Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

InGaN/GaN based micrometer-sized light emitting diode (µ-LED) is emerging as a very promising technology for next generation high-resolution, high-efficiency displays because of its significant advantages over the existing products - its luminance level can be several orders of magnitude higher than liquid-crystal-device (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. It has low voltage requirements and is amenable to hybrid complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and integrated-circuit (IC) assembly. However, this technology can't be commercialized until one critical question can be answered - how to achieve high resolution while still retaining high emission efficiency? In this project, we will work closely with our industry partner - VueReal Technologies Inc., a Waterloo-based high-tech company, to explore and develop a new technical approach that can enhance the optical emission efficiency of µ-LEDs in a high-resolution two-dimensional (2D) array format. The 2D µ-LED arrays are integrated with a driving circuit backplane. The research objectives include 1) To develop an optimized dry and/or wet etching process for minimizing sidewall defects/impurities, 2) To fabricate 2D blue µ-LED array devices for achieving optimum device performance, 3) To develop a new detaching and transferring approach to integrate the blue µ-LED devices with an IC backplane substrate, 4) To design a CMOS-based IC backplane that drives the 2D µ-LED array for high-quality and uniform optical emission. This project will also provide an excellent opportunity for highly qualified personal (HQP) to gain hands-on experience with device fabrication and characterization, as well as display technologies. This collaboration project will provide the much urgently-needed expertise and facilities at the University of Waterloo to the industry partner for their device R&D activities. It is expected that novel display techniques/prototypes derived from this project can be commercialized by the industry partner, which would establish a leadership position for the industry partner within this fast-growing portable device market, such as virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality devices, smartphones, wearable electronics.*