical capacitance and thus response lag.
Repurposing the tiny light sources used in displays for communication requires not only using existing manufacturing technology but also device designs suited to high-speed communication.
Is "under 1pJ/bit" for the light source alone, or the whole interconnect?
Enkris states that its Micro LED light source consumes less than 1pJ/bit.
pJ/bit is a unit for the energy needed to handle one bit of data. A smaller number means data can be sent with less power.
However, if the components included in the measurement differ, the numbers cannot be compared directly.
Enkris's "under 1pJ/bit" is a value for the Micro LED light source itself. By contrast, another "under 1pJ/bit" introduced by TrendForce is a target for an entire optical interconnect system, and it is not the result of measuring the same thing.
TrendForce's article summarizing the CIOE exhibits also cites an even smaller number.
For Nexilumen's long-wavelength InGaN Micro LED, it cites 0.056pJ/bit as the energy efficiency of the light-emitting element alone.
Meanwhile, the short-reach optical interconnect being developed by Intelligence Computing Optical Interconnects and Wuhu Token Sciences targets under 1pJ/bit for the whole system.
| Company / initiative | Published or reported value | What the value refers to |
|---|---|---|
| Enkris | Under 1pJ/bit | Micro LED light source, per official announcement |
| Nexilumen | 0.056pJ/bit | Light-emitting element alone, as introduced by TrendForce |
| Intelligence Computing Optical Interconnects and Wuhu Token Sciences | Under 1pJ/bit | Development target for the entire optical interconnect system, as introduced by TrendForce |
This table organizes what each energy value covers, based on Enkris's official announcement and TrendForce's CIOE coverage.
Because these are not comparative tests conducted under the same conditions, the numbers alone cannot be used to rank the three or calculate reduction rates.
Even if a Micro LED can emit light using little energy, an actual optical interconnect also needs power for drive circuits, signal processing, photodetectors, and more. The value for the light source alone therefore does not determine the energy consumption of the whole system.
For Nexilumen, too, the next step TrendForce describes is to integrate CMOS drive circuits with a Micro LED array and prototype a 1.6Tbps optical interconnect system.
Several verification stages remain between achieving a very small energy value for a light-emitting element alone and realizing that performance as a high-speed communication system.
What matters to those designing AI systems is how little power the entire optical interconnect uses while meeting the required transfer speed and transmission distance.
It is therefore necessary to confirm how much of the power efficiency obtained with a Micro LED alone is maintained once it is built into an actual communication system.
Shipping evaluation kits is not the same as starting mass production
On August 18, 2026, US-based Avicena announced that it had begun shipping LightBundle 1Tbps evaluation kits using Micro LEDs.
This is a separate development from the CIOE exhibits, but it is an example of Micro LED optical interconnects reaching the stage of being evaluated in companies' own labs.
The evaluation kit connects a 335-channel Micro LED array and a 335-element photodetector array with a bundle of multicore fibers.
Each data channel operates at up to 3Gbps, and the combined raw data transfer rate across all channels is up to 1Tbps.
It is a concrete system demonstrating the Micro LED optical interconnect concept: rather than making a single channel extremely fast, run many channels in parallel to obtain large bandwidth.
However, the maximum 1Tbps figure is the raw data transfer rate summing the speeds of all channels, and it does not mean real applications can use the full 1Tbps.
The evaluation kit also includes a host-interface board and diagnostic functions, and companies using it can evaluate power efficiency, crosstalk between channels, bit error rate, and more in their own labs.
This moves things from the stage of showing at an exhibition that signals can be sent to a stage where companies considering adoption can measure performance themselves while changing conditions.
However, shipping evaluation kits is a separate matter from being adopted in mass-produced AI systems.
Both the application-specific verification Raysolve is pursuing and the customer evaluation kits Avicena provides are at the stage of confirming performance once built into actual systems.
Lumping exhibition prototypes, customer evaluation products, and mass-production products together as "commercialization" makes it hard to tell how far development has progressed.
TrendForce forecasts that mass production of CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) transceiver modules, which use Micro LED light sources and integrate optical communication components into the same package as compute chips, could begin as early as the second half of 2028, with production value reaching about $848 million in 2030.
However, this forecast covers Micro LED–based CPO transceiver modules, not the size of the optical communication market as a whole.
It also does not mean that each company's mass-production timing has already been decided. It is a projection of future market expansion based on the current state of technology development and evaluation.
Whether the Micro LED light sources and optical transmission technologies shown at CIOE will be adopted in real AI computing infrastructure depends on whether they can deliver low system-level power consumption and a sufficiently low bit error rate while meeting the required transfer speed and transmission distance.
If evaluation kits and test environments that let customers verify such performance in their own settings spread, Micro LED optical interconnects will move into a stage where they are compared not only on the power efficiency of the light source alone but also on whether they can meet the requirements of entire AI systems.