microLED is an emerging flat-panel display technology. The startup displays consist of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. Compared to widespread LCD technology, microLED displays offer better contrast, response times, and energy efficiency.
MicroLED offers greatly reduced energy requirements when compared to conventional LCD displays while also offering pixel-level light control and a high contrast ratio.
Google aquires Raxium, which is developing microLED displays for AR and VR applications. The cost of the acquisition wasn’t announced, but previous valuations were reported to be around the $1 billion mark.
microLED is similar to OLED in that it doesn’t use a backlight, instead each pixel emits its own light. The difference with OLED is in the materials used – microLED promises to be brighter, more energy efficient and to fix longevity issues (like burn-in).
Making microLEDs tiny enough for head-worn devices has been a challenge, however. And they need to be small, since a small, light display needs to fill a significant portion of your field of view. Raxium claims its has achieved pixels as small as 3.5 µm, much smaller than a typical OLED pixel.
Raxium hasn’t produced a mass market device yet, which is probably for the best. North did have a product on the market, the Focals 1.0, a $600 pair of AR glasses (they were $1,000 at launch but swiftly got a price cut). After the acquisition Google shut off the service that the glasses relied on, rendering them unusable.
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