Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP
Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP

Microdisplays and Sensors

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The Microdisplays and Sensors business unit is involved with R&D on comprehensive prototypes and systems of OLED-based microdisplay and sensor components. We offer you the entire spectrum of product development for OLED-on-silicon applications, ranging from CMOS design, to OLED stack alignment, optical design, system integration, and interface programming.

Our Services

Our services encompass all of the necessary steps – from the concept phase of development projects to transfer of the technology:

  • feasibility studies
  • conception of R&D projects including work packages, milestones, and costing
  • OLED fabrication technologies for organic semiconductors
  • CMOS design for controlling the OLED image or sensor devices
  • prototyping
  • organizing fabrication through a network of external foundries
  • creation of the system design based on novel integrated circuit packaging technologies
  • development of processes and procedures for fabricating structured, application-specific OLEDs, such as OLED microstructures and OLEDs for medical applications as well as for organic photodiodes (OPDs)
  • pilot fabrication
  • Evaluation kits for individual tests, assessments etc.
  • technology and design transfer as well as licensing for OLED microdisplays, OPDs, augmented-reality (AR) for wearables, optical sensors, fingerprint sensors, etc.

Rigid substrate like silicon wafers or glass as well as flexible substrates can always be employed.

Applications

 

Displays and
Wearables

Displays in consumer and professional applications are getting more and more sophisticated. Smart phones, wearables or TVs are equipped with numerous functions to interactively reflect and capture the world.

More info
 

Optics, sensor
technology, and
electronics

Coating technologies for the growth areas of optics, sensor technology, and electronics are gaining importance for an increasing number of established products and as a prerequisite for new products.

More info
 

Medical applications

The growth in the medical technology sector is being accompanied by a great variety of innovations. The development of new products and medical equipment is often based on sophisticated starting materials.

More info
 

Transport

Today’s cars reflect our individual preferences. A variety of functions can be implemented through thin-films technologies in optics, lighting and interior as well as through novel systems for connected mobility.

More info

  • bi-directional OLED microdisplays
    • in data glasses for improved human-machine interaction
    • as a display element in wearables
    • as an aid for visually impaired people
    • for work support in industrial fabrication, logistics, etc.
    • as fingerprint sensors
  • OLED microdisplays that emiting in the visible and NIR region
  • customer-specific display resolutions SVGA, XGA, VGA, …
  • ultralow-power microdisplays
    • for fitness trackers
    • for monitoring vital parameters in medical applications, etc.…
  • OLED microdisplays for project applications

→ All microdisplays are available as evaluation kits in various versions.

Technologies

 

IC and system design

Our long-term experience in design of analog, mixed-signal, digital IC provides a basis for the realization of customized solutions. The typical applications follow the slogan more-than-moore, in the integration of additional functions.

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Technologies for
organic electronics

The strength of Fraunhofer FEP is the availability of numerous processes and equipment as well as clean rooms that enable process development and innovation through combination of methods and processes. Fraunhofer FEP can access various coating technologies, as vacuum evaporation of organic and inorganic material, atomic layer deposition (ALD), print and lamination methods as well as laser ablation.

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Electron beam

Generation, shaping and control of the electron beam, its effect on the material and the realization of the necessary process technology, are the key aspects of our work in this core competency.

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Design and technology transfer

  • technology transfer and introduction of the process into production
  • technology transfer including fitting plants with key components
    (also retro-fit of existing plants)
  • scale up of processes and technologies for industrial plants
  • transfer of technology and product designs to our customers
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In our division Microdisplays and Sensors we offer our clients a broad range of processes in a clean room environment for conducting R&D as well as pilot-scale production of OLED microdisplays and sensors.

Our work focuses on the fabrication of micro- to nanoscale thin films and their structuring. Various facilities and processes are available for this purpose. There are also analytical methods available for characterizing layers.

  • combinability of different processes
  • thin-film encapsulation
  • deposition of high-precision layers and layer systems on wafers with positioning accuracy of ±10 µm
  • wafer encapsulation processes with positioning accuracy of ±1µm
  • thin-film deposition, structuring, and analysis at wafer level (200 mm)
  • 300 m² clean room (class 10)
  • pilot line for OLED-on-CMOS
  • pilot line for rigid substrates
  • pilot line for rigid/flexible substrates
  • facilities for etching, sputtering, and spin-coating
  • deposition using thermal evaporation, electron beam, Vitex/Barix™, and thin-film encapsulation
  • automated wafer-bonding system
  • photolithography
  • ellipsometer
  • wafer prober
    (i.a. one wafer prober provided by EVERBEING INT´L Corporation)

Wafer prober provided by EVERBEING INT´L Corporation

Wafer prober front view (as installed at Fraunhofer FEP)

Wafer prober side view (as installed at Fraunhofer FEP)

Virtual tour through the Fraunhofer FEP microdisplay clean room

Virtual tour through the Fraunhofer FEP microdisplay clean room

Projects

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Fraunhofer FEP is specialized in the development of OLED microdisplays for AR and VR glasses as well as for the use in sensor applications. The concept and the parameters of the display like resolution, pixel size and embedded functions can be varied in a wide range appropriate to the project specifications or customers needs. The spectrum ranges from ultra-low-power displays for small and lightweight data glasses over high resolution HD displays for VR headsets and viewfinders up to bidirectional displays with embedded image sensor functionality.

Fraunhofer FEP offers a selection of evaluation kits for a straightforward transfer of the microdisplays into customer-specific applications. Please get into contact with us for a detailed offer.

Selection of our evaluation kits

Ultra-low-power OLED microdisplays
  • for display of simple graphic information
  • ultra-low power consumption of approx. 1 mW
  • SPI-Interface
  • monochrome green with high luminance >1000 cd / m²
     
UUGL1120 UUGL1220 UUGL1320 
  • 0.19" diagonal
  • 304 × 256 pixels
  • 12 μm pixel pitch
  • 4 Bit grayscale
    		•
  • 0.16" diagonal
  • 304 × 128 pixels
  • 12 μm pixel pitch
  • 4 Bit grayscale
    		•
  • 0.15" diagonal
  • 720 × 256 pixels
  • 5 μm pixel pitch
  • 1 Bit grayscale
    		•

    The listed microdisplays UUGL 1120, 1220 and 1320 are each available in 2 versions and include a simple optics and a graphical user interface for the control:

    lab evaluation kit:

    The display is driven by a microcontroller evaluation board via a breakout board

    HMD evaluation kit:

    The driving is realized by a miniaturized electronics with battery and Bluetooth connection in a compact assembly

     

    Bidirectional OLED microdisplays

    These evaluation kits include OLED microdisplays that combine display and image sensor functionality by adding sensor pixel to each RGBW pixel on a single chip. Typical applications are smart data glasses with eye-tracking or optical sensors.

    • high-resolution SVGA microdisplay (800x600 pixels) with an integrated SVGA image sensor
    • 16 μm pixel pitch
    • 0.63” screen diagonal
    • simple connection of the display via HDMI and read out of the image sensor via USB 3.0 by the provided control electronics
    • configuration via supplied graphical user interface for Windows
    EBCW1020 EBGL1020 
  • full color display with 24 Bit color depth
  • image sensor with 8 Bit grayscale  
    		•
  • monochrome green display with 8 Bit color depth
  • image sensor with 8 Bit grayscale

    •  

    High-resolution WUXGA OLED microdisplays

    These evaluation kits include microdisplays which, due to their size and resolution, are particularly suitable for VR applications.

    • display diagonal: 1 inch
    • resolution: 1920 × 1200 pixels
    • pixel pitch 11 μm (2300 ppi)
    • high frame rates up to 120 Hz
    • high contrast ratio of >100 000 : 1 at extraordinary low power consumption
    • supplied with control electronics (via HDMI)
    • power supply via USB
    JUCW1010 JUGL1010
  • full color display with 24 Bit color depth
    		•
  • monochrome green display with 8 Bit color depth
    		•

     

    Sensors / organic photodiodes

    Organic photodiodes are integrated monolithically on wafer level on top of high-performace CMOS circuitries. The spectral behavior can be adapted according to your specific application. Various technologies are available at Fraunhofer FEP to process the active layers for optical sensors.

    For the development and evaluation of active layers or layer systems, we offer a development platform with various substrates, wafer layouts and processes.

    The evaluation kit consists of an SVGA image sensor, which uses an organic photodiode for detection. Read out is realized by a simple electronics over USB.

    ESML1011
  • 0.63" monochrome SVGA image sensor
  • 8 Bit grayscale
  • 16 μm pixel pitch
    		•

     

    Fraunhofer FEP is pleased to support you with these evaluation kits according to your specific requirements for the development of your products. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more detailed information and discussion of your project ideas!

    Contact persons

    Uwe Vogel

    Contact Press / Media

    Dr. Uwe Vogel

    Division Director Microdisplays and Sensors, Deputy Director

    Fraunhofer FEP
    Maria-Reiche-Str. 2
    01109 Dresden, Germany

    Phone +49 351 8823-282

    Fax +49 351 8823-394

    Bernd Richter

    Contact Press / Media

    Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Richter

    Deputy Division Director, Acting Head of Department Organic Microelectronic Devices

    Fraunhofer FEP
    Maria-Reiche-Str. 2
    01109 Dresden, Germany

    Phone +49 351 8823-285

    Fax +49 351 8823-394

    Philipp Wartenberg

    Contact Press / Media

    Dipl.-Ing. Philipp Wartenberg

    Acting Head of Department IC and System Design

    Fraunhofer FEP
    Maria-Reiche-Str. 2
    01109 Dresden, Germany

    Phone +49 351 8823-386

    Mario Metzner

    Contact Press / Media

    Mario Metzner

    Group Manager Microdisplay Cleanroom

    Fraunhofer FEP
    Maria-Reiche-Str. 2
    01109 Dresden, Germany

    Phone +49 351 8823-308

    Microdisplays and Sensors