Kopin achieves important milestone in development of ultra-high brightness µLED microdisplay

Kopin® a provider of application specific optical systems and high-performance micro-displays for defense, enterprise, professional and consumer markets, announced that it has achieved an important milestone in the development of its superbright 2K x 2K monochrome MicroLED display.

Micro-displays used in Augmented Reality (AR) applications require very high brightness for a user to see images clearly and crisply when using a device in bright daylight conditions and in see-through enabled applications. Kopin’s 1″ diagonal 2K x 2K MicroLED display (2048 x 2048 resolution) has been developed to support high-performance defense and AR applications. The initial production verification samples utilizing Kopin’s proprietary backplane and drive technology have achieved brightness levels of over 2.8 million nits¹ and the brightness of the production displays is projected to increase to between 3.2-3.5 million nits.

Inorganic Light Emitting Diode (MicroLED or µLED) technology is widely seen across the display industry as an important technology for the future and especially for AR systems where its combination of brightness and efficiency is well matched to the market requirements. The brightness and image quality achieved in the production verification displays has allowed Kopin’s initial MicroLED customer to start integrating the displays into their system for low-rate initial production testing.

“MicroLED displays can achieve brightness levels that are a necessary enabler to allow AR systems to be fully deployed in bright ambient conditions,” stated Bill Maffucci, Kopin’s Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategy. “We believe the 2K x 2K MicroLED that we are developing is by far the highest resolution LED microdisplay that has ever been developed and it incorporates several proprietary design features that overcome challenges which previously limited the use of this technology. We are very pleased with our initial test results and look forward to completing development of this display and moving into production.”