In this article, we report the fabrication and characterization of 650 nm resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes (RCLEDs) with the GaInP/AlGaInP multi-quantum-well active layer sandwiched between two AlGaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflectors. We compare the performance of RCLEDs with different mesa diameters in the characteristics of forward voltage, light output power, external quantum efficiency, emission spectrum, and dynamic response. All the RCLEDs have a low forward voltage of 1.9-2.0 V at 20 mA. The RCLED with a window diameter of 120 mum exhibits the maximum light output power of 0.79 mW at 39 mA, the best external quantum efficiency of 2.8% at 1.2 mA, a peak wavelength of 647 nm, and a full width at half-maximum of 14.5 nm at 50 mA. The RCLED with a 30 mum diameter shows the maximum 3 dB frequency bandwidth of 240 MHz at a driving current of 40 mA. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.