LED technology developer SelfArray Inc. has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research Phase II Award to continue its work toward direct-view LED display manufacturing technology.

Direct-view LED displays, which are much brighter, have a better contrast ratio, and are more energy efficient than traditional LED displays, are currently being used for video walls, large indoor displays, and lighting fixtures. These displays use small, individual LEDs as pixels, and there are 24 million such LEDs in a single 4K display.

With current manufacturing methods, it takes anywhere from three weeks to four months to assemble a single direct-view LED display because a robotic arm must place each LED into a pixel array individually. SelfArray, however, is developing technology that utilizes magnets, vibration, and levitation to self-assemble LEDs in an array that can then be used to make a display. By using this method, SelfArray can drastically reduce the manufacturing time from months to minutes.

“Our technology enables the assembly of large LED subsystems hundreds of times faster and with lower capital equipment costs than is common today, and our new NSF grant will enable us to continue our research and development over the next two years,” said Clinton Ballinger, CEO and founder of SelfArray. “Our goal is to create a process that facilitates the manufacture of a lower-cost direct-view LED display that will replace current methods and displace LCD or OLED technology.”

SelfArray is a developer of technology for direct-view LED displays and LED lighting sheets with low-cost and high-speed LED assembly.