Micro-LEDs: The Luminous Future of Immersive Displays
HONG KONG- Following Apple's recent launch of mixed reality (MR) glasses, the importance of microdisplay technology has come to the forefront. Microdisplays are a critical and costly component of visual systems for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality applications.
"Apple's venture into mixed reality, albeit remarkable, is tethered to MicroOLED displays. These come with their baggage—like soaring costs, compromised brightness, and longevity concerns," shared Dr. Eddy Hsu, the co-founder of the influential Rayleigh Vision with over 20-year experience in Micro-LED displays.
The microdisplay research team, led by Professor Jr-Hau HE at City University of Hong Kong and its spin-off company Rayleigh Vision, has made significant advancements in Micro-LED technology to overcome the current limitations. Their newly announced two-layer microdisplay array showing a disruptive stacking technology, to craft dual-layer units where each layer can modulate colors independently. The team's stacking approach has gained initial validation and is on track to cultivate an RGB full-color Micro-LED. This advancement is expected to quadruple pixel density by the end of 2023. This product boasts high contrast, high brightness, wide color gamut, high efficiency, low power consumption, and long lifetime, making it suitable for a wide range of applications in entertainment, consumer electronics, and professional industries.
Illustrative graphic of Rayleigh Vision’s developing 3-layer stacked Micro-LED chip.
With hubs in California, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it's Rayleigh Vision's approach to Micro-LEDs that has industry insiders talking. The team has launched several innovative products, such as the 0.55” full-color Micro-LED microdisplay and an impressive 0.38” Micro-LED microdisplay boasting a pixel density of 3780 ppi. Moreover, by achieving a technological feat in successfully cultivating 2.5 μm Micro-LED pixels and building a pixel array with a staggering density exceeding 10,000 ppi, Rayleigh Vision become one of the select teams in the market capable of harnessing this cutting-edge technology.
The research team’s 0.55” Micro-LED display in 2020, showcasing its logos.
Dr. He emphasized, 'While stacked Micro-LED technology holds immense potential, it also faces several challenges, including precise alignment, repair difficulties, heat dissipation, as well as innovations in the stacked structure and materials used for connecting LEDs. However, Rayleigh Vision has made significant breakthroughs in these areas.