Micro LEDs have bright future
The University of Strathclyde has secured a spinout deal to form a company to develop and produce micro LED arrays
mLED will specialise in gallium nitride micropixellated arrays which are pattern programmable and do not require optics or switching matrices to modulate the light pattern.
Applications have been identified in making micro projection displays and in printing, medical, microscopy and defence markets.
Dr Jim Bonar, mLED's chief executive said: "This is a very exciting international area of technology but there are only a few companies in the world which have recognised the opportunity and demonstrated capability in this area. We are producing a platform technology that is compact, robust, reliable and versatile.
"MicroLEDs have particularly strong potential for evolving life science markets such as neuroscience and for the emerging telecoms market of pico projectors, as well as for printing, microscopy and next-generation general lighting arrangements. The power density, versatility and compactness of microLEDs makes them ideally suited for these applications.
"Each of the microLEDs has enough light output to affect other materials, allowing actions such as the active illumination and stimulation of cells. They also have a switching speed fast enough for use in communications or in fluorescence lifetime imaging, which can be used to study cells. We have demonstrator kits available for sale so that developers can see if the microLEDs fit with their own innovative applications – we aim to be delivering to customers very soon".
