The Future of Display: An Interview with Reza Chaji, CEO & Founder of VueReal

MicroLED, poised as the next OLED, isn’t just a technological leap; it’s a gateway to a massive $180 billion display market transformation. However, the bottleneck to widespread microLED adoption is the seamless transition of LEDs from wafer to backplane. Traditional methods like laser and pick-and-place are stumbling blocks, proving inefficient, unscalable, and raising sustainability concerns.

The industry needs a scalable, eco-friendly revolution that overcomes challenges in yield, throughput, performance, and cost. This isn’t just about advancing MicroLED displays; it’s about propelling the entire realm of microdevice applications, including groundbreaking microSensors, into a new era of industry dominance.

VueReal, the pioneer in micro solid printing technology, is at the forefront of driving advancements in next-generation microLED and microdevice products, set to revolutionize industries. 

The company’s MicroSolid Printing™ platform leverages an eco-friendly micro-pixel manufacturing process, enabling the seamless transfer of microLEDs and a range of microdevices—MicroSensors, MicroChiplets, and MicroSolar—efficiently, sustainably, and at scale. 

VueReal’s approach incorporates the principles of software development into hardware—empowering customers to cost-effectively manufacture innovative next gen display and sensor products anywhere in the world.

Could you give us more insight into the current state of the microLED display market and what role VueReal is playing in driving this market toward a projected $30 billion valuation by 2029?

MicroLED is widely viewed as the next generation display technology, with superior characteristics: ultra-high brightness, nanosecond response time, low power consumption, high color reproduction, longer lifespan, and wide view angle. 

MicroLED displays provide transparency, seamless connections, sensor integration, and an extended lifetime–and can provide the same perfect black as OLEDs, but without the danger of burn-in, as well as higher brightness than any other display technology. Additionally, MicroLED uses minuscule LEDs to create the subpixels in a display, eliminating the need for organic materials. Many fascinating displays, which cannot be realized with traditional display technologies, can become reality with microLED

Importantly, MicroLED displays provide superior environmental benefits over OLED :

• MicroLED fabs use 30%~200% less water, power, and materials and produces significantly lower toxic materials
• 50% to 200% lower power consumption

The market is well-positioned to reach $30B by 2029 – with the right transfer technology that overcomes the limitations of existing solutions like laser and pick and place. The number one challenge to the mass adoption of microLED displays has been the absence of a production-ready process capable of transferring microLEDs swiftly and reliably from the wafer to the backplane. 

There are four key challenges that need to be addressed to seize this market potential, and MicroSolid Printing addresses them all:

1. Cost

Cost stands as a significant obstacle to the widespread adoption of microLED displays and other microdevice innovations. Transfer solutions directly affect the Capital expenditure, operation cost, and material cost. While tool complexity and price impacts the capex, the yield and throughput can impact the opex and material cost. In addition, the wafer utilization efficiency impacted by transfer solutions  contribute to the material cost. Transfer solutions that can facilitate hundreds of millions of displays annually must seamlessly integrate with existing fabrication, display tools, and processes to enable the transition to microLED and microdevice products with minimal capital expenditure.

2. Yield

Yield, the percentage of microLEDS successfully transferred and functional on the final display, is challenging with traditional transfer solutions like pick and place, and those prone to defects like laser.. Next-gen transfer solutions must have the ability to quickly transfer millions of micropixel devices onto a surface with high yield with 0 defects.

3. Throughput

High-quality microLED and microdevice solutions require the seamless transfer of millions of microLED chips from their growth substrates to final display backplanes with high efficiency, accuracy, and reliability. Traditional methods such as laser and pick and place are ineffective or impractical when dealing with the substantial volume of microLED or microdevices.

4. Performance

Achieving uniformity in wafers is a significant challenge in scaling microLED display and microdevice production. Traditional solutions struggle to overcome wafer non-uniformity, resulting in sub-optimal wafer utilization, typically under 50%. Next-gen transfer solutions should deliver greater than 80% utilization and make the majority of wafer areas useful in the production process.

As a result of market challenges with pick and place and laser, the number of displays being sold is small, with high manufacturing costs and low production capacity, limiting the use of microLEDs in most markets. A novel method is needed to address transfer challenges in yield, throughput, performance, and cost. Without advances in transfer—progress in other areas like device and backplane innovations encounter unit cost/performance barriers. 

How does VueReal’s approach differ from traditional methods of manufacturing microLED displays and What advantages does VueReal offer in terms of cost-efficiency compared to competitors in the market?

VueReal’s MicroSolid Printing™ platform leverages an eco-friendly micro-pixel manufacturing process, enabling the seamless transfer of microLEDs and a range of microdevices—MicroSensors, MicroChiplets, and MicroSolar—efficiently, sustainably, and at scale.

The platform addresses the foremost challenge in the mass adoption of microLED displays—the efficient transfer of LEDs from wafer to backplane. VueReal’s patented process excels in transferring millions of micrometer-sized LEDs with unparalleled efficiency, scalability, and high yield. Overcoming challenges inherent in other transfer solutions like laser and pick-and-place, VueReal is defying industry projections to make the mass production of microLED displays a tangible reality today. With microLED displays for automotive already in production—VueReal is well-positioned to revolutionize visual experiences in automotive, wearables, smartphones, AR/VR, and lighting while catapulting the microLED display market to $30b by 2029.

MicroSolid Printing vs. Other Solutions (Laser, Pick and Place):

• Exceptional visual quality, energy efficiency, tunable transparency (80% to zero), and versatile applications. 

• 2-5 times higher throughput

• Rapid placement of tens of millions of individual micro-LEDs into precise locations—and facilitation of mass integration of other microdevices.

• 2-5 times more economical due to LED pitch and wafer utilization improvements

• Reduction of wafers by up to 10 times, lowering toolset requirements

• Wafer uniformity, enabling the use of all wafers with 80% wafer utilization compared to under 50% for other solutions

Sustainability Advantages:

• A 30 percent reduction in environmental impact / clean energy

• Uses >2 times fewer wafers for the same number of displays, leading to further savings in water, power and materials.

• Ongoing development for backplane, further saving power consumption

• Seamless integration of high-efficient MicroSemi displays and surfaces for energy recycling and harvesting

How is VueReal democratizing production of microLED displays and in terms of scalability and seamless integration into existing technologies, what are some other potential applications for microLED displays? Can VueReal’s technology be used in wearables, smartphones and AI products?

VueReal’s turnkey MicroSolid Printing™ platform seamlessly integrates with existing fabrication, display tools and processes, offering customers a cost-effective transition to microLED with minimal capital expenditure.  VueReal offers two options: 

1) The development of high-resolution, high transparency microLED displays and lighting-related products produced at its Canadian-based facility, already serving several top global auto OEMs.

2) A MicroSolid Printing Blueprint solution, available for licensing. This comprehensive offering includes VueReal’s patented transfer technology, MicroSolid printers and printer cartridges, backplane preparation and data analytics—empowering customers to design, develop and scale microLED and microdevice-based products anywhere in the world.  

What are the implications of MicroSolid Printing for other micro semi products such as micro solar and micro chiplets across industries, are there any environmental benefits associated with using VueReal’s technology for production processes? 

VueReal MicroSolid Printing is compatible with different device structures and materials. This enables integration of micro-sensor, micro-Solar and other devices into a substrate. This can enable applications beyond display by the integration of sensors.  

Could you give us a walkthrough of your journey so far at VueReal, how did you get here today, who are the brains behind this venture and any success stories you would like to share with us?

• VueReal’s seasoned management team and board—comprised of industry veterans from companies including Samsung, Sony, AT&T, Globalfoundries, and Cycle Capital—position the company to propel the $30B microLED display market by 2030 and spearhead innovation in the 1T annual microdevice market. 

• Customers: VueReal already manufactures cutting-edge, high-performance microLED displays and lighting solutions for four leading Automotive OEMs at its Canadian facility. VueReal also collaborating with three manufactures on VueReal’s MicroSolid Printing Blueprint solution.

• Innovation: With nearly 300 patents, a world-class R&D team, and a commitment to ongoing innovation, VueReal’s industry first solutions include: a patented MicroSolid Printing Platform; ((add additional industry-firsts)).

• Partnerships: VueReal’s strategic partnerships, including those with (top 3), reflect the company’s commitment to forging a global ecosystem to facilitate the cost-effective manufacturing of innovative microLED and microdevice products for new and emerging applications.

• Funding: With $60M USD in financing to date, VueReal is well-positioned to successfully scale to become the gold standard in MicroSolid Printing.

What are you currently working on, do you have any available opportunities for investors and partnerships at VueReal? Any more tips you would like to share with our readers today?

VueReal is committed to shaping the future of the display and sensor industry. This includes development of a turnkey platform that can be adopted by small and large companies for developing customized or high volume products. This platform includes partners from tool vendors, material vendors and different component vendors. We welcome any partners that can collaborate with us and help accelerate the adoption of microLED and microSensor products.

We are also in the midst of another funding round to accelerate the development of this platform.

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