World's smallest LED display with virus-sized pixels built in China

The scientists achieved an incredible pixel density of 127,000 pixels per inch by building LEDs that are just 90 nanometers wide using perovskite.

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Christopher McFadden

Representational image of pixels in the shape of viruses.

Ricardo Gaspar/iStock

Chinese physicists, engineers, opticians, and photonics specialists from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, have developed pixels that are the size of a virus. These pixels have been used to make what has been dubbed the world’s smallest light-emitting diode (LED) displays.

Developed with the aid of colleagues from the University of Cambridge, the LED displays are smaller than a grain of sand. This is significant as many displays on electronic devices (like cell phones) upgrade by attempting to pack more pixels into a small space.

In theory, the more pixels you can cram in, the sharper and better the image quality. The current technology for tiny pixels is micro-LEDs, made from II-V semiconductors (a type of compound).

But developing mico-LEDs pose multiple challenges, as going smaller gets expensive and inefficient with current materials. To overcome this, Baodan Zhao from from Zhejiang University and her team experimented with perovskite, an economical and promising material already being studied in solar panels.

Using perovskite, the researchers crafted pixel-sized LEDs just 90 nanometers wide to make nano-scale LEDs (nano-PeLEDs). The team found that unlike traditional LEDs, which tend to fade quickly, these new perovskite-based ones remain impressively bright.

Perovskite is a crystal-structured material that is inexpensive, easy to make, and incredibly efficient at absorbing and emitting light. Its chemical structure allows for excellent charge transport, which means it can quickly and efficiently turn electricity into light, a property ideal for LEDs.

Perovskite is also tunable, allowing scientists to tweak its composition, change its color or improve performance. Originally famous for its potential in solar panels, it’s now gaining traction in display tech. Unlike traditional materials, perovskites can be processed at low temperatures and printed, making them apt for affordable, high-resolution displays like micro and nano-LEDs.

The team that developed the nano-scale LEDs also found that miniaturization process of perovskites didn’t raise costs or lower the efficiency. In fact, the results were astounding. According to the researchers, they achieved an incredible pixel density of 127,000 pixels per inch, which is leagues more than anything currently used.

“Apart from our scientific curiosity, such experiments demonstrate that at extremely small sizes, perovskite LEDs can still maintain reasonable efficiencies,” noted Zhao.

Once refined, the new super-tiny, super-bright, and efficient pixels could be the perfect solution for ultra-high resolution displays in augmented reality (AR) glasses, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and, of course, the next generation of displays for smartphones or wearables. They could also redefine resolution for larger displays like televisions or computer monitors.

The feat is impressive, but it currently has some important limitations. The most significant is that perovskite LEDs can only emit one color (monochrome). To compete with current screens, they’ll need to develop full-color versions.

The team also acknowledges that it is not yet known how long these LEDs will last in real-world devices. Eventually, the human eye will reach a limit to how much more detail it can see as it can only discern sharpness to a certain degree. Developing resolution beyond about 576 MegaPixels would not be worth the effort, as human eyes cannot tell the difference.

The findings of the research have been published in the journal Nature.

Christopher McFadden Christopher graduated from Cardiff University in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Geology. Since then, he has worked exclusively within the Built Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Consultancy industries. He is a qualified and accredited Energy Consultant, Green Deal Assessor and Practitioner member of IEMA. Chris’s main interests range from Science and Engineering, Military and Ancient History to Politics and Philosophy.

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World's smallest LED display with virus-sized pixels built in China