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A monolithic three-dimensional integrated red micro-LED display on silicon using AlInP/GaInP epilayers

Nature Electronics volume 9, pages 170–179 (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

Monolithic three-dimensional integration technology can eliminate the need for mechanical alignment between driving circuits and light-emitting diode (LED) pixels, leading to ultrahigh-resolution displays. However, this is challenging for red micro-LEDs, which are typically based on AlGaInP/GaInP, because of their low quantum efficiency and performance degradation when the pixel size is reduced. Here we report a high-pixel-density (1,700 pixels per inch) red active-matrix display consisting of micro-LEDs based on an epitaxial AlInP/GaInP double-quantum-well structure and silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor integrated circuits. The epitaxial layer exhibits high internal quantum efficiency at low current densities (less than 10 A cm−2) due to a hole-dominant quantum well that reduces the non-radiative Shockley–Read–Hall recombination caused by electron lateral diffusion. We also use thickness fluctuation scattering in the quantum well to minimize the size-dependent quantum efficiency shift to higher current densities when reducing the size of the red micro-LEDs.

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Fig. 1: Requirements and structure of M3D red micro-LED displays for AR/VR.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: AlInP/GaInP epitaxial design for red micro-LED displays based on TCAD simulations.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 3: AlGaInP/GaInP and AlInP/GaInP DQW device characteristics.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 4: Reducing size-dependent degradation using AlInP/GaInP (14/4 nm) DQW structures.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 5: Demonstration of a 1,700-ppi M3D integrated micro-display on Si CMOS IC.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF; RS-2024-00416583; to S.K., J.P., W.B. and Hyunsu Kim), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea (project number 20017391; to S.K., J.P., W.B. and Hyunsu Kim), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea (project number 20021920; to J. Lee and S.L.) and the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center of Samsung Electronics (project number SRFC-TB2003-02; to S.K., D.-M.G., J.P., W.B. and Hyunsu Kim).

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Author notes

  1. These authors jointly supervised this work: Dae-Myeong Geum, Sanghyeon Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Juhyuk Park, Woojin Baek, Hyunsu Kim, Shin Hyung Lee, Seungyeop Ahn, Seong Kwang Kim, Jaeyong Jeong, Joon Pyo Kim, Jinha Lim, Joonsup Shim & Sanghyeon Kim

  2. RAONTECH Inc., Seongnam, Republic of Korea

    Dongsoon Jung & Hokwon Kim

  3. Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Baul Kim & Yong-Hoon Cho

  4. QSI Inc., Cheonan, Republic of Korea

    Jaebong Lee & SungWook Lim

  5. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Dae-Myeong Geum

Authors
  1. Juhyuk Park
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Contributions

J.P. and S.K. conceived the idea. J.P. conducted the device fabrication and analysis. J.P., B.K. and Y.-H.C. conducted the device characterization. W.B., Hyunsu Kim, J. Lee, S.L., S.H.L., S.A. and J.J. contributed to the experimental and characterization methodologies. J.P. conducted the display fabrication, characterization and analysis. D.J., Hokwon Kim, S.K.K., J.P.K., J. Lim and J.S. contributed to the experimental and characterization methodology. All authors wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Dae-Myeong Geum or Sanghyeon Kim.

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Nature Electronics thanks Jiasheng Li, Driss Mouloua, Tongbo Wei and Feng Xu for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–20, Figs. 1–25, Tables 1–7 and equations (1)–(12).

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Park, J., Baek, W., Kim, H. et al. A monolithic three-dimensional integrated red micro-LED display on silicon using AlInP/GaInP epilayers. Nat Electron 9, 170–179 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01546-4

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