TEst

Month: June 2019

Plessey awarded two trophies at the Electronics Industry Awards for its GaN-on-Silicon microLED technology

Posted on by Keith

In the stunning setting of London’s Tower Hotel, the 2019 Electronics Industry Awards crowned the sector’s leading products, companies and professionals as champions in front of an audience of esteemed professionals.

Plessey had plenty of reasons to celebrate as they won two accolades. The company collected the Display Product of the Year and the Embedded Solution Product of the Year for its microLED Emissive Display.

Commenting on the wins, editor of CIE magazine, Niamh Marriot said:

“As demand for microLED displays is accelerating, Plessey’s GaN-on-Silicon is recognised as the only technology platform capable of addressing all of the challenges involved with manufacturing microLED displays in high volumes cost-effectively. It is also one of the only viable solutions that can enable products that are not only compact enough to be worn without restricting the overall experience for AR applications and in HUDs, but also provide the size, weight, power and luminance needed. I am thrilled that this product has won two awards. With its integrated components and excellent thermal performance, it is a standout display.”

Mike Lee, President of Corporate and Business Development at Plessey, said:

“It is a great honour to be awarded these two accolades from the Electronics Industry Awards. As the only provider of GaN-on-Silicon based monolithic microLED displays, Plessey is disrupting the AR/VR market with proprietary technology that delivers a fully immersive, high brightness, high definition display experience. At Plessey we are very proud of our microLED technology and the solutions we are able to provide that enable the next-generation AR/VR display experience for consumer.”

The event – organised by Datateam Business Media – has become a highlight of the industry calendar since its inception in 2018, where leading figures from the electronics field gather to celebrate their achievements and reward the market leaders from across the blossoming sector.

This year proved to be no different, as the afternoon began with an exclusive champagne reception where guests had an invaluable opportunity to network with peers, before being invited to sit down to enjoy a delicious three-course luncheon and the highly anticipated awards presentation.

The ceremony, hosted by comedian Ian Moore and household favourite Alan Dedicoat, saw 18 accolades presented to the leading products, companies and individuals that the electronics sector has to offer.

 

The full list of winners can be found here: www.electronicsindustryawards.co.uk/winners-2019

Following the success of the event, CIE advertisement manager Amy Wilton commented: “The winners from this year’s event are great advocates for our prosperous industry. I would like to thank everyone who entered and voted, our judges, those in attendance and the sponsors of the event – without your support, occasions like this wouldn’t be possible.”

About Plessey

Plessey is an award-winning provider of full-field emissive microLED displays that combine very high-density RGB pixel arrays with high-performance CMOS backplanes to produce very high-brightness, low-power and high-frame-rate image sources for head-mounted displays (HMDs), and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems. Plessey operates leading-edge 150mm and 200mm wafer processing facilities to undertake design, test and assembly of LED products, and a comprehensive suite of photonic characterization and applications laboratories. For more information, visit Plessey’s website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Media Relations Contacts:

Sam Langridge, Marketing Manager | sam.langridge@plesseysemi.com | +44 1752 693 000

Paige Lee, Marketing Executive | paige.lee@plesseysemi.com | +44 1752 693 000

How Plessey’s microLED tech will bring the next generation of AR headsets, head-up displays and other smart wearables to the mass market

Posted on by Keith

New LED manufacturing technology is removing the barriers that have held back microLEDs, making them ready to power exciting future display technologies

Plessey has decades of experience with semiconductors and has been producing LEDs in the UK for many years. In 2018, the company added a new specialism: licensing its microscopic light-emitting diode (microLED) manufacturing technology to augmented reality (AR) and Display OEMs.

Why are we focusing on microLEDs? Because with the help of our manufacturing innovations, microLEDs are poised to massively disrupt the global display market.

These tiny LEDs will be at the heart of many cutting-edge display technologies that are going to shape the way we see the world in the future – including AR.

Like OLEDs, microLEDs are well suited to display applications thanks to their high contrast, high speed and wide viewing angle. And they are also significantly brighter, more efficient, longer-lasting and smaller than OLEDs, making them particularly suitable for applications such as smart watches and other wearables, as well as head-up displays and AR headsets.

According to Zion Marketing Research:

“The micro-LED display market was about $272m in 2018 and will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 86.4% from 2019 to $21,129m in 2025.”

 

Source: Semiconductor Today

However, up until now, manufacturing microLEDs has not been easy – partly because they’re just so small. Using today’s pick-and-place technology, individual micro-LEDs have to be placed on a pitch of less than 50 microns. The equipment used for this is new, expensive and still has productivity issues and as demand grows for higher pixel density, pick-and-place may no longer be viable at all.

That’s where Plessey’s unique technology comes in. The company has spent the last few years developing LEDs made from gallium nitride on a substrate of silicon (GaN-on-Si), instead of the usual sapphire.

GaN-on-Si technology enables the creation of monolithic microLEDs – with multiple emitters on a single chip. This approach brings several key advantages, including smaller pixel pitches of as little as 8 microns, the ability to make larger LED emitters, and better contrast, thanks to GaN-on-Si’s surface-emitting properties. The technique can easily be scaled to 200mm wafers and larger, improving cost and yield.

It circumvents the shortcomings of traditional pick-and-place manufacturing and gives microLEDs the potential to meet the demanding requirements of emerging AR and display applications for smaller, sharper, brighter displays.

But that’s not all: Plessey’s monolithic approach allows microLEDs to be built on a CMOS silicon backplane, so standard CMOS circuitry is easily integrated – a big plus in the high-tech applications at which the technology is aimed.

Plessey has the only monolithic microLED solution currently available and is now licensing the technology to partners to create custom displays and light sources for a wide range of consumer electronics applications and more.

By overcoming the difficulties of manufacturing microLEDs on a commercial scale, Plessey is making microLEDs a mass-market product, and putting itself at the heart of the exciting future of the display business.