Vuereal Ushers in Next-Generation Microled Displays with Microsolid Printing

Abstract

FOUNDED IN 2016, VUEREAL HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF as a leader in microLED and microsensor fabrication technology by focusing on straightforward goals: improve the yield, efficiency, reliability, and cost of microLED and micro semiconductor manufacturing, and the market will expand into previously unimagined applications.

Reza Chaji, CEO and cofounder, has a background in OLED and backplanes and wanted to explore the possibilities of microLED. One of the major issues involved transfer, so Chaji and his team looked at the backplane as a way to help. Initially, they called it “backplane-assisted transfer” and later changed the name to MicroSolid Printing. They developed features on the backplane that enabled higher yield and throughput and made improvements on the LED side, which resulted in the origin of VueReal.

As a self-funded startup, the company began by nurturing and “owning” an idea through hardship and resourcefulness. “You must question everything, and this in turn drives focus. Focus is essential,” said Chaji.

In the early days, the team used a facility at the University of Waterloo to investigate solutions and ideas. “At some point, we needed special tools, so we had to go to different universities before we had our own facility. We would travel to places like Cornell University at 4 am,” said Chaji. This led to them eventually building their own facility in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, which has grown to 60 employees (Fig. 1) with more than $60 million in funding and a portfolio of more than 300 patents (accepted or pending).

VueReal has doubled its manufacturing space and introduced a production line capable of producing displays for customers and serving as a blueprint to be adopted in its partners’ facilities. The company has attracted well-known technology and display industry veterans to its board, including Tim Baxter, former president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America (chairman), and Kevin Soukup, chief strategy officer at GlobalFoundries (board member). The company was voted to the Silicon Valley Top 100 startups worldwide and top 10 scale-ups in Canada.

“A big part of our growth is the team—everything falls into place with the right team,” said Chaji. “I learned that as the company faces change, you need to constantly look at the role of your team and how their roles will change. This includes the CEO role as well. This requires constant nurturing as you grow, and if you don't, the company will collapse. 

“An asset to a startup is being agile and nimble, but your vision and mission always stay the same. Sometimes you may have to give up something in order to focus. A startup can do this quickly versus a big company where it can take years. It's important not to be afraid of making that call, to focus but remain true to the vision.” 

VueReal's MicroSolid Printing technology is transforming how microLED displays and micro-semi-devices are produced across multiple industries. The company's patented technology overcomes the key transfer challenge from wafer to backplane by transferring millions of micrometer-sized LEDS with high efficiency, scalability, and yield. These innovations are leading to lower costs and higher yields in microdisplays across applications such as AR/VR glasses and headsets, mobile phones, smart watches, automotive displays, and lighting. Practical applications also can be realized in the manufacture of other micro-semi-devices, including micro semiconductors, chips, and microsolar panels.

The company directly produces microLED components and finished products for customers in its manufacturing facility in Canada. In this capacity, VueReal is servicing companies such as Continental (also known for manufacturing automotive tires) to provide microLED displays for cars (Fig. 2). For instance, Continental showed off a prototype semi-transparent automotive display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024, which was manufactured in VueReal's Waterloo facility (Fig. 3).

VueReal has similar production relationships with three additional automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). VueReal also is exploring options to work with other manufacturers in the display and sensor industries to improve their own manufacturing processes, enabling advanced products at lower development and production costs. VueReal offers a turnkey trademarked MicroSolid Printing platform that integrates well with existing fabrication, display tools, and processes. This offers their customers a cost-effective transition to microLED technology with minimal capital expenditure.

VueReal also has a MicroSolid Printing Blueprint solution available for licensing. This includes their patented transfer technology, MicroSolid printers and printer cartridges, backplane preparation, and data analytics. This solution empowers customers to design, develop, and scale microLED and micro semiconductor-based products (in house) at any manufacturing location.

VueReal is “the pioneer in MicroSolid Printing technology and at the forefront of driving advancements in next-generation microLED and micro semiconductor products,” said Chaji. “Our platform leverages an eco-friendly micro-pixel manufacturing process, enabling the seamless transfer of microLEDs and a range of microdevices—micro semiconductors, microchiplets, and microsolar—efficiently, sustainably, and at scale.”

The company's approach incorporates the principles of software development into hardware, empowering customers to manufacture affordable, innovative next-generation display and sensor products from production facilities anywhere in the world.

Ever since Tesla introduced its full-size infotainment touchscreens for cars in 2011, automakers have been clamoring for cutting-edge displays that set their cars apart in elegance, ergonomics, and style. Some see a well-designed screen as a differentiating factor in an otherwise non-differentiated car market. MicroLED displays, like the one shown by Continental, have the benefits of transparency and high brightness, which are difficult to realize in a traditional backlit LCD screen. But historically low yield rates in microLED production, from the small “wafer” that makes up a display component to the larger “backplane” that is an assembly of wafers into a larger screen, have made microLED manufacturing more expensive than traditional alternatives such as LCD and even OLED. VueReal aims to change that.

“MicroLED, poised as the next OLED, isn't just a technological leap,” said Chaji. “It's a gateway to a massive $180 billion display market transformation. However, the bottleneck to widespread microLED adoption is the seamless transition of LEDs from wafer to backplane. Traditional methods like laser and pick-and-place are stumbling blocks, proving inefficient, unscalable, and raising sustainability concerns.”

With improved reliability, performance, and greater size reductions, displays and sensors could make their way into objects that continually decrease in size and cost.

In addition to the full-scale production of microLED products, VueReal recently has demonstrated prototype products that highlight the company's MicroSolid Printing process. One of these is a VR/AR screen design with enhanced color accuracy, color saturation, and contrast, which also produces less eye strain for the wearer. VueReal's ColourFusion MicroDisplay (AR display technology) (Fig. 4) combines full-color microLED elements, an image quality enhancement algorithm, and liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) systems to deliver high resolution and improved color depth and contrast, all while maintaining the low power consumption required by lightweight wearable devices.

The ColourFusion microDisplay offers enhanced pixel density and superior image quality, making it suitable for consumer and professional AR applications. Its energy efficiency is achieved through a low-power mode that adaptively adjusts the display's frame rate based on usage. The ability to print these screens onto a transparent substrate (glass, plastic, or silicon) makes the technology ideal for AR, where seeing through the screen is critical. VueReal showcased this technology at Display Week 2024.

By not limiting itself to only tiny or medium-sized microLED screens, VueReal also offers solutions for display makers who wish to produce large-sized microLED screens for consumer use or commercial signage. By integrating the MicroSolid Printing platform to print large panels of blue microLED elements, combined with their patented dynamic quantum dot (QD) patterning, the company can create a bright, high-performance, full-color display at reduced cost compared to traditional red, green, and blue (RGB) microLED displays.

This is similar in approach to Samsung's QD-OLED TVs, which use blue OLED elements with a QD layer for color reproduction. With VueReal's approach, using inorganic blue microLEDs could lead to higher peak brightness and longer panel life spans because of microLED's inherent performance and longevity advantages over OLED. This dual-layer approach can compensate for small defects in the microLED assembly, leading to greater cost savings, enhanced reliability, and lower repair costs. By providing a separate QD color layer that sits on top of the microLED panels, it is possible to create ultra-large “tiled” microLED screens without visible seams.

VueReal calls this blue microLED/QD hybrid QuantumVue Display technology (Fig. 5), which was showcased at Display Week 2024. Like OLED, microLED offers pixel-level control of the light source, which improves detail and contrast while eliminating the side effects (haloing and color smear around bright objects) of LED-backlit LCD panels. In VueReal's case, they integrate flip-chip technology into the microLED module, allowing the LED module to be turned on and tested immediately after being printed. The dynamic QD patterning can be used to repair defects in the pixels. Flip-chip microLED design also improves heat dissipation, which can improve performance and longevity.

According to Chaji, using their QuantumVue design, they can make a 65-inch microLED display with cost parity to OLED. Setting up a large-scale manufacturing line for microLED TVs could be completed for approximately one-tenth the cost of setting up an OLED manufacturing line. Soon, we may see new players emerge in the high-end consumer display market.

MicroSolid Printing is designed to solve multiple challenges with microLED and micro semiconductor production. For small displays, the microLED unit dominates cost. VueReal developed a process that enables the transfer of millions of small-pitch microLEDs at high throughput, which is essential for cost-effective production of small displays.

In terms of low yield rates, complex solutions such as pick-and-place or laser processes are prone to high defect rates, especially when trying to increase throughput. VueReal's approach decouples yield and throughput challenges, allowing for high throughput and high yield even with small devices.

As for scalability into the millions or even hundreds of millions of units, the MicroSolid Printing process claims to reduce the number of wafers required by up to 10 times, depending on the specific application, which reduces both the cost of goods and toolset requirements, thereby having a trickle-down cost-savings effect.

VueReal's solution also helps to overcome issues in wafer non-uniformity, with up to 80 percent wafer utilization compared to less than 50 percent for most competitive solutions. Higher yield rates also improve overall efficiency by reducing waste.

By simultaneously working on all aspects of wafer-to-backplane efficiency, MicroSolid Printing provides a comprehensive turnkey solution that tackles cost, yield, scalability, and performance challenges in microLED production.

Although many in the small-format microLED display industry saw Apple's announcement that it was ceasing development of microLED screens for the Apple Watch as a possible sign that the microLED market is not mature enough for production in this type of application, Chaji believes that wearables represent a significant market opportunity for microLED technology, and that MicroSolid Printing technology can effectively transition these innovations from prototype stages to large-scale, cost-effective production. “It feels reminiscent of the early days of OLED TVs. Today, we are highlighting the challenges of manufacturing microLEDs at scale using current solutions. We believe we are approaching a pivotal moment for microLED technology, akin to the breakthrough experienced with OLEDs. Ideally, this time, several companies will emerge as leading forces in the microLED display market, driving widespread adoption and innovation.”

According to Chaji, future opportunities for MicroSolid Printing and other patented technologies and processes reach far beyond the microLED display market. “More importantly, this isn't just about advancing microLED displays; it's about propelling the entire realm of micro semiconductor applications, including groundbreaking micro semiconductors, into a new era of industry dominance. We are building a turnkey platform that includes a network of partners in key areas such as micro semiconductors, backplane, and tools, and are expanding our ecosystem to cover emerging domains such as microchiplets and microsolar that will power next-generation consumer electronics, automation, autonomy, and health and fitness solutions.”

“MicroSolid Printing is set to become the gold standard for the industry,” Chaji said. “We believe our technology will help grow the microLED display market to reach or exceed $30 billion in this decade, while the larger micro semiconductor-based market may exceed $1 trillion per year, reshaping the future across industries.”