It is reported that MICLEDI is committed to the development of AR (augmented reality) glasses with miniaturization, light weight and long battery life. The financing is mainly used for the R&D and production of Micro LED micro-displays for AR smart devices. Micro LED is currently the mainstream display technology of AR equipment, and many manufacturers have joined the field. Under the concerted efforts of all parties, both technical bottlenecks and production cost issues are constantly breaking through. With the entry of major companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, with the help of Micro LED displays, can AR glasses take a new step?
Display companies accelerate the deployment of Micro LED
Different from other application markets, the consumer market has higher requirements for AR glasses in terms of price, performance, quality, and comfort. Compared with LCoS, laser projection, AMOLED and other display technologies, Micro LED has more advantages in the production of display products for AR glasses in terms of energy consumption, service life and response speed. This is also the field of Micro LED. The reason for the continuous expansion of the manufacturer’s lineup.
Plessey, a British augmented reality display manufacturer, announced in 2019 the development of a 2.5-micron ultra-high resolution Micro LED display for wearable AR/VR devices. It will launch its first passive matrix Micro LED in 2020 and is expected to launch Micro LED in 2021. LED 3-panel system products. Cooperated with US Micro LED supplier Compound Photonics (CP) to launch a micro display solution based on silicon-based gallium nitride Micro LED, and developed and produced the first batch of fully addressable Micro LED displays for AR/MR for AR/MR applications. Module.
American wearable display technology company Vuzix announced that the next generation of AR glasses will use optical waveguide + Micro LED light source. Among them, the optical machine supplier uses the Chinese panel company Jade Bird Display (abbreviated as JBD). It can project a single green three-dimensional picture through Waveguide Tech and an optical engine, and it is equipped with communication components such as Wi-Fi and LTE. And the Micro LED display provided by JBD can achieve different pixel density and resolution, with high brightness, high reliability and high external quantum efficiency, and meet the needs of AR/VR, head-mounted devices and other displays.
BOE released its research results on Micro LED technology for the first time in November 2017. In 2019, BOE announced the establishment of a Micro LED joint venture-BOE Pixey with American company Rohinni. At present, the joint venture company is carrying out the technical development of the Micro LED transfer link. It is reported that this technology allows the transfer speed to reach 50 per second. BOE has more than 200 patents in the field of Micro LED, and its Micro LED technology is mainly used in the field of small wearable displays. In May 2020, BOE signed a supply contract worth US$225 million with SunicSystems of South Korea. SunicSystems will supply BOE with deposition equipment for manufacturing MicroOLED panels.
With the layout of major manufacturers, Micro LED technology breaks through the difficult problem of mass production and is ready to go. How to reduce costs has become an urgent problem to be overcome in the commercialization of Micro LED.
Tech giants get together to develop AR glasses
As early as 2012, Google has launched an AR glasses (Google Project Glass), which has the same functions as a smartphone. It can control photos, video calls, identify directions, surf the Internet, process text messages and emails through voice control, etc. . "Light weight, clear visibility, and affordable prices are indispensable." Duanmu Haiying, a member of the Shanghai Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Industry Alliance, said when talking about AR glasses becoming an essential factor in the explosion of models. With the gradual breakthrough of cost and product problems brought about by the development of technologies such as Micro LED, the news of major companies starting to produce consumer-grade AR glasses has spread like wildfire.
Apple launched ARKit in 2017, and it has now been iterated to the ARkit4.0 version. In 2021, Apple’s newly launched App Clips is even more regarded by the industry as an APP for AR glasses. According to the disclosure of patent documents, Apple intends to develop and improve the quality control technology of Micro LED display, aiming to conduct quality inspection of Micro LED chips in advance, so as to avoid losses in the production process and reduce the defect rate.
Foxconn was also revealed to be developing Micro LED AR glasses, which is expected to be completed in 2022. The AR glasses are based on the MicroLED Microdipslay developed by the Taiwan Electronics and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratory (EOSRL), and have successfully developed a 5-micron blue Micro LED module and a 2000ppi full-color reality module.
Facebook officially announced in March last year that it signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Plessey for Micro LED displays. Prior to this, Apple had intended to acquire Plessy. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently publicly expressed his vision for AR glasses: "The future will be based on augmented reality remote presence technology, through AR smart glasses to break through the limitations of geographical space." And this is not an illusion, Facebook has Confirmed to cooperate with the multinational glasses manufacturing giant Luxuxica to develop smart glasses products under the Ray-Ban brand, which is expected to be released within this year. Due to technical limitations, although it cannot be fully called AR glasses at present, from the perspective of Mark Zuckerberg's AR ambitions, it is imperative for Facebook to launch more advanced AR glasses.
Microsoft also recently publicly stated that it will launch AR glasses based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform with Qualcomm. It is understood that the AR glasses will use BOE display, support up to 90Hz frame rate and No-Motion-Blur (zero motion blur), dual monochrome cameras support six degrees of freedom (6DoF) head tracking and gesture recognition. In practical applications, it can realize the ability of plane detection and virtual display rendering, combining virtual PC windows with real images. Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR business of Qualcomm Technologies, said in an interview: "The relatively simple AR glasses prove the development potential of smart glasses and take the first place in promoting the large-scale development of the AR industry. step."
When talking about the bottleneck currently facing China’s consumer-grade AR glasses, Wang Yongtian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a professor at the Optoelectronics College of Beijing Institute of Technology, pointed out in an exclusive interview with "China Electronics News": "In the future, the development and use of AR glasses need to be in line with individuals. Legislation related to privacy protection, the law should keep up with the pace of technological development, this is a problem of social progress.” In terms of technology, Duanmu Haiying said: “Compared to foreign levels, the current domestic industrial design, especially There is still a big gap in detail functions, ergonomics and interaction design, which also restricts the popularization of AR glasses in China."
The AR era is coming, and the future can be expected. I believe that with the advancement of science and technology, in the near future, it may appear as Duanmu Haiying expects: "AR can be integrated into all kinds of life products, such as AR+VR+myopia three-in-one glasses, AR+3D holographic projection watch Wait, and AR technology will definitely go to consumers.
