Quantum Dots

We're happy to interview GE, as part of our series of interviews with MicroLED Industry Association members. GE offers narrow band red and green phosphor technologies known as KSF and PFS, suitable for microLED color conversion.

Can you introduce your company and technology?

Rachel Cassidy, PhD, MBA: The General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational company. For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry. Today, GE is best known for its work in the Power, Renewable Energy, Aviation and Healthcare industries.

GE’s Licensing team provides access to GE’s patent portfolio and technical and intellectual resources. Licensees receive world-leading technology paired with advice and guidance to accelerate their technology development and achieve market differentiation.

The GE LED Phosphors team has world class chemistry and physics expertise as well characterization capabilities that have resulted in commercial successes in both lighting and LCD display technologies. Multimillion-dollar yearly revenue, multiple awards, hundreds of patents, over 20 licensees of our patents, along with various publications and invited conference presentations show that this team is on the cutting edge of luminescent material development and can advance from concept to invention to commercialization. Our narrow band red phosphor technology known as KSF (K2SiF6:Mn) can be found in over 60 billion LEDs as well as remote films for miniLED applications sold into the display industry.  The great success of KSF phosphor in the display industry is due to the high color gamut and energy efficiency that has best in class reliability.

US-based Saphlux has developed a 0.39" full-color microLED Microdisplay, based on the company's NPQD color conversion technology. You can see a sample of Saphlux's T1-0.39 RGB display in the video below. 

Saphlux's first microdisplay offers a maximum white brightness of 250,000 nits, and a wide color gamut. The company is using high-EQE blue microLEDs (it has a partner that supplies the LEDs) and its NPQD technology achieves 67% photon conversion efficiency. The company's technology enables a pixel pitch of sub-2 microns. 

The MicroLED Industry Association (MIA) welcomes new members Excyton, Mitsui Kinzoku, Pixelligent and Q-Pixel, joining over 30 existing members (including large corporations, startup companies, research institutes and more). The MIA aims to accelerate the adoption of microLED display technologies, bringing together companies, researchers and organizations active in the MicroLED industry and providing an ideal forum for solving common technology issues, fostering cooperation and sharing relevant information, resources and tools.

The recently joined members commented:

"Excyton joins the MicroLED Industry Association to connect with industry leaders and explore opportunities to implement its power-saving TurboLED technology in pioneering MicroLED products.”

"Mitsui Kinzoku joins the MicroLED Industry Association to help promote microLED display technologies. Mitsui's phosphors are aimed at color-conversion for microLED display.

AR microLED microdisplay developer Mojo Vision announced that it has developed the world's highest-density (1.87 um pixel pitch) red (620 nm) microLED microdisplay. Mojo produced a first working prototype of its display, that is based on 1.37 um blue LEDs with QD color conversion

Last month Mojo announced that it has achieved a process milestone and has lit-up its first 300 mm GaN-on-Silicon blue microLED array wafer. The company said it is on track to maturing its 300 mm CMOS fab process.

Taiwan-based MicroLED developer PlayNitride (a MicroLED Industry Association member) has demonstrated its latest microLED displays at Display Week 2023.

First up we have the company's tiled large-area microLED displays, called PixeLED Matrix. The company showed a 166" vertical installation, that is made from 324 modules. The total resolution is 1440x4860 (30 PPI, or a pixel pitch of 0.833 mm). This was a very nice looking demonstration.

Taiwan-based Innolux demonstrated several new microLED display prototypes at Display Week 2023.

First up is a small round active-matrix 1.1" 374x374 (338) PPI microLED panel. This one was produced on an LTPS backplane and offers a brightness of 500 nits (relatively low for a microLED display. The LEDs are 40 um in size.

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.

AR microLED microdisplay developer Mojo Vision announced that it has achieved a process milestone and has lit-up its first 300 mm GaN-on-Silicon blue microLED array wafer. The company says it is on track to maturing its 300 mm CMOS fab process.

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Mojo Vision is developing microdisplays based on blue LEDs and quantum dots color conversion. The company developed the world's highest density microLEDs, achieve up to 28,000 PPI (sub-micron LEDs).

XTPL and QustomDot have joined forces in a EU-supported consortium that aims to develop printed and flexible microLED displays (BAMBAM*). We are excited to announce that the two companies have tested a new generation of InP-based quantum dot (QD) inks that have the potential to revolutionize the field of microLED displays. The experiments showcase the excellent compatibility of QustomDot's unique red and green inks with XTPL’s state-of-the-art Delta Printing System.

QD inks deposited with unparalleled precision, accuracy and uniformity, as attested by a reproducibility of the deposited droplet diameter is 3,5 µm and its height below 300 nm – well within the requirements for microLED. Being able to do this on both hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, our solution further highlights the versatility towards different integration flows. The prints are capable of satisfying the current demands for display printing and the prospective requirements for manufacturing microLEDs. The combined impact of XTPL’s printing system and QustomDot’s QD inks indicates that this technology is incredibly versatile, and presents exciting opportunities for expanding the use of QD-based ink printing on a larger scale. The results have been nothing short of spectacular!