SBIR Phase I: Microdisplays Based on III-Nitride Wide Band Gap Semiconductors

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的目标是优化III族氮化物宽带隙半导体材料、层结构、微型显示器的器件设计，并开发用于可穿戴和抬头显示器应用的III族氮化物全色微型显示器的概念。需要在单个半导体芯片上集成微尺寸发光二极管（LED）的密集阵列的半导体微显示器还有待开发。此外，在传统的III-V或Si半导体中不能实现全色显示器的颜色转换，这使得基于传统半导体的半导体微显示器不可行。然而，由于III族氮化物的独特性质，III族氮化物微显示器可以潜在地提供上级基于液晶和有机LED显示器的那些显示器的性能，包括：自发光、高亮度/分辨率/对比度、高温/高功率操作、高抗冲击性、宽视场、全色谱能力、长寿命、高速和低功耗。通过将它们插入任何现有的视觉系统，III族氮化物微型显示器将提供重量减轻，空间和功率节省，并允许从任何角度观看而不会发生色移和对比度和分辨率下降。这里的研究是建立在最近成功制造的III族氮化物微尺寸蓝色LED阵列和微型显示器。微型显示器是小型显示器，具有如此高的分辨率，以至于它们实际上只能用透镜或镜子观看或投影。微显示器通常由光学器件放大以放大用户观看的图像。当通过透镜观看时，一个高分辨率的1英寸对角线微型显示器可以提供与观看21英寸对角线电视/电脑屏幕相当的图像。微显示器可用于各种设备中，诸如头戴式显示器、摄像机、取景器等，并且具有许多军事和商业应用。这里开发的微尺寸LED阵列不仅可用作可穿戴和抬头显示器，而且可用作全色迷你显示器、远程自由空间功能的发射器、短距离光通信、光互连和用于疾病早期诊断的芯片级生物医学传感器。III族氮化物蓝色微尺寸LED阵列对于廉价的高分辨率和高速光链路非常有吸引力。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project's goal is to optimize III-nitride wide bandgap semiconductor materials, layer structures, device design for micro-displays, and to develop concepts for III-nitride full color micro-displays for wearable and head-up display applications. Semiconductor micro-displays, which require the integration of a dense array of micro-size light emitting diodes (LEDs) on a single semiconductor chip, have yet to be developed. Also, color conversion for full color displays cannot be achieved in conventional III-V or Si semiconductors, which makes semiconductor micro-displays based on conventional semiconductors unviable.However, due to the unique properties of III-nitrides, III-nitride micro-displays can potentially provide performance superior to those based on liquid crystal and organic LED displays including: self-luminescent, high brightness/resolution/contrast, high temperature/high power operation, high shock resistance, wide field-of-view, full color spectrum capability, long life, high speed, and low power consumption. By inserting them into any existing visual system, III-nitride micro-displays would provide weight reduction, space and power saving and allow viewing from any angle without color shift and degradation in contrast and resolution. The research here is built on the recent successful fabrication of III-nitride micro-size blue LED arrays and micro-displays.Micro-displays are small displays that are of such high resolution that they are only practically viewed or projected with lenses or mirrors. Micro-displays are typically magnified by optics to enlarge the image viewed by the user. When viewed through a lens, a high-resolution 1-inch diagonal micro-display could provide images comparable to viewing a 21-inch diagonal TV/computer screen. Micro-displays can be used in a variety of devices such as head-wearing displays, camcorders, viewfinders, etc and have many military and commercial applications. Micro-size LED arrays developed here are not only useful as wearable and head-up displays, but also useful as full color mini-displays, emitters for remote free space functions, short distance optical communication, optical interconnects and chip-scale biomedical sensors for early diagnosis of disease. III-nitride blue micro-size LED arrays are very attractive for inexpensive high resolution and high-speed optical links.