9560589 Halverson This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate a low-cost manufacturing process for miniature thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) displays. A TFEL head mounted display (HMD) will be based on passive matrix addressing and indium bump bonded drive electronics. Passive matrix addressing is expected to simplify fabrication and improve HMD manufacturing by decreasing the number of high voltage drive transistors required for display operation. Additional improvements in producibility are expected due to separate fabrication and test of the miniature TFEL panel and drive chips. Ion implantation of multicolor activators through high resolution masks will be used to introduce luminescent centers selectively and form color pixels. Miniaturization of the TFEL panel would allow high refresh rates and, therefore, a high-brightness display. Low cost, miniaturized TFEL displays will be used in applications requiring hands-free transfer of information such as equipment maintenance, telepresence surgery, and simulators for training. The largest potential commercial use will be high-performance virtual reality entertainment systems.
