South Korean universities achieve flexible GaN Micro LED arrays grown on graphene substrates

On December 11th, foreign media reported that a research team from Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea has jointly developed a method for growing flexible GaN LED arrays on graphene layers. Through this technology, the research team has grown LED microarrays, also known as microdisk arrays. The experimental results show that the micro disk array exhibits excellent crystallinity and can emit blue light with consistent in-plane direction and strong brightness.

It is reported that researchers used metal organic vapor phase epitaxy technology to grow GaN micro disks on graphene layers covered with micro patterned SiO2 masks. Then the micro disk is processed into Micro LED and successfully transferred to a bendable substrate. This study suggests that high-quality LEDs can be grown on graphene and integrated into flexible Micro LED devices.

It is worth noting that the research team of Seoul National University has been conducting in-depth research on Micro LED technology in recent years, and has gradually developed advanced Micro LED manufacturing technologies through cooperation with well-known Korean display companies.

In July of this year, a scientific team from Seoul National University and LG Electronics published a massive transfer technology called Fluid Self Assembly (FSA) in the journal Nature, which positions and adheres Micro LED chips onto substrates through shaking motion.

The experimental results show that by applying FSA technology, a two inch blue light panel with over 19000 Micro LED chips can be assembled in 60 seconds. If the viscosity of the liquid is carefully controlled, this transfer technology can also achieve a yield of up to 99.9% for Micro LED assembly.

This massive transfer of new technology can significantly reduce the production time and cost of Micro LED display products. This technology is expected to be applied in the production of display products such as Micro LED smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and augmented reality devices in the next 5 years.

In addition, in 2020, the Seoul National University team successfully grown Micro LED arrays on a 100nm sapphire nanofilm. The research team has designed a sapphire nanofilm array for growing a size of 4 μ M × sixteen μ Micro LED array of m. This method can achieve single-chip Micro LED chips without the need for plasma etching process, providing higher external quantum efficiency (EQE).