Kopin, a specialist developer and provider of high-resolution AMLCD, LCoS and OLED microdisplays and display subassemblies, has signed a multiyear agreement with a leading Japanese electronics Company that develops and produces advanced consumer products, to develop superbright 2K x 2K full-color Light Emitting Diode (LED) microdisplays on silicon.
Under the agreement, Kopin will develop and supply its proprietary backplane silicon wafers and its new partner will develop bonding and color conversion processes. The companies expect to demonstrate 1″-diagonal full-color 2K x 2K LED microdisplays within 24 months. This development program, like Kopin’s previously announced program with Jade Bird Display to develop superbright monochrome LED microdisplays with up to 4 million nits, is customer funded.
LED microdisplays have the potential for superhigh brightness, low power consumption, high contrast and wide viewing angle, which are ideal features for many applications including see-through augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) applications. However, the LED microdisplay is still in an early stage of development and requires significant new process developments including bonding of LED arrays to Si backplane and color conversion of blue emission to red or green.
Kopin was a pioneer in LED microdisplays on Si technology with some of the early patents on the technology (US 5,300,788, 5,453,405, 6,403,985).
“We are very excited to collaborate with our partner who has already achieved some important milestones in color LED microdisplay development,” said Dr. John C. C. Fan, CEO of Kopin.
“We find our areas of expertise to be very complementary in tackling the challenges of developing the 1″-diagonal 2K x 2K full-color LED microdisplays. Super high-resolution full-color LED microdisplays with brightness approaching 100,000 nits can create new and exciting applications for microdisplays and satisfy the demanding requirements of certain AR and MR applications. The LED microdisplays from this collaboration will expand our microdisplay portfolio, making us the world’s only provider of all LCD, LCOS, OLED and LED microdisplays on Si. Our wide portfolio of products allows us to offer customers the best product for a particular application. It is important to stress that we continue to believe OLED microdisplays would be very good for many consumer applications.”
