National Central University and Yuan Ze University Collaborated to Develop World-Class Ultra-High-Speed Laser Light Source

The project was led by Professor Jin-Wei Hsu from the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Central University, with Professor Nien-Wei Chen from Group B of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Yuan Ze University serving as co-principal investigator.

Supported by the National Science and Technology Council, the project’s research results were presented at the 2024 OFC (Optical Fiber Communication Conference) and were further detailed in a 2025 publication in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, drawing significant attention from the international academic community.

In recent years, as AI models have grown rapidly in scale, the demand for data transfer between data centers and chips has surged dramatically. For example, the data throughput required by NVIDIA’s AI computing cabinets has already surpassed the total global Ethernet traffic. Amid this AI-driven wave, laser optical communication has emerged as a key replacement for traditional cabling, significantly reducing the signal transmission loss and power consumption at high frequencies.

Professor Hsu’s team developed a VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) utilizing a proprietary zinc diffusion technique to modify the laser’s emission aperture structure. This breakthrough significantly enhanced both output power and operating bandwidth, overcoming the traditional VCSEL limitations of a 40 GHz bandwidth and around 5 mW output power. This innovative structure had already been successfully adopted by domestic chip manufacturers for mass production and was applied in smartphone sensing modules. It was expected to further expand into high-speed data links for AI servers and data centers shortly.

Yuan Ze University stated that this technological achievement not only demonstrated the strength of its faculty and research capabilities but also reflected the outcomes of its long-standing and in-depth collaboration with National Central University. It marked a new milestone in AI optical communication research. Through industry collaboration and technology translation, the innovation was expected to help domestic companies gain autonomy in core AI optical link technologies, thereby enhancing the global competitiveness of Taiwan’s AI industry chain.