Transparent and energy-efficient electrochromic AR display with minimum crosstalk using the pixel confinement effect

Abstract

Transparent non-emissive displays are ideal for augmented reality (AR) applications due to their ability to modulate ambient light as colored and transparent pixels. Electrochromic (EC) displays with transparent “ON” and “OFF” states can help enable such a display. However, unwanted image diffusion and signal crosstalk due to the imbalance between performance and the preparation process limit their practical application. In this work, we present a transparent and energy-efficient EC display prototype (4.2 inch, 16 × 16 pixels). We minimize the signal crosstalk problem by exploiting the confinement effect between EC pixels using the in situ photolithography of EC materials with the application of a photolithographic pixel definition layer and digital dispensing printing. The prototype has an optical modulation of ∼60%, a full-contrast lifetime tested beyond 20,000 cycles, an ultra-low power consumption (9.5 μW/cm2), and the ability to provide spatiotemporally tunable information for potential AR applications.