Sidtek, a designer and manufacturer of micro-OLED products, showcases its display technology for AR and VR applications. Bruce Elliott, General Manager of North America Operations, explains the company’s end-to-end capabilities, which include silicon wafer design headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and manufacturing in its new facilities in Wuhu City. Sidtek is currently operating its first fab, with a second and third under construction to meet growing market demand.
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The company highlights its 0.61-inch QHD micro-OLED display, which features a resolution of 2560×1600 and a pixel density of nearly 5,000 PPI. This is achieved with a 5.1 micron pixel pitch, one of the smallest in the industry, using a tandem white OLED structure with a color filter. The display can reach a brightness of 8,000 nits, making it suitable for AR applications. Sidtek is actively working to reduce the pixel pitch further, targeting the 4-micron range to enable smaller, more cost-effective designs.
Sidtek also presents a 0.49-inch Full HD (1920×1080) micro-OLED display, which is currently in production and has been demonstrated at 5,000 nits. Another 0.49-inch display with a 1600×1200 resolution, running at 3,000 nits, was developed for a specific domestic customer in China. The portfolio also includes a 1.35-inch 4K by 4K display and a 0.68-inch display used in the AR viewer glasses demonstrated at the booth.
For true AR applications, Elliott notes that the industry ideal for brightness is around 300,000 nits to overcome the significant light loss from current waveguide inefficiencies, which can reduce a 3,000-5,000 nit panel’s output to less than 1,000 nits at the eye. To address this, Sidtek is undertaking initiatives to develop super-high brightness products to compete with LCoS and micro-LED technologies in the AR space, aiming to provide a cost-effective and scalable alternative.
The company’s strategy focuses on both the near-eye VR market with direct-view modules and the emerging AR market. By leveraging its 12-inch wafer designs and expanding manufacturing capacity, Sidtek anticipates significant growth in the micro-OLED sector. The goal is to provide entry-level AR solutions that can address the current availability and price challenges associated with micro-LEDs, positioning itself for the expected expansion of the market in the next one to three years.
