MicroLED technology has various applications in everyday devices, but high costs hinder mass adoption. A Canadian startup claims that it can reduce costs by at least tenfold.
This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas did not feature eye-catching announcements related to transparent TVs and displays, but this doesn’t mean that the technology stands still.
On the second day of the world’s largest tech consumer event, I met with the CEO and founder of a company focused on bringing transparent microLED displays to cars and consumer gadgets.
Reza Chaji, CEO and founder of Canada-based VueReal, says the company is producing advanced microLEDs for some major car manufacturers and plans to deliver them on a large scale next year.
MicroLED technology is valued for its brighter colors, better efficiency, and thin designs. MicroLED displays can also be made transparent, offering a key advantage over other see-through display technologies like OLED and miniLED, as microLEDs achieve higher levels of transparency.
A cheaper way
“Our main focus is on automotive because there is a lot we can do here that other displays cannot, but we are also offering solutions that we think will revolutionize the consumer market,” Chaji, who previously developed technology that was licensed to LG for the OLED TVs, told Cybernews.
It's worth noting that the majority of the company’s technologies are prototypes, and there is still work to do until commercialization. In addition, other companies, including Samsung, are working in the competitive field.
However, Chaji thinks that VueReal’s patented MicroSolid Printing technology, which enables the efficient transfer of microLEDs and other micro-semiconductor devices, gives the company significant advantages.
“The key difference for us is our approach to manufacturing these devices, which makes it much cheaper and much higher yield. The displays that our competitors sell, it's at least ten times or more the price compared to ours,” Chaji says.
He adds that VueReal will soon announce a major financing round that will help to bring the technology closer to market.
Transparent display in a car body
One of VueReal’s projects is the integration of transparent microLED displays into vehicles.
"It's a transparent display you can put in front of the wheel or any other place in the car. The integration is much simpler. As you can see, they're very thin, and they don’t cause thermal issues. So you can put them anywhere in the car: either in front of the wheel or on the wheel," Chaji said.
According to him, some of the company's proof of concept shows how lightning can be used in a car's glass or even in a body, thus simplifying manufacturing. If lightning is laminated in the car body, it saves a lot of space and weight and can also lower the cost.
Other design ideas include automotive digital mirrors with microLEDs placed on top and a special transparent window display that shows information for people outside the car as well as for people sitting inside the vehicle.
And there are applications where microLED displays can be used beyond automotive, including virtual and augmented reality devices, and other consumer gadgets.
Chaji highlighted that one unique feature of microLED technology is its extremely small pixel area. This compact size provides greater design flexibility, enabling innovations like the integration of solar technology.
VueReal claims to have developed concepts capable of fully charging a smartwatch with a power density comparable to that of the Apple Watch.
“We're targeting wearables first because it's a bigger problem on the wearables. And also it's easier to scale for wearable than the phone, phone or bigger display,” he explained.
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