Microsoft develops low-cost MicroLED communication technology for data centers

The new technology based on MicroLED, designed at the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge (United Kingdom) with the collaboration of the Azure teams, presents several advantages over current laser-based technology, such as a 50 percent reduction in energy consumption.

Along these lines, Microsoft has carried out a proof of concept together with MediaTek and other suppliers with the aim of reducing the size of MicroLED technology and integrating it into a transceiver device compatible with the equipment currently used in data centers.

This new technology uses an optical imaging fiber to transport photons from one end to the other. “It looks like a conventional optical fiber, but inside it contains thousands of cores,” highlighted the project’s principal investigator and Partner Research Manager at Microsoft, Paolo Costa.

Microsoft has explained on its website that data centers work with two types of cables to transmit information between servers: fiber optics and copper, both with limitations. Copper maintains high transmission speeds over relatively short distances, while fiber optics require higher power consumption.

Faced with these limitations, the MicroLED-based system is more reliable than laser-based fiber optic systems, which can be affected by changes in temperature or dust, and also has thousands of independent channels that send photons in patterns.

“The concept of using LEDs to send data more cheaply and with lower energy consumption than copper or fiber optics seemed almost a fantasy. [Pero] “It has the potential to transform virtually every aspect of computing infrastructure,” said Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research, Doug Burger.

This new technology could begin to be marketed together with industrial partners in the sector at the end of 2027, according to Costa.

The other advance of Microsoft passes through hollow core fiber (HCF), a technology that is already being used in some Microsoft Azure regions and is being progressively deployed globally.

The company has highlighted its role as a pioneer in the implementation of this technology, which allows up to 47 percent faster data transmission and a reduction in latency of approximately 33 percent compared to conventional single-mode fiber optics.

The HCDF technology and the MicroLED system are complementary, since they contribute to the same objective: to offer Azure cloud services as quickly and efficiently as possible, as highlighted by the general director of Azure Hyperscale Networking at Microsoft, Frank Rey.