Flexible MicroLED

Researchers from Stanford, led by prof. Zhenan Bao, developed skin-like stretchable electronic devices, using ag new design and fabrication process. The researchers say that the newly developed methods enable devices that are five time smaller and one thousand faster than their previous devices.

The new stretchable devices are powerful and fast enough to drive microLEDs, and indeed the researchers demonstrated driving 60Hz microLED arrays. The devices can also be used to drive sensors. 

Researchers from Korea's Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan University developed a method to grow GaN LED arrays on a flexible graphene layer. The so-called microdisks arrays exhibit excellent crystallinity with a uniform in-plane orientation and strong blue light emission. 

The researchers grew the GaN microdisks on a graphene layer (grown on a sapphire substrate) covered with a micro-patterned SiO2 mask using metal–organic vapor-phase epitaxy. The microdisks were then processed into micro-LEDs and then successfully transferred onto bendable substrates. 

I 2022 LG Display demonstrated a 12" 100 PPI (pixel pitch 40 um) full-color stretchable MicroLED display. During Display Week 2023, the company demonstrated this display again, in a demo that showed a working touch version of this display covering an automotive-style button, which was quite impressive.

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The display can stretch up to 20% (to create a 14" display), and LG says that this display can be commercialized soon, as it is highly flexible, durable, and reliable. The new display is produced on a "highly resilient film-type substrate made of special silicon used in contact lenses".

AUO has demonstrated its latest microLED displays at Display Week 2023. Most of these displays have been shown before, but this was an impressive lineup for the Taiwanese display maker, and we'll detail the displays below.

So first up we have the 13.5" 1920x1080 (163 PPI) transparent microLEDs, which AUO says is the highest-resolution transparent microLED display ever demonstrated. The display offers a transparency of 55% and a high brightness of 5,000 nits. The microLEDs used in this display are 30 micron in size.

AU Optronics is demonstrating several display at Touch Taiwan 2023, including an interesting new laptop microLED display. The display is a 14.6" 2560x1440 (QHD, 202 PPI) foldable panel, that can reach a brightness of over 1,000 and a bending radius of 4 mm.

In addition to this display AUO is showing its 17.3" transparent microLED prototype.

AU Optronics released some very interesting information as the company gets ready to showcase its latest microLED displays and technologies at Touch Taiwan 2023.

So first of all, AUO announced that it has finalized the development of its wearable microLED display, and the company is now launching the 1.39" round smartwatch display commercially. AUO demonstrated the wearable microLED display back in 2021 - a 1.39-inch 472x472 full-circle panel, that was developed together with PlayNitride. It's not clear when AUO actually plans to start selling this display to its customers, and what will be its production capacity.

LG Display demonstrated a 12" 100 PPI (pixel pitch 40 um) full-color stretchable MicroLED display. The display can stretch up to 20% (to create a 14" display).

LGD says that this display can be commercialized soon, as it is highly flexible, durable, and reliable. The new display is produced on a "highly resilient film-type substrate made of special silicon used in contact lenses".

PlayNitride had an impressive Displayweek booth, with several exciting microLED displays on show - including transparent displays, tiled displays, automotive displays, PM-uLEDs and more.

Last week we posted a story detailing these displays, and now we found this good video by Insight Media that gives a great tour to the booth and the displays on show. Enjoy!

AU Optronics have been showing new microLED display prototypes, and the following video from Insight Media shows the company's booth and new displays at SID Displayweek 2022.

You can see AUO's stretchable 141 PPI display (a very interesting demo, developed together with PlayNitride), the rollable 14.6" 2K (202 PPI) LTPS microLED display, AUO's 1.4" circular 454x454 (326 PPI) microLED another stretchable microLED, this one 6.45" in size with a 900x450 resolution (163 PPI), and finally AUO's 17.3" 2000-nits 1280x720 transparent (60% transparency) microLED prototype.

PlayNitride demonstrates its latest microLED display prototypes and technologies at SID Displayweek 2022.

At the entrance to PlayNitride's booth, you can see a long 132-inch tiled microLED display, made from 192 modules (each 5" in size). The 7680x1080 59PPI display is completely seamless and offers 3,000 nits and a 116% NTSC color gamut.