Trichrome Micro-LED Pixel Layout for Square Grid Addressing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing micro-LED display technologies face challenges in aligning hexagonal emitter arrays to form a compatible square pixel grid, leading to irregular pixel arrangements that are difficult to address and incompatible with existing hardware and software, affecting optical current density and quantum efficiency.
Innovation Solution
Transforming a regular hexagonal emitter array into a square rectilinear grid of trichrome pixels with irregular hexagonal emitters, where each pixel consists of blue, green, and red emitters with different areas, allowing for better alignment and addressing, while maintaining the 120-degree angles and adjusting emitter sizes to control optical current density.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a regular hexagonal emitter array is used, then fabrication on III-nitride substrate is simplified, but compatibility with square pixel grid hardware and software is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by transforming the symmetric regular hexagonal emitter array into an asymmetric irregular hexagonal emitter array. The irregular hexagons have varying side lengths and angles, allowing them to be arranged in a square pixel grid pattern while maintaining compatibility with standard display hardware and software, thus resolving the contradiction between fabrication simplicity and hardware/software compatibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a hexagonal lattice structure to a square grid structure by changing the dimensional arrangement of emitters. This dimensionality change allows the emitter array to conform to standard square pixel grids used in display hardware and software, while still being fabricable on III-nitride substrates through controlled growth processes.
2Quantity of substance
If emitters are densely packed to maximize area utilization, then packing density increases, but alignment precision and overlay tolerance decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by introducing local variations in emitter spacing and size within the irregular hexagonal emitter array. Certain regions have adjusted spacing to provide overlay tolerance, while other regions maintain high packing density. This localized adjustment allows the system to achieve both high overall packing density (around 70%) and sufficient alignment precision for manufacturing.
3Ease of manufacture
If emitter areas are made equal for simplicity, then manufacturing is easier, but optical current density control and quantum efficiency are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making each emitter in the irregular hexagonal array have a different area, tailored to its specific position and function within the pixel. This non-uniform emitter area distribution allows precise control of optical current density for each emitter, optimizing quantum efficiency and wavelength sensitivity while still being manufacturable through controlled growth processes that can accommodate varying sizes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The transformation results in a compatible pixel layout that enhances operational efficiency, improves wavelength sensitivity, and increases quantum efficiency, making the display technology more convenient and effective.
Implementation Method 1
Each pixel in the array can be formed as a single micro-LED emitter tuned to a specific wavelength, or color, of light e.g., one of the primary light colors—red, green, or blue
Implementation Method 2
a III-nitride layer on the substrate; and a layout of trichrome pixels formed in the III-nitride layer
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and devices are presented for transforming a layout of a densely packed grid of micro-LED light emitters to a layout of a square rectilinear pixel grid to achieve compatibility with hardware and software used in imaging and display technologies. In particular, a pattern of regular hexagonal emitter cells for fabrication on a III-nitride substrate can be transformed to a square pixel array of irregular hexagonal trichrome pixels that are readily addressable. Separation between adjacent trichrome pixels, and between their constituent emitters, can be established for overlay tolerance, while maintaining a cell packing density of about 70% and a pixel pitch of about 4.0 μm. Wavelength and quantum efficiency properties are shown to depend on optical current density, which can be determined by the emitter area specified in the grid layout.