Najeeb Khalid | Two-Photon Research Inc.: Can going 1,000x smaller solve the existential efficiency droop of micro-LEDs?

Why has the semiconductor industry avoided MBE for large-scale production?

Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) offers unparalleled crystal purity, yet it remains largely sidelined in commercial manufacturing due to severe calibration bottlenecks. Historically, calibrating an MBE tool can take up to four weeks because ultra-high vacuum environments prevent direct contact wafer temperature sensing. This limitation causes discrepancies of up to 250°C between the heater and the actual wafer.

To break this deadlock, a novel suite of tools was developed, including a non-contact temperature reader and a physics-based simulation framework. By utilizing a customized Monte Carlo algorithm to map atom-by-atom kinetics on a spatial grid, the computational overhead of simulation was slashed. Computation times dropped from six months down to just five days.

This allows researchers to accurately predict precise atomic fluxes (gallium, nitrogen, indium) and localized temperatures needed to achieve defect-free crystals. This predictive simulation bypasses weeks of empirical trial-and-error, paving the path for high-throughput, commercially viable MBE production.

In this short video, you can learn:
* The primary hardware and thermal calibration bottlenecks preventing commercial MBE adoption.
* How Monte Carlo algorithms reduce atomic-scale crystal growth simulation times from months to days.
* The role of non-contact temperature readers in controlling high-vacuum, high-temperature epitaxy.

📋 **Clip Abstract** Explore the key reasons behind the commercial limitations of Molecular Beam Epitaxy, focusing on extreme thermal calibration hurdles. Learn how a Monte Carlo simulation tool slashes computational times to accelerate defect-free crystal growth prediction.

Can Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) truly double the efficiency of microLEDs and eliminate 14 out of 15 lithography steps?

Najeeb Khalid presents a direct comparison between his company's MBE-grown nano-emitters and conventional MOCVD-grown microLEDs. He claims a significant advantage in internal quantum efficiency (IQE), reporting 40% in blue for their MBE process, compared to the 16-23% typical for commercial MOCVD products. This near-doubling of External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) translates directly to a 50% reduction in power consumption for the final display, a critical factor for mobile and AR applications.

The discussion highlights a major process simplification. While MOCVD requires approximately 15 mask steps to produce the three separate RGB wafers, the nano-emitter approach consolidates this into a single mask step. This is because all colors are grown simultaneously on one wafer. This simplification drastically reduces lithography time and complexity, potentially by an order of magnitude, leading to significant cost and throughput advantages in display manufacturing.

A key differentiator is the ability to cover the entire CIE color space, a feat not achieved by MOCVD which typically covers around 40%. The MBE process can produce any wavelength in the visible spectrum—including challenging greens and reds—in a single step. This capability is the foundation for eliminating the need for mass transfer, as there are no longer separate red, green, and blue chips to be picked and placed onto the display backplane.

In this short video, you can learn:
* How MBE achieves nearly double the External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) of MOCVD.
* The process innovation that reduces lithography mask steps from 15 to just one.
* Why this monolithic, multi-color growth method makes mass transfer obsolete.
📋 **Clip Abstract** This clip details a head-to-head comparison between MBE-grown nano-emitters and traditional MOCVD microLEDs, highlighting significant advantages in efficiency and color gamut. The speaker explains how growing all colors monolithically in a single step drastically simplifies the manufacturing process and eliminates the need for mass transfer.
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How can you grow a full-color RGB display on a single wafer in a single step?

Monolithic integration of RGB micro-LEDs on a single wafer has long been a holy grail for display manufacturers. By utilizing GaN nanocolumns, the indium incorporation rate is dictated directly by the column diameter: smaller diameter columns naturally incorporate higher indium concentrations. This allows for multi-wavelength (RGB) emission across the full visible spectrum to be grown in a single, 1.5-hour MBE step.

Furthermore, this growth mechanism exhibits a self-filtering defect property. When grown on a low-cost, low-quality GaN template with high dislocation densities, all active dislocations completely filter out and disappear within the first 100 nanometers of nanocolumn growth. Beyond a height of 315 nanometers, the nanocolumn tops coalesce into a flat, defect-free surface.

This structural coalescence yields a continuous thin-film morphologic surface that behaves like a perfect single crystal without dislocations or impurities. The resulting planar-like active layer produces a 30% increase in External Quantum Efficiency compared to conventional planar growth, without requiring complex lithography.

In this short video, you can learn:
* How changing nanocolumn diameter controls localized indium incorporation for single-step RGB growth.
* The dislocation filtering mechanism that eliminates crystal defects within the first 100 nm of growth.
* How nanocolumn coalescence forms flat, defect-free surfaces with 30% higher quantum efficiency.

📋 **Clip Abstract** Learn how changing the spatial diameter of GaN nanocolumns enables full-color RGB emission on a single wafer in one epitaxy step. Discover the structural self-filtering mechanism that completely eliminates dislocations to boost quantum efficiency by 30%.