Highest pixel density, lowest power consumption and semi-transparent microdisplays: Approaches and Achievements

Microdisplays” exhibit pixel densities of significantly more than 1000ppi at screen sizes of about 0.1..1.4". Therefore, they have become key components for assisted-, augmented-, virtual and mixed-reality (short: extended-reality “XR”) devices. Specifically, their use in wearables (e.g., Smart Glasses) or electronic viewfinders puts strong performance requirements on such components, due to limited space, weight and battery capacity, e.g., in spectacles’ frames. Particularly, "emissive" microdisplays, comprising light AND image source in a single component (e.g., OLED-on-silicon, or LED-on-silicon) are able provide very small footprint, and consume ultra-low power only for long battery life, while maintaining maximum pixel count for high-resolution screen content. This talk is to summarize recent microdisplay backplane IC design and frontplane light source as well as optics integration approaches and achievements towards future all-day wearable XR devices.