In 1980s after the rapid development of GaN technology,different optoelectronic and power electronic applications were developed based on Ⅲ-nitride materials system[
Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, Volume. 38, Issue 7, 892(2023)
Challenges and potential solutions of
Micro-LED is considered as a crucial and one of the fastest growing display technologies in the world as it finds its applications in variety of products from visible light communication applications to large flat panel displays, virtual reality and wearable displays, televisions and light sources for the optogenetics and neural interface. Though the prospects are bright, Micro-LEDs still face some technological problems which needs to be addressed in order to get high volume commercialization, which include improving efficiency of LEDs with longer wavelengths, improving efficiency at low current densities, full color schemes, mass transfer, defects and yield management, repair technology and cost control. This review highlights the different challenges and their optimum solutions for Micro-LEDs.
1 Introduction
In 1980s after the rapid development of GaN technology,different optoelectronic and power electronic applications were developed based on Ⅲ-nitride materials system[
Organic light emitting diodes(OLEDs)and liquid crystal displays(LCDs)are the key contributors of today’s mainstream flat panel displays[
2 Bottlenecks and Solutions
Though,there are some technological developments,but when the chip density increases and the chip size contract,new technical challenges arises. To overcome these challenges,new methods have been developed from the current investigations.
2.1 Epitaxial growth and chip processing
Low defect density,wavelength and drive current homogeneity through the wafer are the main requirements for the epitaxial growth of GaN-based Micro-LEDs. To meet the requirements of large size Monolithic Micro-displays,there is a need of large diameter sapphire substrates,which produce some difficulties because of large thermal and lattice mismatches with the LED epilayer structure[
Figure 1.PL peak wavelength uniformity map for 2,4,6,8 inch wafers with zero edge exclusion. PL uniformity is very comparable,all around 2 nm in standard deviation except the 8 inch wafer due to non-optimized wafer pocket design[16]. Reprinted with permission of Springer Nature,copyright(2010).
Spacing between devices and reduced size of Micro-LEDs can cause problem in chip processing and thus worsen the device performance. During device processing,high density of surface defects causes sidewall effect which leads to degradation in homogeneity,quantum efficiency and electrical injection in p-GaN[
Figure 2.Effect of size reduction on the EQE of GaN-based micro LEDs [24]
2.2 Full and hybrid monolithic micro-displays
Fully monolithic active matrix micro-displays can be developed by incorporation of individual GaN-based LED driven by a GaN based transistor for each pixel,because Ⅲ-nitrides are exceptional materials for both LEDs and high frequency and high power transistors. Lau et al. have reported the fabrication of InGaN/GaN LEDs integrated monolithically with vertical metal oxide field effect transistor(VMOSFET)drivers[
Figure 3.Optical representation of monolithically integrated VMOSFET LED device with equivalent circuit design[28]. Reprintedwith permission of AIP publishing,copyright(2016).
In full monolithic integration there are difficulties and incompatibility between the Micro-LED and driver IC process,so the hybrid monolithic integration is the most common approach implemented by the Micro-LED display developers. Fabrication of Ⅲ-nitride based Micro-LED arrays,manufacturing of Si-based CMOS driver matrix,and then their hybrid integration to allow control of the LED pixels individually use monolithic hybrid approach. The hybridization process which has been extensively developed in Ⅲ-Ⅴ/Si photonics for high performance switching and computing is generally based on flip-chip bonding technology[
Apart from above mentioned monolithic fabrication processes,it has been reported that the Micro-LEDs display can be realized without the need of mass transfer by using GaN based nanowire Micro-LEDs. A wafer to wafer transfer technology has also been employed by “Glo-USA Inc” to construct 1.5 inch 264 PPI RGB wearable display using 20 μm sized Micro-LEDs on a LTPS gas backplane,and a 0.7 inch 1 000 PPI RGB display using 10 μm sized Micro-LEDs on a CMOS backplane.
2.3 Realization of full color format
Full colors(red,green and blue)for each pixel are needed for most of the micro-display applications. In LCD display technology,LED backlight is used to generate light through a matrix of liquid crystal ‘light switches’ and color filters creating the individual subpixels. Whereas in Micro-LED display,each subpixel is based on matrix of tiny light emitters made of Micro-LEDs and the brightness of each subpixel can be controlled individually. However,similar to other hetero junction based semiconductor structures,Ⅲ-nitride LEDs being a monochromatic light sources emit light at a single color,with its wavelength determined by the indium content in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells(MQWs). Despite numerous approaches to harvest full color micro displays from single color Micro-LEDs,it still remains to be a challenge for developers.
For a full color format,the most common approach is to assemble discrete commercial LEDs with the three different colors to form an array with each pixel holding red,green,and blue(RGB)LEDs. In theory,by changing the indium content in InGaN/GaN MQWs all these three colors can be generated. Unfortunately,large lattice mismatch between the active InGaN layer and GaN buffer results in low luminescence efficiency for InGaN based red and green LEDs. This restricts the progress in developing full-color displays using GaN family alone. GaP/GaAs based LEDs can be used to emit red light,but as the size shrinks it may suffer from even more substantial drop in EQE[
In order to obtain longer wavelength emission for InGaN LEDs,several approaches including relaxed InGaN pseudo-substrates(InGaNOS)and semi-polar GaN templates have been developed for more indium incorporation in active region. To realize RGB emission by PL,Even et al. has reported a full InGaN heterostructure grown on InGaNOS with different lattice constants [
Zhao et al. has demonstrated a blue shift in wavelength and narrow FWHM of a semi-polar(
Figure 4.Optical characteristics of semi-polar(
Because of the high thermal and chemical stability and outstanding quantum yield,phosphors have been frequently used to produce white light for solid state lightening. However,they are typically in micron scale which is equivalent or larger than the size of Micro-LEDs,so the problems of light scattering and light inhomogeneity need to be overcome [
Figure 5.Optical performance of NR-Micro-LEDs and quantum dots.(a)EL spectra of RGB colors;(b)Color gamut of RGB hybrid QD NR Micro-LEDs,NTSC,and Rec. 2020 [45]. Reprinted with permission of Optica Publishing Group,copyright(2019).
The problem of low power conversion efficiencies for green and red emitting LEDs is known as “green gap”[
Figure 6.Plot of power conversion efficiency against current density for the red,green and blue LEDs[44]. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley and Sons,copyright(2019).
Among different solutions for higher efficiency green and red Micro-LEDs,it is difficult to calculate which solution will ultimately lead to the highest efficiency of Micro-LEDs display. The use of AlGaN interlayer in the MQW active layer is a good approach for higher efficiency longer wavelength InGaN LEDs which has produced some significantly improved efficiencies at green gap wavelengths [
Figure 7.(a)Schematic cross section of a MQW with GaN barriers,AlGaN interlayers,and five periods of InGaN quantum wells;(b)2D ball and stick representation of different layers;(c)Interlayer thickness versus relaxation plot;(d)Power density versus efficiency plot showing that 1 nm thick interlayer has the highest efficiency[44]. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley and Sons,copyright(2019).
2.4 Pixel yield of the display
In an RGB full color high definition display(1 920 pixel×1 080 pixels)to preserve the dead pixel number less than 5 the yield should be 99.999 9%,which is difficult to achieve. During the fabrication process a dead pixel can appear in different stages,such as epitaxy,LED ship and transfer process. For example,during a monolithic fabrication of Micro-LED array by flip chip bonding,a large number of dead pixels are formed due to physical disconnection from p-electrode line triggered by severe bonding failures[
Removing the photoresist residue by using plasma ashing step,the yield can be improved to 100% and over 95% for 170 μm and 6 μm gap arrays respectively. A repair process is inevitable for a zero dead defect display,even supposing an extremely high yield. Increasing the redundancy by doubling the number of Micro-LED element for each pixel can be a simple solution. However,the initial defective yield controls the effectiveness of the built-in redundancy. If the yield is 99.99%,then by doubling the number of Micro-LED,the number of dead pixels can be reduced from 5 000 pixel to 5 pixels in a fully high resolution display,but a pixel yield of 99.9% will still keep the number of dead pixels up to 500[
2.5 Working at low current densities
The required output power of Micro-LEDs depends on the display variables such as the screen luminescence(cd/m2)and pixel density(ppi). For each color,current densities and efficiencies will determine this output power. The pixel density decreases while increasing the viewing distance,that’s why the TV display has a lower pixel density than a mobile phone. Display environment and its use determine the screen luminescence,for example because of outdoor use,the screen luminescence of a watch is higher than a TV(1 000 cd/m2 versus 500 cd/m2). Here we will discuss the operating points for displays with pixel density(500 and 1 000 ppi)and having lower values for luminescence(102~104 cd/m2),and micro-displays having pixel density(2 000 and 5 000 ppi)with higher values for luminescence(103~105 cd/m2). The comparison of efficiency for red,green,and blue Micro-LEDs at different current density with a pixel density of 500 and 1 000 ppi shows that the operating points shifts to a peak efficiency with greater luminescence[
For short viewing distance micro-displays such as the AR and VR,the efficiency against the current density of red,green and blue Micro-LEDs at a pixel density of 2 000~5 000 ppi with screen luminescence of 103,104,105 cd/m2,and die spacing of 1 μm has been observed [
Different approaches can be taken to shift the peak efficiency at the operating points. L. Wang et al. have reported a higher external quantum efficiency(18.2%)at extremely low current density(0.5 A·cm-2)for Micro-LEDs based on InGaN quantum well. They have used Stranski-Krastanov(SK)and Volmer-Weber(VW)modes to self-assembled InGaN quantum dots by using metal organic vapor phase epitaxy[
2.6 Mass transfer
For a full color or flexible Micro-LED displays,mass transfer of Micro-LEDs with approximately perfect yield and selectivity is also a critical challenge. Because of large quantity of RGB Micro-LEDs and their tiny nature,the present transfer techniques are difficult to use to realize a cost and time effective manufacturing process with arduous pixel control and yield requirements[
In laser induced forward transfer(LIFT)process,a laser beam is used to separate the Micro-LEDs from their carrier substrate and then transferred to a receiver substrate as shown in
Figure 8.Schematic of LIFT off process[70]. Reprinted with permission of Elsevier,copyrigt(2016).
Mass transfer of LED ships by fluidic assembly process has also been investigated. In this process,gravity and capillary forces have been used to drive and capture the Micro-LEDs on to the array of driver ICs[
It was reported that by using fluidic assembly method a transfer rate of 50 million devices per hour can be obtained [
Figure 9.Schematic representation of steps involves in elastomer stamp micro-assembly process.(a)Prepare donor substrate;apply rubber stamp;(b)Quickly peel back stamp with objects attached with it;(c)Apply inked stamp to receiving substrate,and(d)with printing object on receiver substrate slowly peel back stamp [78]. Reprinted with permission of Springer Nature,copyright(2005).
For high speed large area nanoscale patterning,a continuous roll to roll nanoimprint lithography(R2RNIL)technique can offer a solution with significantly improved output;moreover,in large area imprinting the challenges faced by conventional NIL in maintaining pressure uniformity and successful demolding can also be solved with the help of R2RNIL[
Figure 10.Schematics of(a)roll to roll NIL and(b)roll to plate NIP process.(c)Photograph of 6-inch capable R2R/R2PNIL apparatus [76]. Reprinted with permission of American Chemical Society,Copyright(2009).
2.7 Requirements of device designs
Highest pixel densities are required for tiny devices with length scale of 10 μm. These dimensions are smaller by an order of magnitude as compared to that used in standard Ⅲ-nitride LEDs. Simple lithographic tools can be used to achieve a significant(5 μm or above)offsets between mask layers and tolerances between levels for standard LEDs. But,more refined lithographic tools are required for Micro-LEDs that will implement other improvements such as flat and lower defect density wafers. P. Li et al. demonstrated that the packaged Micro-LEDs show a peak external quantum efficiency ranged from 2.4% to 2.6% as the device area reduces from 100 μm×100 μm to 20 μm×20 μm[
Figure 11.Plots of current density against power conversion efficiency for green LED.(a)Constant v=6×103 cm·s-1 and variable as/V=4×101 to 4×104 cm-1;(b)Constant as/V=4×104 cm-1 and
For a Micro-LED the device dimensions are very small so it is important to include surface recombination rate
To ensure high efficiency operation of Micro-LEDs their device and system challenges need to be addressed. We will disclose some methods to solve these challenges which include controlling the radiation pattern,controlling the surface recombination,and use of monolithic growth approach to avoid pick and place. Etching[
Use of photonic crystals with LEDs is one of the methods to control the radiation pattern to increase coupling efficiency. The control of emission pattern through scattering can be achieved by placing a photonic crystal or on top of an LED[
In case of a high luminance and high pixel density micro display,extremely small devices with side dimensions of <10 μm and spacing <2 μm are necessary. Assuming the small size of Micro-LEDs,it is beneficial to avoid pick and place methods. Epitaxial growth of all colors simultaneously is a one solution. Site controlled growth can be used to grow all three color successfully,in which indium incorporation is determined by confinement [
3 Machine Learning for Micro-LEDs
Theoretical models based on computer simulations can be tested by comparing the calculated results of experimental measurements. Thus,simulations can help to explain the experimental results that are difficult to understand. As mathematical tools always make the reality simpler,so it is well established that the initial simulation results barely agree with measurements. Therefore,to find an agreement between theory and reality,a careful tuning of computer simulations are required[
Figure 12.Computer simulation versus machine learning[93]. Reprinted with permission of Springer Nature,Copyright(2021).
From machine learning methods,deep learning is most popular for the analysis of large amount of data and it is based on multi layered artificial neural networks[
Machine learning can also be used to improve the performance of Micro-LEDs. Classical approaches for light emitting surface characterization results in an underestimation of actual Micro-LED array behavior as they cannot distinguish between functional and defect pixel. The existence of nonfunctional Micro-LEDs in a Micro-LED array creates a problem in the development process. Noise created by the defect pixels also cause a problem in the evaluation of design change. Therefore,to overcome this blurring effect,each pixel should be classified and may not be considered for the final analysis. Spatially resolved measurements of color/luminance of single Micro-LED and the whole light emitting surface are examined as they are essential for the development of visual insight. However,the former take lot of time in measurements and evaluation,and the later undergoes interference produced by nonfunctional Micro-LEDs. Steven Becker in his article used an unsupervised machine learning model to perform both of these analysis in a single measurement. The results shows that a precise reconstruction of Micro-LEDs and more accurate characterization of Micro-LED arrays can be performed by employing a machine learning technique [
However,as the current model uses unsupervised learning(KMeans),it could act differently on different Micro-LED arrays. Switching to a supervised machine learning model(Random Forest)could support the robustness of the analysis,but this requires a labeled data set,which is again a time taking process. This suggest that employment of measured data increases the validity of machine learning models for the performance analysis of Micro-LEDs.
4 Conclusion
The display technology has been improved significantly with the development in GaN based materials system. Micro-LEDs have gained substantial research attention as they yield attractive benefits for next generation display and data communication applications. The performance of Micro-LEDs is influenced by different factors such as surface recombination,green gap and low coupling efficiencies into the display viewing angle. The development of Micro-LEDs and solution to different challenges have been reviewed. The significance of full color scheme and mass transfer techniques has also been revealed. The combine efforts from the R&D groups of Ⅲ-nitrides LEDs,optogenetics and display will empower the Micro-LED technology to flourish to serve society at largest scale by overcoming the technical challenges.
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Waqar AZEEM, Zhao-jun LIU, Gui-yue FU. Challenges and potential solutions of
Category: Research Articles
Received: Nov. 15, 2022
Accepted: --
Published Online: Jul. 31, 2023
The Author Email: Zhao-jun LIU (liuzj@sustech.edu.cn)