Intel has been granted a US patent for a chip package with tiny LEDs built into it, according to a Trend Force report. Titled "IC Package with Micro LEDs" (patent 12,733,303), it describes a semiconductor die with a micro LED attached, embedded at least partially into a glass substrate. Through-glass vias (TGVs) supply power to the LED and connect to the package substrate.

The LEDs can apparently use nanowire structures to emit red, green, and blue light. The patent lists a few uses, including illuminated lettering on the CPU surface, personalization for DIY electronics (think RGB lighting), and indicators for electrical testing inside the package. The patent was filed in 2022 but has now been disclosed by Intel.

Of course, most CPUs sit under a heatsink, so it's hard to think of a scenario where glowing letters on a CPU package would make sense. The optical angle is more interesting. It looks like the patent doesn't describe a working optical link, but AU Optronics is developing a Micro LED co-packaged optics module for links of up to 10 meters in AI data centers, and there are rumors of Intel and AUO collaborating.

We don't know if anything has been agreed yet. Intel reportedly stepped back from in-house glass substrate R&D last year, then moved to license the tech to others, and in January it showed a glass core substrate with EMIB at NEPCON Japan. Companies file patents all the time, and most never become products, so I wouldn't expect RGB CPUs anytime soon.