Vuzix unveiled the Shield Smart Glasses for enterprise use, which are based on microLED microdisplays. The Shield is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1 and features Vuzix' propriety waveguide optics.

The Shield was actually revealed before, referred to as Vuzix Next Generation Smart Glasses (NGSG). The company did not give any details on pricing and availability. Vuzix is using JBD's 0.13" microLED microdisplays.

Xiaomi announced its first smart glasses, called unimaginatively the Xiaomi Smart Glasses. These light-weight (51 grams) glasses will offer a monochrome (green) display and speakers, microphones and a 5MP camera, and will connect to your smartphone for notifications, navigation and will have applications such as real-time translation. It will support Xiaomi's XiaoAI Virtual Assistant.

Xiaomi says the microLED display is 0.13-inch in size, with a peak brightness of 2-million nits. The pixel pitch is 4 um. While not official, this is highly likely to be JBD's 0.13" VGA microLED display panel, revealed last year.

Diffrative waveguides for AR developer WaveOptics (owned by Snap) announced a strategic supply partnership with Jade Bird Display (JBD) for MicroLED microdisplays. JBD will supply its 0.13-inch VGA microdisplays to WaveOptics, to be incorporated into the company's Leopard development kit.

The Leopard AR reference kit has a form-factor similar to traditional consumer eyewear available, with a single projector (right-side only), providing a monochrome (green) image. The Leopard uses WaveOptics’ ‘Katana’ waveguide platform, its thinnest and lightest waveguide at 1.15 mm thick and 7 grams. The light engine, called Loki, is designed by WaveOptics with the JBD microLEDs and weighs 6 grams and has a volume of 760 mm³.

Porous-GaN material platform developer Porotech announced a partnership with Jade Bird Display (JBD). Under the agreement, Porotech provide JBD with its porous gallium nitride (GaN) technology.

Porotech says its native red InGaN LED epiwafer is not commercial. JBD now plans to use Porotech's porous GaN templates to manufacture InGaN-based red micro-LED displays for use in applications such as VR/AR headsets, AR smart sports goggles and head-up displays.

Vuzix have officially launched its microLED display engines, based on three JBD monochrome microLED microdisplays.

Vuzix says that samples of the new engines are now available upon request. These are monochrome devices, and one would have to use three (red, green, and blue) for a full color display. Vuzix is developing full-color and higher-resolution (HD) engines. Vuzix says that its next-generation smart glasses will adopt these devices which are now on offer to customers.

Last year, smart glasses developer Vuzix announced that it will release its first microLED microdisplay powered AR glasses in 2021. The company today announced that it is using JBD's microdisplays, and has published the video you see below which shows the new glasses.

Vuzix revealed that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with JBD (Jade Bird Display) to collaborate on the co-development and cross-supply of solutions incorporating microLED display engines and Vuzix waveguides. Under the agreement, JBD will provide microLED displays and Vuzix will provide newly developed proprietary waveguides and display engine optics to work with these displays.

US-based Microdisplay developer Kopin announced an agreement with Jade Bird Display (JBD) to develop superbright monochrome microLED microdisplays. Kopin says that LED technology has the potential to enable super-high brightness and low power consumption displays.

Under this new agreement, JBD will provide LED wafers and hybrid bonding service to Kopin who will used its own silicon backplanes to produce monochrome 2kx2k 1" microdisplays.

In May 2020, China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display announced a new 0.13" VGA microdisplay - which it says is the world's smallest microdisplay. JBD today announced that next month it will stat selling these displays.

The JBD4UM480P microLED display is a monochrome 640x480 0.13-inch display, that offers a brightness of 2 million nits (green), 200,000 nits (red) or 150,000 nits (blue), with a power consumption of a few hundred milliwatts under average operation conditions.

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display announced a new 0.13" VGA microdisplay, which it says is the world's smallest microdisplay. This is a monochrome (red) display.

JBD did not yet share any details on this new display, but it says it will be launched by the end of 2020.

This article is an extract from The MicroLED Handbook, 2020 edition, and gives a short introduction to the current market status of MicroLED Microdisplays. The handbook was published in January 2020 - there has been some updates since then, for example Plessey's recent soft-acquisition by Facebook and MICLEDI's technology was revealed.

There are several companies that develop microLED microdisplays, and these are gearing up to begin mass production of displays soon. It is likely that microdisplays will be the first type of commercial displays enabled by microLED technology.