Samsung is developing LEDoS microdisplay for AR devices

According to a report by The Elec, Samsung has embarked on the development of silicon-based LED micro-display (LEDoS ) technology intended for Augmented Reality (AR) devices. Last Tuesday, at a conference in Seoul, South Korea, Gong Min Kim, the Vice President of Samsung Display and the head of the Technical Strategy Team, proclaimed that in future AR devices, LEDoS will usurp OLEDoS as the dominant display.

At present, OLEDoS confronts constraints pertaining to physical dimensions, luminosity, and lifespan, whereas LEDoS adeptly circumvents these issues. Nevertheless, the primary challenge lies in maintaining the inherent characteristics of LEDs while minimizing their size. Samsung is currently cultivating pertinent LEDoS technology, with dimensions that could be less than 10 micrometers or even 5 micrometers, and anticipates its advent in the near future.

During the process of achieving ultra-high-resolution screens, when the size of the LED chip is reduced to within the 20 or 10-micrometer range, there will be a profound alteration in performance and features. AR and other reality devices are near-eye displays, a concept entirely disparate from the displays utilized in existing large devices. Past flat-panel displays prioritized pixels per inch, but for micro-displays, the emphasis is on pixels per degree. Individuals with visual acuity between 0.8 and 1 require 30 to 40 ppd, while those with visual acuity between 1.5 and 2.0 necessitate 50 to 60 ppd.

Furthermore, for AR devices, in order to align with the brightness of the ambient light surrounding the user and project virtual images into the real world, a micro-display with higher luminosity is required. In this regard, LEDoS proves more apt for AR device applications than OLEDoS.