Although the market demand of displays bright enough to allow the diffusion of readable information against a very bright landscape is important, in particular in the avionics application, existing technologies still do not allow the desired brightness combined with very low power consumption and very compact volume. In this context, the HiLICo project aims at developing a new generation of monochrome and full-color emissive GaN micro-displays with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution (WUXGA), 8-μm pixel pitch, very high brightness (over 1MCd/cm²) and good form factor capabilities that will enable the design of ground breaking compact see-through system for next generation Avionics applications. To achieve this aim, HiLICo will address the following challenges: 1. development of high-quality GaN based LED epilayers designed to fulfill targeted demonstrator performances; 2. design and fabrication of an active matrix in advanced Complementary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) technology to control each individual pixel; 3. coupling of the LED structure and the CMOS, building a monolithic structure on which LED arrays will be fabricated with high precision, thus making monochrome, active-matrix, high-resolution GaN microdisplays; 4. addition of colour converters (quantum dots and 2D Multi-Quantum Wells layers) on such blue emitting devices, for fabricating bi-color and full-color display demonstrators; 5. design and manufacture of the electronics followed by the test and evaluation of the complete micro display device. First demonstrators will be qualified for future commercialisation. The technology developed will contribute to the increase of European competitiveness, through the rapid and important deployment of innovative products on the microdisplay market, as well as Head-Up Displays, Head-mounted displays and smart Eyewears. The consortium gathers 1 RTO, 1 large company and 2 SMEs. They will mobilise a grant of 4 091 583 € with an effort of 283 PM.

The overall goal of the HyperOLED project is to develop materials and matching device architectures for high-performance, hyperfluorescence organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for use in display applications and solid state lighting. The innovative OLEDs will be realised by combining thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecular hosts with novel shielded fluorescence emitters, targeting saturated blue emission of very high efficiency, especially at high-brightness levels. Further efficiency gains will be achieved through molecular alignment to enhance light outcoupling from the hyperfluorescence OLEDs. Using shielded emitters will enable simpler device structures to be used, keeping drive voltages low to be compatible with low voltage CMOS back plane electronics. This will enable demonstration of the concept’s feasibility for high-brightness, full-colour OLED microdisplays as one application example. To develop the hyperfluorescence OLEDs, the following scientific and technical objectives will be targeted: • Objective 1: Develop shielded emitters • Objective 2: Develop TADF hosts • Objective 3: Photo-physically characterise the shielded emitters and TADF hosts • Objective 4: Anisotropic molecular orientation for enhanced performance • Objective 5: Design and test prototype hyperfluorescence OLEDs • Objective 6: Fabricate and evaluate demonstration hyperfluorescence microdisplays To show the project’s overall goal has been achieved, multiple blue and white stack unit prototypes (2 x 2 mm² on 30x30mm glass substrates with ITO) will be integrated into a high-brightness microdisplay demonstrator (based on MICROOLED’s 0.38’’ WVGA CMOS backplane) and tested that demonstrate significant improvements in functionality, performance, manufacturability and reliability.

The LOMID project will define pathways to the manufacture of flexible OLED microdisplays with an exceptionally large area (16 mm x 20 mm, screen diagonal of 25.4 mm) at acceptably high yields (>65%). This will be achieved by developing a robust silicon-based chip design allowing high pixel counts (1024x1280 (SXGA)) and high spatial resolution(pixel sizes of 10 µm x 10 µm corresponding to 2000 ppi). These display innovations will be coupled to a highly reliable manufacturing of the backplane. Cheap processes (e.g. based on 0.35 µm lithography) will be developed and special attention will be given to the interface between the top metal electrode of the CMOS backplane and the subsequent OLED layers. All these developments will be done on a 200 mm wafer scale. Along with this, a new testing procedure for quality control of the CMOS wafer (prior to OLED deposition) will be developed and promoted for standardisation. The flexibility of the large area microdisplays will be achieved by wafer thinning to enable a bending radius of 45 mm. Along with the new functionality, the durability of the devices has to be guaranteed despite bending to be comparable to rigid devices. The project will address this by improving the OLED efficiency (e.g. operating lifetime > 15,000 hours) and by modifying the device encapsulation to both fulfil the necessary barrier requirements (WVTR < 10^-6 g/d m2) and to give sufficient mechanical protection. The demand for and timeliness of these flexible, large area microdisplays is shown by the strong interest of industrial integrators to demonstrate the benefits of the innovative OLED microdisplays. Within the project, industrial integrators will validate the project’s microdisplays in smart glasses for virtual reality and to aid those with impaired vision.