Smart glasses displays: transitioning from LCoS to microLED and beyond.

The fate of LCoS micro display panels for AR devices seems to be re-written every year, its demise being push further away by every new smart glass release. A decade ago, with the first microLED start-ups acquisitions by large corporations developing smart glasses (Apple, Facebook), the immediate future looked quite promising for this technology. 10 years later, the facts are telling a different story: the largest smart glass manufacturers are now using microOLED panels with birdbath architectures, while LCoS or DLP panels as well as MEMS DLP scanners are still the display engine of choice for all waveguide combiner smart glass architectures. So where are the microLED panel we were promised a decade ago?
First, LCoS is a technology undergoing successive incremental improvements from power to resolution to contrast to uniformity. It is a well matured technology that can be scaled at 12 inch wafer fab at low cost compatible with consumer products. Moreover, new illumination technologies allow for further LCoS light engine size reduction (front lit panels) and additional power savings (local dimming illumination and color flex operation modes). LCoS is also providing solutions for holographic display, and various other applications as in DWDM all optical switching and free space laser communications. Second, RGB microLED technology has not yet found its standard technology form yet, although industry went away from the early pick and place processes. Today, various architectures are still being tried out such as QD or Perovskites conversion, nanowires with PC effects and true monolithic integration over Silicon substrates, along with other exotic color tuning technologies. However, no matter how long it will take, microLED is still poised by industry and analysts to the best display choice for future smart glasses.