MicroOLED SA (Grenoble, France), a spin-off from the CEA-Leti research institute, said it will start mass production of its silicon-based OLED microdisplay by the end of 2009.
In a common lab based on the 200-mm platform, MicroOLED and Leti claim they have demonstrated a prototype of an ultra-compact OLED microdisplay with performance like full-TV widescreen resolution on a very small area (25µm sub-pixel area), very low power consumption (25mW) and good video-imaging quality. The OLED microdisplay features more than 1.7 million sub-pixels, thus two to four times more than the other emissive technologies, stated MicroOLED.
At the 11th Leti Annual Review this week in Grenoble, France, Eric Marcellin-Dibon, CEO and cofounder of MicroOled, said mass production of this circuit is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009.
“Our collaboration with Leti is not only research,” noted Marcellin-Dibon.” We have spent a lot of time working on the process. We are working on advanced research to come with differentiators for products and on the process development. We want to continue to shrink pixels to increase resolution and continue to reduce power consumption.”
Typical applications are video glasses, viewfinders for cameras and DSCs and applications in the field of augmented reality. Other ongoing projects include the development of higher resolution microdisplays (HDTV resolution) with smaller pixel pitch as well as high-brightness versions for informative spectacles and medical applications such as vision aids.
Marcellin-Dibon added that “most applications are moving to HD even in the medical and defense sectors. Thus, we need to enable HD quality for mobile applications.”
Incorporated in 2007, MicroOled recorded revenues of 1.3 million euros ($1.8 million) in 2008, said Marcellin-Dibon, before stressing that “we will double our sales in 2009 and do even better in 2010.”
