UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a strategic partnership with Taiwan's Jasper Display Corp (JDC). Under the new partnership, Plessey will use JDC's silicon backplane to drive its monolithic micro-LED displays produced on the company's proprietary GaN-on-Silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers.
In May 2018 JDC demonstrated its latest JD27E2 8" wafer, and a 0.7" Full-HD monochrome (960x540 color) microLED microdisplay that is said to be the world's brightest at 100,000 nits (JDC later demonstrated a million nits micro display). JDC's backplane allows Plessey to fabricate highly efficient and ultra-bright micro-LEDs displays.
Plessey hopes that JDC's silicon backplane will allow the company to rapidly bring to market its monolithic full-color micro LED array at our entry level 8µm pixel size.
Plessey developed a unique monolithic micro-LED process technology that can be used to produce Micro-LED displays without a pick-and-place stage. Plessey develops two generations of micro-LED displays. The first-gen Quanta-Brite are either LCoS or DMR display that are lit by an array of micro-LEDs, which Plessey says provide a more efficient and uniform display compared to current larger-LED lit displays. The second-generation Quanta-Ray is a real direct-emission micro-LED based micro-display. It is not clear which technology is under development with JDC. Click here for an explanation of Plessey's micro-LED technologies.
In June 2018 Plessey announced that it has partnered with AR supplier Vuzix to develop advanced Micro-LED display engines for Vuzix waveguide optics to enable next generation AR Smart Glasses. Vuzix expects to introduce Quanta-Brite (first-gen) Micro-LED microdisplay based AR glasses in 2019.
