Displays based on inorganic light-emitting diodes (LED) are considered as the most promising one among the display technologies for the next-generation. The chip for LED display bears similar features to those currently in use for general lighting, but it size is shrunk to below 200 microns. Thus, the advantages of high efficiency and long life span of conventional LED chips are inherited by miniaturized ones. As the size gets smaller, the resolution enhances, but at the expense of elevating the complexity of fabrication. In this review, we introduce two sorts of inorganic LED displays, namely relatively large and small varieties. The mini-LEDs with chip sizes ranging from 100 to 200 μm have already been commercialized for backlight sources in consumer electronics applications. The realized local diming can greatly improve the contrast ratio at relatively low energy consumptions. The micro-LEDs with chip size less than 100 μm, still remain in the laboratory. The full-color solution, one of the key technologies along with its three main components, red, green, and blue chips, as well color conversion, and optical lens synthesis, are introduced in detail. Moreover, this review provides an account for contemporary technologies as well as a clear view of inorganic and miniaturized LED displays for the display community.

Red-green-blue (RGB) full-color micro light-emitting diodes (μ-LEDs) fabricated from semipolar (20-21) wafers, with a quantum-dot photoresist color-conversion layer, were demonstrated. The semipolar (20-21) InGaN/GaN μ-LEDs were fabricated on large (4 in.) patterned sapphire substrates by orientation-controlled epitaxy. The semipolar μ-LEDs showed a 3.2 nm peak wavelength shift and a 14.7% efficiency droop under 200 A / cm 2 injected current density, indicating significant amelioration of the quantum-confined Stark effect. Because of the semipolar μ-LEDs’ emission-wavelength stability, the RGB pixel showed little color shift with current density and achieved a wide color gamut (114.4% NTSC space and 85.4% Rec. 2020).

Full-color displays based on micro light-emitting diodes (μLEDs) can be fabricated on monolithic epitaxial wafers. Nanoring (NR) structures were fabricated on a green LED epitaxial wafer; the color of NR-μLEDs was tuned from green to blue through strain relaxation. An ${\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ layer was deposited on the sidewall of NR-μLEDs, which improved the photoluminescence intensity by 143.7%. Coupling with the exposed multiple quantum wells through nonradiative resonant energy transfer, red quantum dots were printed to NR-μLEDs for a full-color display. To further improve the color purity of the red light, a distributed Bragg reflector is developed to reuse the excitation light.

Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology is an emerging technology using visible light modulation that, in the modern world, will mainly facilitate high-speed internet connectivity. VLC provides tremendous advantages compared to conventional radio frequency, such as a higher transmission rate, high bandwidth, low-power consumption, no health hazards, less interference, etc., which make it more prominent in recent days. Due to their outstanding features, including low cost, low power consumption, etc., µ-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have gained considerable attention for VLC implementation, but mostly for the ability to be used for lighting as well as communications. In this review paper, we will focus mainly on recent developments in VLC applications and various factors affecting the modulation bandwidth of VLC devices. Numerous factors, such as quantum confined stark effect (QCSE), carrier lifetime, carrier recombination time, crystal orientation, etc. affect the modulation bandwidth of LEDs, and more information will be discussed in the following sections. This paper will focus on VLC applications based on LEDs but mainly on semipolar μ-LEDs and μ-LED-based arrays with high bandwidths. Another important application of VLC is underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC), which has drawn a huge interest in marine exploration and underwater connectivity, but still faces some challenges because visible light is being used. In addition, this paper will focus on how the current VLC system modulation bandwidth can be enhanced. Many methods have been introduced, such as decreasing the active layer thickness or effective active area or using doping, but the bandwidth is restricted by the recombination time when the system configuration reaches its limit. Therefore, it is important to find alternative ways such as optimizing the system, using the blue filter or using the equalization technology, which will be addressed later. Overall, this review paper provides a brief overview of the VLC-based system performance and some of its potential prospects.

In terms of their use in displays, quantum dots (QDs) exhibit several advantages, including high illumination efficiency and color rendering, low-cost, and capacity for mass production. Furthermore, they are environmentally friendly. Excellent luminescence and charge transport properties of QDs led to their application in QD-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which have attracted considerable attention in display and solid-state lighting applications. In this review, we discuss the applications of QDs which are used on color conversion filter that exhibit high efficiency in white LEDs, full-color micro-LED devices, and liquid-type structure devices, among others. Furthermore, we discuss different QD printing processes and coating methods to achieve the full-color micro-LED. With the rise in popularity of wearable and see-through red, green, and blue (RGB) full-color displays, the flexible substrate is considered as a good potential candidate. The anisotropic conductive film method provides a small controllable linewidth of electrically conductive particles. Finally, we discuss the advanced application for flexible full-color and highly efficient QD micro-LEDs. The general conclusion of this study also involves the demand for a more straightforward QD deposition technique, whose breakthrough is expected.