The SmartVIZ project is researching the use of micro LEDs in interior applications. The µLED could play a substantial role in providing high resolution visualisation scenarios for augmented reality applications.
Micro LEDs enable high resolution images on transparent surfaces.
Osram
In the SmartVIZ project, Osram is collaborating with ASM Amicra and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB) on new lighting solutions that use micro LEDs. Compared to LCD or OLED, displays that use µLED pixels are brighter and more efficient. The consortium aims to provide the basis for future high-resolution visualisation solutions on transparent surfaces in vehicle interiors.
For this purpose the consortium is researching the design of micro LED light sources, as well as their use and production. Red, green and blue µLED structures will perform as efficient high-luminance image pixels. This approach allows for quasi-transparent surfaces, which are only filled with content when the µLEDs are switched to active. Transparent substrates based on indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO TFTs) will be used for controlling the individual pixels. The researchers will also target a processing concept to enable large quantities of µLED chips to be transferred rapidly from the source wafer to the backplane driver electronics via automated parallel assembly. In order to achieve a positioning accuracy of around 1.5 µm, chips smaller than 40 µm are being researched.