GaN-on-Silicon microLED display for ultra-high resolution

23rd September 2019

Alex Lynn

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Plessey has produced a 2.5-micron pixel pitch ultra-high resolution microLED display. Using its propriety monolithic GaN-on-Silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology, Plessey has achieved technology breakthroughs including the latest development of an ultra-fine, ultra-high resolution 2000x2000 pixel display on a 2.5 microns pitch.

The display uses microLEDs, a technology that is playing a critical role in the development of next-generation wearables, AR/VR hardware, and heads-up displays (HUDs). They require approximately 20% of the power of typical LCOS or DLP displays and can achieve five times brighter images than OLEDs so allowing comfortable outdoor viewing.

Clive Beech, Senior Director, Business Development, at Plessey, said: “Pixel pitch is key to the physical size of large field displays and to the resolution of the viewed image. These are key attributes in AR systems. The 2k2k display scale can be realised in a compact physical form factor and the 2.5micron pixel pitch achieves image features with smooth borders and fine detail.

“An example of Plessey’s latest scalable pixel architecture, these microLED display products will enable many new innovations and exciting applications in both augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) smart glasses.”

Plessey’s GaN-on-Si technology brings many benefits. The low thermal resistance of the silicon substrates allows highly efficient heat extraction resulting in lower junction temperatures with high reliability. The technology also allows impressive energy efficiency, high resolution and unsurpassed contrast.

With its similarity to large scale Silicon IC processing the technology can be scaled to progressively larger wafers, improving cost, uniformity and yield and taking advantage of the latest advances in Silicon wafer processing tools of the volume IC industry.

Other recent ground-breaking milestones from Plessey in their monolithic microLED emissive display programme include the success in March of developing a native Green using GaN-on-Si which naturally emits Blue light. Following in May, SID Display Week 2019 saw the world’s first monolithic GaN-on-silicon microLED emissive display with an eight-micron pitch bonded to a backplane for a full active matrix.

Plessey are continuing to rapidly develop microLED display solutions with their roadmap including the production of a full RGB display all on one wafer by 2020’s Consumer Electronics Show.