Paving the Way for More Efficient microLED Production

In recent years, microLEDs have emerged as an alternative to LCD and OLED technologies due to their combination of long life, high reliability, high power efficiencies, high brightness, and fast response times with tiny pixels. But assembling LEDs onto substrates via traditional production techniques has been problematic using existing pick-and-place or laser printing technologies.

VueReal, an Ontario-based display technology company, has introduced a microLED assembly technology, called QuantumVue, that integrates a patented printing platform with a patented dynamic quantum dot (QD) patterning. The company says this combination extends microLED applications and enhances display reliability, performance, and brightness compared to today's solutions, while significantly reducing production costs for large displays. 

QuantumVue integrates microLEDs precisely onto large substrates at high throughput and yield, using the company’s MicroSolid printing platform. This patented technology uses a specially designed cartridge that selectively loads the microLEDs from a wafer onto a backplane. The cartridges can be pre-screened to avoid depositing defective parts onto the substrate.

In an interview with Design News, Dr. Reza Chaji, founder and CEO of VueReal, explained that the hurdle with assembling microLEDs has been transferring them onto substrates. “Pick-and-place machines have too many variables. Laser printers show promise but are difficult to scale for high production volumes. We developed our own solution in a cartridge that holds the microLEDs and can be set up to selectively release them.”

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Chaji added that VueReal is targeting its technology towards two types of applications. The first would be high-volume manufacturing, where the company would make its technology available through a licensing agreement. The other application would be custom, low-volume products that VueReal would provide the customer assistance in adopting the technology, starting with production at VueReal’s facilities and then having the customer later handle production either on their own or through VueReal’s manufacturing partners.

One of these manufacturing partners is Toray Manufacturing, which offers semiconductor manufacturing and testing tools, including TASMIT ’s cutting-edge PL inspection tool 3000SR-Ⅲ300. The tool seamlessly integrates with VueReal’s MicroSolid Printing platform to further reduce surface inspection device review time and improve inspection efficiency.

Chaji said that the company would first target its technology toward the automotive market, with other markets to include AR/VR hardware and large displays, including TV. He added that the company’s technology could eventually compete with OLED for large TV displays, where current production methods are considered too slow and imprecise.

VueReal has leveraged its MicroSolid Printing platform to build a micro display, called Colour Fusion, that integrates microLED technology, an image quality enhancement algorithm, and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) technology to produce high resolution, high grayscale and color depth, high contrast, and low power consumption through a power-saving algorithm and variable frame rates.