The advantages of Micro LED CPO include low power consumption, high density, and strong cost-effectiveness potential at scale, yet it has not been commercialized. Traditional silicon photonics CPO features mature technology and long transmission distance, but suffers from complex processes, high cost, and average energy efficiency. Traditional copper cable interconnection boasts mature processes and low initial cost, but has high power consumption, low bandwidth, and short transmission distance.
In terms of architecture, based on a paper published by Microsoft Research at SIGCOMM, Microsoft’s MOSAIC adopts the Wide and Slow (WaS) architecture for optical links. It replaces a few high-speed channels with hundreds of parallel low-speed optical channels, subverting the traditional Narrow and Fast (NaF) link mode to achieve long-distance, low-power, and highly reliable transmission.
In short, Micro LED CPO offers three major advantages:
- Ultra-low power consumption, improving energy efficiency by nearly 20 times. It uses only 5% of the power of traditional copper cable solutions, drastically cutting data center energy and cooling costs.
- Ultra-high bandwidth in an extremely small form factor. Micro LED chips can be sized below 50μm, supporting large-scale array parallel transmission with a bandwidth density exceeding 0.5 Tbps/mm², solving the problem of limited cabinet space.
- High reliability and long transmission distance. The “Wide and Slow" parallel architecture delivers strong anti-interference capability, with a failure rate close to that of copper cables. Meanwhile, the transmission distance can reach 50 meters, far exceeding the 2-meter limit of copper cables, balancing reliability and scalability.
Impact on the LED Industry
In terms of product nature, Micro LED for optical communication and Micro LED for display share the same origin but differ in focus: the former emphasizes high-speed modulation, low power consumption, and wavelength stability, without requiring high brightness. It serves as a high-end customized chip for data center optical transmission.
Currently, Micro LED CPO has not truly moved out of the laboratory. Its core bottlenecks lie in technology adaptation, yield improvement, cost control, and industrial chain collaboration. As core participants, LED companies provide irreplaceable support for the industrialization of Micro LED CPO from the lab.
On one hand, LED companies have years of R&D and manufacturing expertise, enabling them to contribute core technologies and focus on optimizing high-speed modulation. They also provide large-scale production capacity, strengthening the cost advantage of Micro LED CPO in mass production.
On the other hand, Micro LED CPO is still in its early stage. It requires huge R&D investment, and low chip yield plus high production line upgrade costs keep the per-module cost high. Even leading enterprises, after technical optimization, cannot match the cost of traditional solutions in the short term. Moreover, data center customers have extremely high requirements for the stability and reliability of optical interconnection solutions, so Micro LED CPO still needs long-term validation.
As an emerging track, Micro LED CPO is expected to drive new growth for the LED industry, but challenges remain: competition in the AI market, incomplete industrial chain support, and cost issues from insufficient commercial viability.Companies need a long-term mindset — collaborative supply chain improvement, differentiated
