GaN-based emissive microdisplays: A very promising technology for compact, ultra-high brightness display systems

High-brightness GaN-based emissive microdisplays can be fabricated with different approaches that are listed and described. They consist either of hybridizing a GaN LED array on a CMOS circuit or building a monolithic component on a single substrate. Using the hybridization approach, two types of 10-mu m pixel pitch GaN microdisplay prototypes were developed: (1) directly driven, 300 x 252 pixels and (2) active-matrix, 873 x 500 pixels. Brightness as high as 1 x 10(6) and 1 x 10(7) cd/m(2) for blue and green arrays, respectively, were reached. GaN-based emissive microdisplays are suitable for augmented reality systems or head-up displays, but some challenges remain before they can be put in production.