Ok Here is an interesting confluence of ideas, probably not lost on most, but new to me… Digitimes posted an interesting research note this week, stating that, “…a major advantage for Micro LEDs is that the aperture ratio is only 10%, which means that there is a lot of empty space in a micro-LED display,” [hence] “This empty space can be used to embed different sensors – right into the display.
These so called “Smart Displays” can be used in wearables and mobile devices and be used to measure the temperature or the air pollution particles, sense fingerprints and many other applications,” according to the report. In the age of sensors, a display that can serve double duty is of great interest indeed.
And so it is. Among the 52 patents Apple was awarded this past August (including 3D glasses, in-air gesturing, and, yes, fingerprint sensing) the company received a patent for a “Micro-LED device” that both emits and sense light.
Apple patent filing embedded fingerprint sensors in micro LED display Source: Apple Patent via Patently Apple.comNothing new to OLED you may say, where OLEDs placed photo-diodes between the OLED pixels, to create a micro-display that can sense light that might be used for eye-tracking in a VR headset, for instance.
From LuxVue patent micro LED chip array, Source LuxVueBut the big draw for a CE company like Apple is the power to brightness ratio that micro-LEDs offer over OLEDs. Moving from the organic material used in OLEDs to InGaN semiconductors in micro LEDs is a game changer for the display industry, and possibly why stingy Apple chose to invest $43M to purchase LuxVue Technologies back in 2014. Micro LED panels consume 90% less power than LCD and 50% less than OLED. Beyond power (longer battery life for that phone in your palm or watch on your wrist) they are also blessed with high resolution, quick response and high luminance for outdoor applications that currently go wanting for these applications in direct sunlight.
Thickening the plot line, back in February of this year, the Cupertino, CA behemoth also gained a patent for fingerprint recognition on micro LED panels via LuxVue, demonstrating the company is still working the R&D side of the technology with a potential benefit to mobile devices.
Suffice it to say that, like all new next generation displays, it’s easy to get excited over the promise of image nirvana delivered with the efficiency of semiconductor chip manufacturing. But typically for the display industry, the devil is in the details when moving to new display technology commercialization. To say this is a short-term play is grossly overstating the manufacturing issues still at hand, and some believe Apple is pulling resources from its LuxVue group to focus on more urgent display / sensor integration issues over this horizon technology. As always ,something much better is lurking on the horizon and for displays the smart money may just be on micro LEDs, but when? – Stephen Sechrist
End note: Also beyond Meko’s plethora of coverage on micro LEDs listed below, be sure to check out the TrendForce LEDInside article for a good historical perspective on micro LEDs (published in August of 2016), and the following (subscriptions needed for some)
