Jade Bird Display (JBD), a Shanghai-based Micro LED microdisplay maker, has recently made a technical breakthrough by mass producing a red Micro LED microdisplay featuring 50 nits of brightness.

Photo of a red LED

Producing a red Micro LED with high brightness has long been a challenge in the display industry, which is also a critical turning point for the microdisplay sector. JBD overcame the current efficiency limit by developing a 0.13" red light microdisplay with 500,000 nits of brightness, shattering previous records.

The company’s high-performance red light product will contribute to the use of Micro LED in sports glasses, automotive displays, short-sighted glasses and many other scenarios. Furthermore, the product has laid a foundation for full-color Micro LED displays in the AR sector.

Pixel display under a high-magnification microscope

Pixel array display of the red Micro LED

JBD’s red light product was developed using the company’s self-developed hybrid integration semiconductor technology. Specifically, the AlGaInP semiconductor material was integrated with Si-based CMOS in wafer-grade process to develop a self-emitting microdisplay. Boasting the most compatible width of the forbidden band and most mature semiconductor material for red LED production, AlGaInP is the key for developing high-performance red Micro LED.

For years, JBD specializes in the research and development of AlGaInP-based red Micro LED technology, along with epitaxy and chip-making processes, allowing it to overcome red LED production challenges and largely improve red light efficiency.

The 0.13" red chip features a pixel size of only 4μm and Micro LED emitter size of 2μm. Despite the small size, a µA-grade current can still smoothly pass through the chip to generate 500,000 nits of ultra-high brightness, which is more than ten times that of the major self-emitting display technologies, namely QD LED and Micro OLED.

Display quality and reliability are also keys to Micro LED commercialization. The AlGaInP-based red light product has excellent color purity because of ultra-narrow spectral linewidth. As the picture below reveals, its spectral half-wave width is only around 15nm, much lower than the 50nm and 30nm of InGaN-based red chip and QD-LED chip, respectively.

To maintain high display quality, CMOS backplanes and Micro LEDs are critical. Based on JBD’s patented IC backplane technology, the red light component boasts >95% pixel uniformity, a million-to-1 ultra-high contrast ratio and <1% of pixel crosstalk probability. The stable AlGaInP material and desirable chip packaging technology enable the red light product to maintain its reliability. A lifetime test demonstrated that JBD’s microdisplay can light for tens of thousands of hours, much longer than that of the currently available self-emitting displays.

Spectrum of a typical AlGaInP Micro LED with half-wave width of approx. 15nm

In brief, JBD’s high-performance red Micro LED display will help diversify the profile of multi-color microdisplays, allowing the company to extend relevant applications from single-color to full-color sectors. The manufacturer has already shipped 1 million+ display panels to its customers. In addition to offering major display components to the downstream for Micro LED end product applications, JBD’s innovation will help accelerate the development of Micro LED technologies for AR/VR headsets, HUDs, sports glasses, 3D printers, micro-projectors and light field displays. (Source: JBD)