A research team from the University of Waterloo published their result of a successful demonstration which integrates amorphous silicon TFTs and Micro LED on large-area flexible substrates. With the approach, manufacturing of flexible Micro LED for wearables and large size displays with lower cost could be achieved.

Researchers combined conventional low-temperature amorphous silicon TFT fabrication process with a laser lift-off transfer process to integrate blue GaN-based Micro LEDs with flexible TFT pixel circuits.

According to the study, the selective laser liftoff process would not damage Micro LEDs while it increased 25% in electroluminescence with a better light extraction. As a result, after integrating with flexible substrate, electrical and optical performance of the TFTs and LEDs would not change.

The result was published on Nanotechnology in April 2019. The researchers noted that this method may be a potential approach for innovative Micro LED applications with less production cost.