en.Wedoany.com Reported - SmartSens (stock code 688213) showcased a high-speed optical interconnect technology solution based on MicroLED at Electronica China, offering a new pathway for data transmission in AI computing scenarios.

As the parameter scale of AI large models continues to grow, the demand for data transmission within data centers has surged sharply. The global capital expenditure of the top nine cloud service providers is expected to reach $830 billion in 2026, with an annual growth rate revised up to 79%. Traditional electrical interconnects face physical bottlenecks such as signal attenuation, crosstalk, and power wall challenges as transmission rates advance toward 1.6T and 3.2T. Particularly in GPU-intensive AI servers, the power consumption and heat dissipation pressures from numerous high-speed electrical channels constrain computing performance.

Wang Wenxuan, Co-General Manager of SmartSens' High-Speed Optical Interconnect Business Group, stated that SmartSens' entry into the high-speed optical interconnect field is not merely a business expansion but a strategic extension based on technological homology. The company's accumulated expertise in high-speed imaging, heterogeneous integration processes, micro-nano optical design, and integrated circuit design capabilities in the CMOS image sensor field can be directly transferred to the photoelectric signal conversion stage. MicroLED optical interconnect products require high-density integration of heterogeneous chips such as light sources, driver circuits, and receiver circuits, which is highly consistent with the technical logic of integrating photodiodes with CMOS readout circuits in CIS chips. Leveraging heterogeneous integration technology can shorten product development cycles.

At the exhibition, SmartSens' MicroLED optical interconnect solution uses MicroLED as a light source to replace traditional lasers. Wang Wenxuan revealed that the single-channel transmission rate of MicroLED has already exceeded 3Gbps, with typical power consumption as low as 0.8pJ/bit and a 30% improvement in photoelectric conversion efficiency. The solution adopts a MicroLED CPO architecture tailored for GPU/HBM parallel interfaces, utilizing an "integrated light source + direct modulation + signal direct connection" approach, where each MicroLED light-emitting unit directly corresponds to a parallel data channel, targeting short-distance communication within 50 meters. Under the CPO architecture, MicroLED technology can operate stably across an ultra-wide temperature range from -40°C to 125°C. The solution is expected to achieve commercial deployment by 2027.

SmartSens has established a core team for its High-Speed Optical Interconnect Business Group, led by Ren Guanjing (Master of Engineering from Tsinghua University), Wang Wenxuan (Master of Engineering from the China Academy of Engineering Physics), and Sheng Zhixiong (Ph.D. in Microelectronics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences). Core members each have over 10 years of experience in relevant fields. The company has formed deep strategic partnerships with leading global MicroLED epitaxial and chip manufacturers and is collaborating with advanced global wafer and packaging/testing vendors to advance the mass production of CPO technology. Wang Wenxuan stated that SmartSens is actively participating in and promoting the establishment of relevant technical standards, collaborating upstream with core component manufacturers such as MicroLED and optical fiber, and downstream with leading optical module, GPU, and automotive chip manufacturers, to build an open and collaborative optical interconnect industry ecosystem.