MicroLED devices with integrated micro lenses enhance AR glasses
Believed to be the industry’s first microLED devices with integrated micro lenses for pixel level beam shaping, MicroLED devices by MicLedi Microdisplays can enhanced waveguide augmented reality (AR) glasses.
Manufactured on the company’s proprietary 300mm manufacturing flow, the microLED devices improve power efficiency by focusing light within the targeted waveguide cone. They also offer additional flexibility for AR system integration with optimal waveguide in-coupling, said the company. This also improves image quality with the controllable compensation of colour dispersion.
The technology also provides pixel scaling to sub-3.0 micron pitch, with a highly reproducible beam shape performance, added MicLedi Microdisplays.
Samples and test kits of blue and green microLED arrays, as well as blue arrays with micro lenses are available now. The company said that red microLEDs will be available in Q422.
FHD display blocks are available for both microLED device evaluation and for display integration with waveguides. The company also offers a variety of other microLED structures with mesa sizes down to 0.5 microns, and with micro lens reference designs by MICLEDI.
Sean Lord, CEO of MicLedi Microdisplays confessed to excitement around what he described as a milestone of customer-quality samples of each of the company’s RGB arrays. “With micro lenses, we are pleased to point out that one of the hottest demands from the field, microLED wall-plug-efficiency at ‘AR’ pitch, will be at best-in-class levels,” he said. He added that the company is also on its first RGB modules and exploring approaches for polychromatic RGB integration.
MicLedi also claimes to have pioneered the development of a modelling platform for micro lens customisation. This will be available for AR customers to evaluate the technology in simulations and to design their own micro lenses for specific waveguide configurations. Those can then be prototyped using MicLedi’s manufacturing capabilities.
Integration of the micro lenses in a tightly pitched microLED device is a highlight of MicLedi’s manufacturing capabilities, said Dr. Soeren Steudel, co-founder and CTO of MicLedi Microdisplays. “High-quality beam shaping requires extreme precision and nanometer scale overlay accuracy that can only be met in a 300mm wafer fab,”
MicLedi Microdisplays is a fabless developer of microLED display modules for the augmented reality market. The company was spun-out from the Belgian R & D centre, IMEC, in 2019. Its technology is based on a combination of III/V materials processing, 3D integration and 300mm silicon-based processing combined with a proprietary ASIC to provide a self-contained, compact monolithic AR display with high image quality and power efficiency.
