In recent years, Micro LED technology has continued to make breakthroughs, coupled with the demand for next-generation display technology driven by the Metaverse and automotive fields, the goal of commercialization seems to be close at hand. Among them, the red light Micro LED chip has always been the technical bottleneck. However, the British Micro LED company has turned the disadvantages of materials into advantages, and even effectively shortened the process and reduced costs.
Because of its deep understanding of the material properties of gallium nitride, Porotech released the world's first Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN)-based red, blue and green Micro LED displays last year, breaking the bottleneck that red, green and blue must pass through different materials , which effectively solves the problem that red light Micro LEDs must mix multiple material systems, and is no longer limited by any substrate, which can effectively reduce the cost.
Porotech's main technology focuses on "Dynamic Pixel Adjustment," which, as the name suggests, dynamically adjusts colors. Zhu Tongtong explained that as long as a chip and the same pixel are used, any color that can be seen by the human eye can be emitted, and all colors can be realized by gallium nitride through current density and voltage driving. "Just give it a signal, it can change Color, green at the touch of a button, blue, red.”However, "dynamic pixel adjustment" is not only a problem of LEDs, but also requires a special backplane and driving method, looking for a supply chain and cooperative manufacturers to provide customers with their own Micro Display, so it takes a long time to lay out.
Zhu Tongtong also revealed that a real dynamic dimming and multi-color display module will be displayed in the second half of this year, and it is expected that there will be the first batch of prototypes at the end of August and early September. Since this technology determines the color brightness through the driving method, the specifications of the material end must be fixed to confirm which color the current density and voltage can be adjusted to; in addition, it is also a more difficult part to integrate the three colors on one chip .
Since there is no traditional sub-pixel, this technology helps Micro LED to have a larger light-emitting area, larger chip size, and higher efficiency under the same resolution conditions. The system side does not need to consider the material difference during integration. Matching degree, it is also not necessary to make red, green, and blue epitaxial growth once, or vertical stacking. In addition, after removing the key manufacturing hurdles of Micro LED, it can solve the repair function, improve the yield, and reduce the production cost and time to market. Gallium nitride has this characteristic, the color purity of a single color will drift, and the color will move with the density, so we can use the characteristics of the material system to make the single color very pure, as long as the material restrictions and the factors that cause color impurity are removed. , while using color drift to maximize it, you can achieve full color.
Research on Micro LED must use semiconductor thinking
In the past, traditional LEDs and semiconductors had their own ecology, but Micro LEDs were different. The two must be combined together. From materials, thinking, production lines, and even the entire industry, they must move forward with the thinking of semiconductors. The yield rate and subsequent silicon-based backplanes must be considered, plus system integration. In the Micro LED industry, not the brightest is the best efficiency, and the subsequent chips, driving methods and SOC matching degree must also be considered.
The biggest problem now is to achieve the same precision, quality, and yield as semiconductors in order to match and integrate with the silicon base. It is not that LEDs are classified as LEDs and semiconductors are classified as semiconductors. The two must be combined. In addition to the strong performance of semiconductors, the characteristics of gallium nitride LEDs must also be exerted.
Micro LEDs are no longer traditional LEDs, but must be executed with semiconductor thinking. In the future, Micro LED is not only a "display requirement". In the long run, Micro LED must be implemented on the terminal SOC to improve communication efficiency and functionality. At present, too many chips are still not the most terminal solution.
Post time: Sep-30-2022