MicroLEDs, with pixels simply micrometers throughout, have lengthy been a byword within the show world. Now, microLED-makers have begun shrinking their creations into the uncharted nano realm. In January, a startup named Polar Gentle Applied sciences unveiled prototype blue LEDs lower than 500 nanometers throughout. This raises a tempting query: How far can LEDs shrink?
We all know the reply is, at the least, significantly smaller. Prior to now yr, two completely different analysis teams have demonstrated LED pixels at sizes of 100 nm or much less.
These are a number of the smallest LEDs ever created. They go away a lot to be desired of their effectivity—however at some point, nanoLEDs may energy ultra-high-resolution virtual reality shows and high-bandwidth on-chip photonics. And the important thing to creating even tinier LEDs, if these early makes an attempt are any precedents, could also be to make extra uncommon LEDs.
New Approaches to LED
Take Polar Gentle’s instance. Like many LEDs, the Sweden-based startup’s diodes are customary from III-V semiconductors like gallium nitride (GaN) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN). Not like many LEDs, that are etched into their semiconductor from the highest down, Polar Gentle’s are as a substitute fabricated by constructing peculiarly formed hexagonal pyramids from the underside up.
Polar Gentle designed its pyramids for the bigger microLED market, and plans to start out industrial manufacturing in late 2026. However additionally they needed to check how small their pyramids may shrink. Up to now, they’ve made pyramids 300 nm throughout. “We haven’t reached the restrict, but,” says Oskar Fajerson, Polar Gentle’s CEO. “Do we all know the restrict? No, we don’t, however we are able to [make] them smaller.”
Elsewhere, researchers have already accomplished that. Among the world’s tiniest LEDs come from teams who’ve foregone the usual III-V semiconductors in favor of different varieties of LEDs—like OLEDs.
“We’re considering of a unique pathway for natural semiconductors,” says Chih-Jen Shih, a chemical engineer at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Shih and his colleagues had been excited by discovering a strategy to fabricate small OLEDs at scale. Utilizing an electron-beam lithography-based method, they crafted arrays of inexperienced OLEDs with pixels as small as 100 nm throughout.
The place right this moment’s greatest shows have 14,000 pixels per inch, these nanoLEDs—introduced in an October 2025 Nature Photonics paper—can attain 100,000 pixels per inch.
One other group tried their fingers with perovskites, cage-shaped supplies best-known for his or her prowess in high-efficiency solar panels. Perovskites have not too long ago gained traction in LEDs too. “We needed to see what would occur if we make perovskite LEDs smaller, all the best way all the way down to the micrometer and nanometer length-scale,” says Dawei Di, engineer at Zhejiang College in Hangzhou, China.
Di’s group began with comparatively colossal perovskite LED pixels, measuring tons of of micrometers. Then, they fabricated sequences of smaller and smaller pixels, every tinier than the final. Even after the 1 μm mark, they didn’t cease: 890 nm, then 440 nm, solely bottoming out at 90 nm. These 90 nm crimson and inexperienced pixels, introduced in a March 2025 Nature paper, probably signify the smallest LEDs reported so far.
Effectivity Challenges
Sadly, small dimension comes at a value: Shrinking LEDs additionally shrinks their effectivity. Di’s group’s perovskite nanoLEDs have exterior quantum efficiencies—a measure of what number of injected electrons are transformed into photons—round 5 to 10 p.c; Shih’s group’s nano-OLED arrays carried out barely higher, topping 13 p.c. For comparability, a typical millimeter-sized III-V LED can attain 50 to 70 percent, relying on its shade.
Shih, nonetheless, is optimistic that modifying how nano-OLEDs are made can enhance their effectivity. “In precept, you may obtain 30 p.c, 40 p.c exterior quantum effectivity with OLEDs, even with a smaller pixel, but it surely takes time to optimize the method,” Shih says.
Di thinks that researchers may take perovskite nanoLEDs to much less dire efficiencies by tinkering with the fabric. Though his group is now specializing in the bigger perovskite microLEDs, Di expects researchers will finally reckon with nanoLEDs’ effectivity hole. If purposes of smaller LEDs turn into interesting, “this difficulty may turn into more and more essential,” Di says.
What Can NanoLEDs Be Used For?
What are you able to truly do with LEDs this small? In the present day, the push for tinier pixels largely comes from units like smart glasses and virtual reality headsets. Makers of those shows are hungry for smaller and smaller pixels in a chase for bleeding-edge image high quality with low power consumption (one cause that effectivity is essential). Polar Gentle’s Fajerson says that smart-glass producers right this moment are already in search of 3 μm pixels.
However researchers are skeptical that VR shows will ever want pixels smaller than round 1 μm. Shrink pixels too far past that, and so they’ll cross their mild’s diffraction limit—meaning they’ll turn into too small for the human eye to resolve. Shih’s and Di’s teams have already crossed the restrict with their 100-nm and 90-nm pixels.
Very tiny LEDs might as a substitute discover use in on-chip photonics programs, permitting the likes of AI data centers to speak with better bandwidths than they will right this moment. Chip manufacturing big TSMC is already trying out microLED interconnects, and it’s straightforward to think about chipmakers turning to even smaller LEDs sooner or later.
However the tiniest nanoLEDs might have much more unique purposes, as a result of they’re smaller than the wavelengths of their mild. “From a course of standpoint, you’re making a brand new element that was not potential up to now,” Shih says.
For instance, Shih’s group confirmed their nano-OLEDs may type a metasurface—a construction that makes use of its pixels’ nano-sizes to regulate how every pixel interacts with its neighbors. Someday, comparable units may focus nanoLED mild into laser-like beams or create holographic 3D nanoLED shows.
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