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

On December 11, foreign media reported that a research team from Seoul National University in South Korea and Sungkyunkwan University jointly developed a method to grow flexible GaN LED arrays on a graphene layer. Through this technology, the research team grew LED micro arrays., also known as Microdisks arrays. Experimental results show that the microdisk array exhibits excellent crystallinity and can emit blue light with consistent in-plane direction and strong brightness.

It is reported that the researchers used metal organic vapor phase epitaxy to grow GaN microdisks on a graphene layer covered with a micro-patterned SiO2 mask. The microdisk was then processed into Micro LEDs and successfully transferred to a flexible substrate. This study shows that high-quality LEDs can be grown on graphene and integrated into flexible Micro LED devices.

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

Just in July this year, a scientific team from Seoul National University and LG Electronics published a new massive transfer technology called Fluid Self-Assembly (FSA) in the journal Nature, which uses a shaking motion to position the Micro LED chip and adhere it to the substrate.

Experimental results show that by applying FSA technology, a two-inch blue light panel with more than 19,000 Micro LED chips can be assembled in 60 seconds. If the viscosity of the liquid is carefully controlled, this transfer technology can also achieve Micro LED assembly yields of up to 99.9%.

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 used in the production of display products such as Micro LED smartphones, tablets, smart watches and augmented reality devices in the next five years.

In addition, in 2020, the Seoul National University team also successfully grew Micro LED arrays on 100nm sapphire nano films. The research team designed a sapphire nano-thin film array for growing Micro LED arrays with a size of 4 m to 16 This method can realize the singulation of Micro LED chips without a plasma etching process and provide higher external quantum efficiency (EQE).