PHOTONICS WEST 2024 ROUND-UP
FEATURE
able to deliver differentiating performance to the consumer, especially at a cost similar to OLEDs. Similar to OLEDs, microLEDs are self-emissive technologies, however they are able to retain many benefits of OLEDs, while also improving on many aspects, such as brightness, ruggedness, lifetime, viewing angles, power consumption, etc. In recent years, multiple market players have been pouring billions into R&D, while also ramping up mass production efforts in an attempt to bring down the cost.
From leſt: Jeremy Sage, Director of Integrated Devices, IonQ; Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, CEO, Nu Quantum; and Noel Goddard; CEO, Qunnect, at Photonics West 2024
of ORCA’s current PT Series products and achieving significant progress toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing in 2024 and beyond. “We are thrilled to welcome some of the best and brightest minds in integrated photonics to the ORCA family,” said Richard Murray, Co-founder and CEO of ORCA Computing. ORCA has previously been
part of an £11.6m grant- funded project by the UK
Chroma Technology
Among the innovations unveiled by Chroma this year was its introduction of rapid prototyping capabilities for optical filters, catering to high- and low-volume production needs. Eric Felkel, Manager of Product and Design Engineering, highlighted the importance of swiftly validating custom designs to reduce time-to-market. Chroma’s expertise spans various filter types, including band pass, edge, notch, dichroic, and neutral density filters, serving applications such as spectrometry, astronomy, and fluorescence microscopy. The company says its agility stems from its vast experience,
comprehensive inventory, and vertical integration, allowing for quick assessment and production. Unlike competitors focused on high-volume manufacturing, Chroma believes its independence enables flexibility in custom prototyping, addressing market gaps efficiently. Leveraging medium-sized production machines, Chroma
executes multiple projects simultaneously, promising prototypes within two to four weeks, depending on specifications. Georg Draude, European Sales Manager, emphasised Chroma’s commitment to responsiveness and quality, underscoring its distinct position in the filter manufacturing landscape.
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“We also need really high-detection efficiencies and everything needs to be super-low-loss”
government to construct a quantum data centre. It has also provided PT Series units to customers such as the UK Ministry of Defence and the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre.
Integrated photonics: ‘all about performance’ On precisely why Nu Quantum is interested in integrated photonics, Palacios-Berraquero, said that it is “all about performance”: “We’re building quantum networks, so we need very fast switching to be able to attempt entanglement as fast as we can. We also need really high-detection efficiencies and everything needs to be super- low-loss, because we’re working at the single-photon level. “We are interfering single photons, which means that the loss requirements are even higher”. She said UK-based Nu Quantum is developing integrated photonic circuits on lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), which “promises ultra- low loss, ultra-high switching speeds, but what is really interesting for us is that it has a wide transparency window”.
MicroLED commercialisation ‘must accelerate to
compete with OLEDs’ Commercialisation of microLEDs must be accelerated before OLEDs become too entrenched in key display applications, Eric Virey, Senior Market and Technology Analyst at Yole Development, told Photonics West attendees. However, to succeed, microLEDs must also be
How microLEDs enable new types of display applications Among the ongoing mass production efforts, microLEDs should, at least initially, be focussing on enabling applications that no other display technology can do, according to Virey. “For example, microLEDs can be used to assemble modular displays of any size by assembling smaller tiles into any type of display; this is what Samsung is doing today for its microLED TVs,” said Virey. “MicroLEDs also excel at producing transparent displays, some outstanding prototypes of which were recently showcased at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.” He also highlighted that
microLEDs are potentially the best technology for producing stretchable displays. “While this may sound like a gimmick, they can be used to achieve displays that are foldable in any direction and controllable to any surface. This is going to cause a lot of new interesting applications in automotive, wearables, etc.” Lastly, another very enticing possibility for micro entities in the longer term is the ability to include in-display sensors. This could, for example, enable displays equipped with fingerprint, facial and gesture recognition capabilities, as well as eye tracking and health monitoring. “However we’re not quite there yet,” remarked Viery. It is in these specialty displays, in addition to HUDs, automotive and augmented/virtual/mixed reality (AR|VR|MR) displays, in which Yole forecasts microLED performance being particularly good. “Here, we believe OEMs
March 2024 Electro Optics 9
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