Monolithic on-chip integration of microscale laser diodes (uLDs) and electronics for micro-displays and visible light communications

具有<= 1/4英寸对角线长度的紧凑屏幕的微显示器在智能手表、智能电话、增强现实和虚拟现实（AR & VR）设备、头盔式显示器（HMD）和平视显示器（HUD）中具有广泛的应用。它们的单个像素元件通常由大量的微尺度可见光发射器（目前是microLED）组成。全球微型显示器市场预计到2025年将达到42亿美元，复合年增长率（CAGR）为100%。然而，对微显示器的需求显著增加，推动了对超高分辨率和超高效率的要求。目前的微显示器远远不能令人满意，因为任何现有技术都无法满足许多基本挑战。因此，需要开发一种颠覆性的技术。可见光通信（VLC）是一种新兴技术，原则上提供约300 THz的免许可带宽，比当前基于RF的Wi-Fi或5G大四个数量级。考虑到当前基于RF的Wi-Fi的高度拥塞性质，预计VLC将成为提供补充解决方案的领先候选者。不幸的是，目前制造VLC的方法基本上限于具有常规电驱动方法的可见光LED技术。这一办法遇到了一些无法克服的障碍。因此，目前VLC的性能远远低于要求。Global Market Insights预测，到2030年，VLC市场将超过80亿美元。 我们提出了一个中心到中心的财团组成的10名来自英国的三所大学（谢菲尔德，斯特拉斯克莱德，巴斯）和美国的两所大学（哈佛，马萨诸塞州理工学院）的领先学者开发一种新的集成技术，以实现最终的微显示系统和最终的可见光通信系统。与任何现有的光子学和电子制造方法不同，我们提出了一种完全不同的方法，在单个芯片上单片集成微尺度激光二极管（uLD）和高电子迁移率晶体管（HEMT），其中每个uLD由单个HEMT电驱动。这将使我们能够实现通过任何现有方法都不可能获得的设备/系统。

Micro-displays with compact screens of <= 1/4 inch diagonal length have wide ranging applications in smart watches, smart phones, augmented reality & virtual reality (AR & VR) devices, Helmet Mounted Displays (HMD), and Head-Up Displays (HUD). Their individual pixel elements typically consist of a large number of microscale visible emitters (which are currently microLEDs). The global micro-display market has been predicted to reach $4.2 billion by 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 100%. However, the significantly increasing demands on microdisplays are pushing the requirements for ultra-high resolution and ultra-high efficiency. Current microdisplays are far from satisfactory, as a number of fundamental challenges cannot be met by any existing technologies. Therefore, a disruptive technology needs to be developed. Visible light communication (VLC) is an emerging technology, in principle offering approximately 300 THz of license free bandwidth that is four orders of magnitude larger than that available in current RF based Wi-Fi or 5G. Considering the highly congested nature of current RF based Wi-Fi, it is expected that VLC would be the leading candidate to offer a complementary solution. Unfortunately, the current approach to the fabrication of VLC is substantially limited to visible LED technologies with conventional electrical driving methods. This approach suffers from a number of insurmountable barriers. Therefore, the performance of current VLC is far below requirements. Global Market Insights has forecasted that the VLC market will exceed $8 billion by 2030. We propose a Centre-to-Centre consortium consisting of ten leading academics from three universities in the UK (Sheffield; Strathclyde; Bath) and two universities in USA (Harvard; Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to develop a novel integration technology in order to achieve the ultimate micro-display systems and the ultimate visible light communication systems. Unlike any existing photonics & electronics fabrication approaches, we propose a completely different approach to monolithically integrate microscale laser diodes (uLDs) and high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on a single chip, where each uLD is electrically driven by individual HEMTs. This will allow us to achieve devices/systems which are impossible to obtain by any existing approaches.