The funding will be used to develop microLED displays for next generation Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Micledi’s vision is to enable AR for everyday personal use – smart glasses that are small, lightweight, with long battery life, and at reasonable cost. The startup claims to be developing the world smallest and brightest displays, leveraging a novel integration technology developed in collaboration with imec, yielding microLEDs on 300mm wafers. The first prototypes will be fabricated on imec’s 300mm pilot-line infrastructure.

The company was founded by Dr. Soeren Steudel and Dr. Alexander Mityashin, both researchers from imec with a deep know-how in the R&D field and display development. They are joined by Sean Lord, an experienced executive in the semiconductor industry, as CEO.

“AR glasses may replace our smartphones in the future and display technology is a key enabler for such a transition. Today’s display technologies cannot fulfil the specifications needed for next generation AR glasses. At Micledi we are tackling this challenge and have developed displays that are 100x brighter than commercial alternatives” - explains Soeren Steudel, co-founder of Micledi.

“We are pleased to back a unique team. We look forward to working with them and to enable technology that will be at the core of future AR devices and will change how digital information is presented to consumers”, commented Cyril Vančura, Partner at imec.xpand.

“Based on an original concept launched, now more than 2 years ago, by the Micledi team, imec together with imec.xpand incubated this into a promising technology base and exciting business case. It leverages imecs extensive R&D in organic displays, 300mm integration and wafer-scale optics technologies”, commented Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec.

Micledi Microdisplays BV - www.micledi.com

Imec – www.imec-int.com