Flexible MicroLED

UK-based OTFT developer Smartkem announced that it has partnered with AUO to jointly develop rollable transparent microLED displays, based on Smartkem's OTFT backplane technology. The project will be based on a novel OTFT production process developed at ITRI.

Smartkem believes its technology will not only enable high-end rollable transparent microLED displays, but it will also enable drastic cost reduction that will bring costs down to mass market prices. Smartkem's low-temperature processing enables the use of low-cost and flexible plastic substrates rather than glass, which the company says will be a decisive factor in bringing production costs down.

LG Display demonstrated a new stretchable microLED display, that can expand up to 50% of its size. LGD says that this is the world's first stretchable display that can do so.

The display is 12" in size, and can stretch up to 18-inch. It offers 100 PPI (probably at its relaxed state), and is made from 40 micron microLED chips.

LG Display is showcasing its stretchable micrOLED displays at the Seoul Fashion Week, taking place at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). The company's stretchable displays are presented as part of clothing and bag concepts crafted by leading Korean designers Youn-Hee Park and Chung-Chung Lee.

The displays are 12" in size, and they can stretch up to 20% (14-inch, 40 um pixel pitch) while still showing full color images. The resolution is 100 PPI. These are the same displays the company demonstrated back in 2022. 

Samsung Display is showcasing its latest display prototypes and technologies at the International Meeting on Information Display (iMID 2024) conference on Jeju Island, Korea. One of the displays is a new stretchable microLED display.

While we know that SDC is developing stretchable microLED display technologies, this is the first time it has demonstrated a prototype publicly. Samsung did not detail much about the display, beyond saying that it has a 120 PPI and can stretch up to 125% of its original size (i.e. a 25% increase in size). The company says that this is the highest resolution stretchable display ever demonstrated, and the one that has the highest elongation rate.

Innolux showed several new microLED display prototypes at Displayweek 2024, as it focuses on microLEDs as its next-generation display solution.

First, the company showcased a large 106" tiled microLED TV display, build from 96 12.3" modules. The display uses 20x40 um blue microLED chips (with QD color conversion) and an LTPS backplane.

AUO had an impressive booth at Displayweek, showing some of its latest microLED prototypes. It is clear that the company is highly focused on microLED technology as its next-gen display strategy.

First up, with a 31" large area single-panel microLED, which AUO says is the world's largest. The display is produced on a single glass LTPS backplane, and offers 120Hz and a brightness of 500 nits. AUO calls this a Large Size A.R.T. MicroLED display.

BOE had a large demonstrating at SID Displayweek 2024, showing several of its latest displays and prototypes - including many flexible and foldable OLED displays, automotive AMOLEDs, new OLED technology demonstrators and two OLED microdisplays.

BOE also showed a microLED display demonstrator, which it called the MicroLED Transformer Display, that included two panels that can connect in an almost seamless way (but not completely). The displays are flexible (curved) with a 0.3 mm pitch display (P0.3). Other specifications include a brightness of up to 2,000 nits (peak), and a refresh rate of 90Hz. 

Taiwan-based Innolux demonstrated new microLED display prototypes: a wide 187-inch microLED tiled display, a 9.6" flexible automotive microLED prototype and a transparent microLED.

Innolux did not detail much about these new prototypes. All of its microLEDs are based on blue microLEDs with quantum dot color conversion, and LTPS backplanes on glass substrates. 

Researchers from Stanford, led by prof. Zhenan Bao, developed skin-like stretchable electronic devices, using ag new design and fabrication process. The researchers say that the newly developed methods enable devices that are five time smaller and one thousand faster than their previous devices.

The new stretchable devices are powerful and fast enough to drive microLEDs, and indeed the researchers demonstrated driving 60Hz microLED arrays. The devices can also be used to drive sensors. 

Researchers from Korea's Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan University developed a method to grow GaN LED arrays on a flexible graphene layer. The so-called microdisks arrays exhibit excellent crystallinity with a uniform in-plane orientation and strong blue light emission. 

The researchers grew the GaN microdisks on a graphene layer (grown on a sapphire substrate) covered with a micro-patterned SiO2 mask using metal–organic vapor-phase epitaxy. The microdisks were then processed into micro-LEDs and then successfully transferred onto bendable substrates.