MicroLED-Info.com: the Micro-LED experts

In October 2019 MicroLED microdisplay developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a partnership with Compound Photonics to co-develop microLED display modules. The two companies announced today that the first fully addressable microLED display module was produced and tested.

Plessey says that this first functioning microLED prototype validates the successful bonding of Plessey’s GaN-on-Si microLED array wafer to CP's high-performance 3.015 micron pixel 1080p backplane wafer. The module that was produced (shown above) is a 0.26" FHD monochrome native-green display.

Samsung announced that it is expanding its MicroLED commercial TV range "The Wall for Business" with new sizes - 437" and 587" inch, both in 8K resolution. These new sizes join the existing 219-inch and 292-inch 4K models.

Samsung is also offering the "consumer" version, The Wall Luxury, which offers smaller pixel pitches and sizes up to 292" at 8K.

UK-based GaN-On-Si MicroLED microdisplay developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a new partnership with waveguide designer WaveOptics to develop new optical modules for next-generation smart glasses.

The module will incorporate Plessey's high brightness green Full-HD microLED displays with WaveOptics' Katana waveguide technology and projector design. Plessey says that this module will be the smallest and lowest mass AR display module available on the market.

Samsung Electronics and Niio, a premium media art platform, launched an open-call competition called the Samsung The Wall x Niio Art Awards. Artists are invited to send their art works, and the winner will be exhibited internationally on Samsung’s The Wall 4K MicroLED display.

The competition also includes $15,000 in cash prizes. The show itself will take place in the summer of 2020 at ten locations including Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US. The winners will be selected by a panel of renowned experts in visual arts.

Earlier in January, Belgium-based MICLEDI announced that it raised 4.5 million Euro to develop next-generation MicroLED microdisplays for AR applications.

We had a short talk with MICLEDI's CEO, Sean Lord, who helped us understand a bit more about the company's technology and goals. MICLEDI is indeed focused entirely on the AR market, and so aims to provide display engines that will be extremely bright (over 10 million nits), efficient, and with a very small footprint. In addition costs are also important for the future consumer AR market.

This post was sponsored and authored by Radiant Vision Systems, LLC

Introduction

Emissive OLED, microLED (μLED), and miniLED are emerging as the next wave of technology in the display market. This is exciting because these displays promise improved display performance and visual appearance with greater efficiency than other display technologies, thanks to their individually emitting pixel elements. Both OLEDs and microLEDs have superior contrast ratios and sharper images with deeper blacks and more vibrant colors than traditional LCDs. These emissive displays require no backlight, resulting in thinner, lighter-weight displays that use less electricity. OLEDs also bring a dramatic boost in responsiveness, about 1,000 times faster than existing technologies, virtually eliminating blur on fast-moving and 3D video. MicroLEDs match OLED technology for response time and view-angle performance, but exceed OLED in brightness and ruggedness, with even lower power consumption.

Figure 1 – The 219-inch microLED display “The Wall” by Samsung, shown at IFA 2019, September 6-11 in Berlin, Germany. (Source: Samsung)¹

As manufacturers work to launch commercially viable emissive display products, high costs due to material prices and manufacturing yield issues have hindered widespread technology adoption—most dramatically in large-format implementations, as they drive up end-customer prices. The smartphone market has been the most successful segment for OLED technology to date and will likely be the catalyst that drives long-term adoption of OLEDs and microLEDs for other applications. Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) cites smartphones as the dominant OLED market, accounting for around 91% of units per year with revenue share around 79% by 2022². Yole Développement (Yole) projects a similar trend for microLEDs, with a longer ramp up period, and a market reaching up to 330 million units by 2025³. With this type of growth in demand, improvements in manufacturing efficiency are needed.

The SID DisplayWeek 2020, the premier event for the display industry, will take place in San Francisco (June 7-12). The MicroLED-Info team will attend this event, and we are happy to present this interview with Sri Peruvemba to discuss the upcoming event. Sri is a good friend and a board director and VP at SID.

Thanks for your time Sri - as Chair of Marketing at SID, please can you tell us a bit about DisplayWeek 2020?

I am proud to say that SID’s DisplayWeek is still the world’s most respected show on electronic displays, touchscreens and related materials. Everyone in the industry has a presence. The show has been growing for the past few years and last year we had a record attendance of over 8,000 people from all over the world. Factoring in global business and political environment, we expect DW2020 to be another record year evidenced by paper submissions, awards submissions, over 90% of the floor space sold out (we had expanded both floor space and meeting rooms), offers to sponsor various events and other factors.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield a new fabrication process for green InGaN microLEDs that achieves high brightness compact microLED arrays.

Today most green InGaN microLEDs are produced by combining a standard photolithography technique with subsequent dry-etching processes on a standard III-nitride LED wafer. The researchers found a way to avoid the dry-etching processes which damage the surface the resulting LEDs. In the new process, the InGaN stack is direectly grown within pre-patterned micro-hole arrays through a thin (500nm) SiO₂ layer serving as a GaN template over the epitaxial wafer.

Rohinni demonstrated its latest technology and prototypes at CES 2020, and this interesting video shows the company's booth and provides an interview with the company's CEO.

On display you can see some flexible lighting prototypes, an LCD display backlighting unit that uses mini LEDs, automotive solutions developed by the Rohinni and Magma JV, keyboard backlights from its Luumii JV and finally some microLED display prototypes made by the BOE Pixey JV.

In June 2019, AR developer Mojo Vision announced that it developed a 14k sub-pixel PPI Micro-LED microdisplay, to power its upcoming AR platform. The company now revealed that its technology actually embeds the microLED microdisplay in a contact lens.

Mojo Vision has been in stealth mode until now - as the company finally revealed its technology and demonstrated a lens mounted to a handheld stick that you can peer through to see a demo loop comprised of green text overlaid on real world objects.