A New Semi-transparent OLED-on-Silicon Microdisplay Technology Enabling New Optical Design Opportunities for Slim Near-to-Eye Optics

Due to their very high resolution and high level of technological maturity, OLED microdisplays are an ideal image generator for VR, AR and MR applications in near-to-eye optics. However, due to the silicon-based backplane, these microdisplays have always been non-transparent, requiring a complex optical system for integration into an optic. This has a significant impact on the weight, size and overall optical efficiency of the system. In this paper, a novel technology for the realization of semi-transparent OLED-on-silicon microdisplays is presented, which enables completely new optical concepts for near-to-eye optics.