An all-digital VGA (640 x 480-pixel) resolution full-color organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) microdisplay is being developed by engineers at Fraunhofer IPMS (Dresden, Germany) for projection applications. The backplane for the display was designed in a 0.18 µm commercial CMOS process and is currently under prototype manufacturing; microprojector optics for the display have been created by Fraunhofer IOF (Jena, Germany) and are now fully functional. In a step toward practical implementation for consumers, the microdisplay—called the Hypoled—even has Wi-Fi connectivity.
With dimensions of 7.68 x 5.76 mm, the display is situated on a chip 12 x 11 mm in size. The pixels have a 12 µm pitch and are separated by gaps of only 0.5 µm; the frame rate is a standard 50 or 60 Hz, while the color depth reaches 24 bits. A monochrome version of the display has a brightness of up to 30,000 cd/m2; the brightness for the full-color version has not been revealed. Along with microprojection, the Hypoled device is intended for use in head-mounted displays. Other partners in the project include Mobintech (Farum, Denmark), Universität zu Köln (Köln, Germany), and the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland). Contact Uwe Vogel at [email protected].