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Researchers Build 300-Nanometer OLED Pixel That Matches Micro-Pixel Brightness

A gold nano-antenna with an insulating ring channels current to the center, enabling stable orange emission from a pixel smaller than the light’s wavelength.

Overview

  • The University of Würzburg team reported a 300 × 300 nanometer OLED nanopixel in Science Advances, led by Jens Pflaum and Bert Hecht.
  • The device emits orange light as bright as a conventional 5 × 5 micrometer OLED pixel and remained functional for two weeks under ambient conditions.
  • A gold cuboid electrode that also acts as a nano-antenna, insulated by a hydrogen silsesquioxane ring applied via electron-beam lithography, mitigates corner field spikes and shorting.
  • Current radiation efficiency is in the ~1 percent range and only a single color has been demonstrated, with no timeline for broader color coverage or higher efficiency.
  • Pixel density implied by the design suggests a 1920 × 1080 display could fit into about one square millimeter, though scaling to addressable, manufacturable arrays is still an open challenge.