The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Park Sang-jin), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has succeeded in developing the world's first stretchable meta-micro LED display technology that stretches by 25% without image distortion, raising expectations for the future development of ultra-realistic displays.

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials announced on the 14th that Senior Researcher Bong-Kyun Jang and his research team at the Nanomechanical Equipment Research Laboratory have developed a micro LED stretchable meta-display technology that stretches according to the direction of pulling without image distortion, and published the related research results in Advanced Functional Materials.

This achievement was developed through the 'Development of Micro-LED-based Meta Display Technology' project, which is being carried out in 2019 with support from the Global Frontier Project of the Ministry of Science and ICT, specifically the Research Group for Extreme Control of Wave Energy (Research Group Leader Lee Hak-ju, hereinafter the Research Group). The Nanomechanical Equipment Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials has been researching micro LED transfer technology since 2008.

The research team utilized design and manufacturing technology for mechanical metamaterials with mechanical properties not found in nature to realize the world's first 3-inch class micro LED meta-display that does not distort images even when the stretchable display is pulled.

Most naturally occurring elastic materials, such as rubber, shrink in the vertical direction when stretched in the horizontal direction. Therefore, when implementing an elastic display, the displayed image becomes distorted. This was also the case with elastic displays.

Based on mechanical design technologies for flexible electronic devices and metastructures accumulated through extensive research and development, the research team designed a metamaterial with a Poisson ratio of -1 (the ratio of the material to which it contracts in the width direction when stretched in the length direction). When applied to circuit boards, this enables the creation of displays that not only prevent image distortion but also possess high elasticity and uniform deformation.

The research team developed this meta-display manufacturing technology by applying dynamic metamaterial design and manufacturing techniques to world-class large-area micro-LED roll transfer technology. In addition, based on this achievement, we plan to pursue follow-up research on micro LED displays for the ultra-realistic metaverse.

In addition, to respond to the currently growing Mini-LED and graphene industries, the company has established research spin-off companies YTS Micro-Tech and MCK-Tech to promote the commercialization of its proprietary technologies.

Senior Researcher Jang Bong-kyun stated, “We have resolved the fundamental image distortion problem inherent in flexible displays by utilizing a metastructure,” adding, “We will strive for the commercialization of this technology so that meta-display technology can be utilized in various electronic products in the future.”