Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the design of an interface for full-color microscopic light-emitting diodes (microLEDs), which can help boost visual fidelity on XR devices through higher pixels-per-inch (PPI). Research teams included staff from MIT, Georgia Tech Europe, and Sejong University, among others.

The MIT team has proposed a less wasteful fabrication process using a vertical LED approach instead of the traditional horizontal pixel arrangement, which does not require precise pixel-by-pixel alignment. Current OLEDs degrade over time, but micro-LEDs require less energy and last longer. 

Analyst QuickTake: The technological breakthrough follows the University of Michigan’s development of green micro-LEDs and Porotech’s DynamicPixelTuning technology in October 2022, which allow for higher resolutions on XR devices. The development from MIT allows roughly 5,000 PPI on XR devices; a more than six-fold increase from current VR headsets, such as the Meta Quest 2, with a PPI of 773.