New LED design increases display brightness and efficiency

MIT Technology Review : Most video display systems use light-emitting backplanes covered with filters that create the individual pixels. That system requires that the light source remain on, which drains battery power. In addition, the filters reduce the brightness of the screen’s light. Lumiode, a startup in New York, has developed a display technology that uses an array of LEDs as individual pixels, with each LED covered by a layer of silicon to control the amount of light emitted. The company’s prototype is a 50 x 50 array of LEDs just 1 mm ². Lumiode claims that the display is 30 times brighter and 10 times more efficient than other displays. However, the display is currently limited to just a single color, although the company plans to add a color-controlling layer on top of the LED wafer. Lumiode CEO Vincent Lee says that he expects his company to develop a 320 x 240 pixel prototype within the next year. Lee hopes that his company can partner with electronics makers to incorporate the display in heads-up devices such as Google Glass or to create displays on car windshields.