Although the market demand of displays bright enough to allow the diffusion of readable information against a very bright landscape is important, in particular in the avionics application, existing technologies still do not allow the desired brightness combined with very low power consumption and very compact volume. In this context, the HiLICo project aims at developing a new generation of monochrome and full-color emissive GaN micro-displays with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution (WUXGA), 8-μm pixel pitch, very high brightness (over 1MCd/cm²) and good form factor capabilities that will enable the design of ground breaking compact see-through system for next generation Avionics applications. To achieve this aim, HiLICo will address the following challenges: 1. development of high-quality GaN based LED epilayers designed to fulfill targeted demonstrator performances; 2. design and fabrication of an active matrix in advanced Complementary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) technology to control each individual pixel; 3. coupling of the LED structure and the CMOS, building a monolithic structure on which LED arrays will be fabricated with high precision, thus making monochrome, active-matrix, high-resolution GaN microdisplays; 4. addition of colour converters (quantum dots and 2D Multi-Quantum Wells layers) on such blue emitting devices, for fabricating bi-color and full-color display demonstrators; 5. design and manufacture of the electronics followed by the test and evaluation of the complete micro display device. First demonstrators will be qualified for future commercialisation. The technology developed will contribute to the increase of European competitiveness, through the rapid and important deployment of innovative products on the microdisplay market, as well as Head-Up Displays, Head-mounted displays and smart Eyewears. The consortium gathers 1 RTO, 1 large company and 2 SMEs. They will mobilise a grant of 4 091 583 € with an effort of 283 PM.

POPULAR aims at developing the first generic Augmented Reality Eyewear (ARE) platform covering the widest range of users and use cases, in professional context, leisure, or in daily life. The ordinary-looking glasses will provide visual, wearable, vestibular, and social comfort, making them suitable for all-day use, including personal ophthalmic correction. Major innovations are related to compactness and invisible technology, optical quality, ultra-low power consumption and long operation times, integrating cost-efficiency aspects as well. SSH aspects will be considered in all stages of the project by using a dual approach with an interplay between Human Driven Design and multidisciplinary system engineering through iterative prototype testing. POPULAR will develop all critical components, namely ultra-low power microdisplay with related optics and electronics, innovative Holographic Lens Mirror, as well as application software, and perform the integration into eyewear prototypes. Demonstration will be achieved by performing end-user tests with the prototypes in 3 realistic use case scenarios: outdoor sports, healthcare, and logistics. The consortium is a unique combination of cross-functional experts, representing the entire value chain. It consists of 10 partners from 4 EU countries, including 4 RTO/ACA, 3 industrial companies of which 2 SMEs, and 3 use-case partners. In addition, an Advisory Board of stakeholders and ethics experts will guide the POPULAR consortium during the main steps of the project. The innovation provided by the project provides a unique chance to the European industry becoming a leader in a growing market of ARE, building on its worldwide leadership in the Eyewear industry and its strong R&D and Innovation capabilities. Through the project demonstrations and the continuous support of the Advisory Board, guidelines covering user, design, market and societal requirements will be developed, supporting deployment in real scenarios.

The LOMID project will define pathways to the manufacture of flexible OLED microdisplays with an exceptionally large area (16 mm x 20 mm, screen diagonal of 25.4 mm) at acceptably high yields (>65%). This will be achieved by developing a robust silicon-based chip design allowing high pixel counts (1024x1280 (SXGA)) and high spatial resolution(pixel sizes of 10 µm x 10 µm corresponding to 2000 ppi). These display innovations will be coupled to a highly reliable manufacturing of the backplane. Cheap processes (e.g. based on 0.35 µm lithography) will be developed and special attention will be given to the interface between the top metal electrode of the CMOS backplane and the subsequent OLED layers. All these developments will be done on a 200 mm wafer scale. Along with this, a new testing procedure for quality control of the CMOS wafer (prior to OLED deposition) will be developed and promoted for standardisation. The flexibility of the large area microdisplays will be achieved by wafer thinning to enable a bending radius of 45 mm. Along with the new functionality, the durability of the devices has to be guaranteed despite bending to be comparable to rigid devices. The project will address this by improving the OLED efficiency (e.g. operating lifetime > 15,000 hours) and by modifying the device encapsulation to both fulfil the necessary barrier requirements (WVTR < 10^-6 g/d m2) and to give sufficient mechanical protection. The demand for and timeliness of these flexible, large area microdisplays is shown by the strong interest of industrial integrators to demonstrate the benefits of the innovative OLED microdisplays. Within the project, industrial integrators will validate the project’s microdisplays in smart glasses for virtual reality and to aid those with impaired vision.