SmartKem creates monolithic microLED display ... - eeNews Europe

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Technology News | January 16, 2023

By Peter Clarke

SmartKem Ltd. (Manchester, England) has announced a monolithic microLED show made utilizing integrated thin-film transistors (OTFTs).

It is reported that SmartKem’s method of laying down an OTFT backplane connected apical of gallium nitride LEDs has the imaginable to accelerate the commercialization of microLED displays.

The company, which was acquired by SmartKem Inc. successful a reverse takeover transaction successful February 2021, raised $24.6 cardinal by that mechanics and is present traded connected the over-the-counter (OTC) banal marketplace successful New York.

MicroLEDs are being touted arsenic the adjacent exertion for displays due to the fact that they committedness precocious brightness, little powerfulness and with longer lifetimes than mainstream alternatives successful use, specified arsenic LCD and OLED. This is peculiarly important for portable powered displays specified arsenic smartwatches and augmented-reality/virtual-reality (AR/VR) displays that cannot accommodate ample batteries.

Existing VR and AR headsets usage liquid-crystal displays (LCD) and integrated light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, which deficiency brightness, resolution, powerfulness ratio and lifetime.

Efforts to found microLED manufacturing typically usage carnal transportation of idiosyncratic LEDs from the wafer upon which they are manufactured to the TFT show backplane, wherever they indispensable beryllium laser welded to the interaction pad of the transistor to marque an electrical connection.

In precocious solution displays this produces output and repair issues and this is 1 origin that has slowed down the commercialization of microLEDs, according to SmartKem.

SmartKem’s attack is to usage semiconductor inks that tin beryllium processed astatine the debased somesthesia of 80°C straight connected apical of the microLEDs. This eliminates the wide transportation and laser welding processes, and the fabrication of OTFTs tin usage existing low-cost manufacturing tools presently utilized for LCD backplane manufacturing.