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Research brief: Red nanowire LEDs now efficient enough to enable hyper-resolution VR

Research led by Zetian Mi is on its way toward device efficiencies that exceed that of today's phone pixels.

Written by: Zach Robertson

May 18, 2022

Zetian MiZetian Mi
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

EXPERTS:

With virtual reality putting displays within inches of the user’s eyes, researchers have been exploring how to make pixels even smaller. Nanowire LEDs are approximately 10,000 times smaller than standard phone display pixels, but until now, the red micro LEDs haven’t been efficient enough to be practical.

A new study out in the journal Photonics Research, highlighted today as the May cover article, could change that. The researchers report an efficiency of over 1% for a submicron device, on par with blue and green LEDs of similar sizes. The researchers—led by Zetian Mi, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science—say that with further developments, the device efficiency will exceed that of today’s phone pixels. 

An artistic rendering of an array of red LED nanowires. Credit: Steve Alvey

ALTMETRIC ATTENTION SCORE

Study: N-polar InGaN/GaN nanowires: overcoming the efficiency cliff of red-emitting micro-LEDs


MEDIA CONTACT

portrait of the author kate mcalpine

Kate McAlpine

Research News Editor

(734) 763-2937

kmca@umich.edu

Explore: EECS: Electrical and Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Research Zetian Mi

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