Rising Tide in AR/VR Market: New Era of Spatial Computing Begins Amidst Challenges

The augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market is witnessing a resurgence of interest, particularly with the industry's pivot towards the metaverse. Key players like Meta and Apple are at the forefront, with Apple's launch of Vision Pro marking a new phase in spatial computing. This technology is widely viewed as the next evolutionary step in 3D digital interaction.

Source: DSCC

Despite the enthusiasm, the market reality has lagged behind expectations. According to a recent IDC report, global AR/VR headset shipments have seen a consistent decline, dropping 44.6% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2023. This trend highlights the challenges in boosting demand and adoption rates. A critical area for growth lies in innovative display technologies, crucial for developing AR/VR products.

The Quest 3's design is an evolution of that of the Quest 2, combined with elements of the Meta Quest Pro. It uses a pair of LCD displays with a per-eye resolution of 2064×2208 (an increase over the 1832×1920 resolution of the Quest 2), viewed through pancake lenses similar to the Quest Pro to enable a thinner enclosure. The face of the headset is adorned with three "pills" containing sensors and cameras; the two outer pills each contain a monochrome camera used for positional tracking, and a color camera used for mixed reality passthrough. The center pill contains a depth sensor, which is used in combination with other sensors to sense the user's surroundings for boundaries and mixed reality experiences. The Quest 3 uses the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, a system-on-chip manufactured by Qualcomm and based on their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship mobile phone SoC. which Meta has touted as having more than twice the raw graphics (GPU) performance of the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 used by the Quest 2 and other similar standalone headsets

The future, however, looks promising. Guillaume Chansin of DSCC anticipates a significant uptick in the AR/VR headset market over the next five years, beginning in 2024. This optimism is fueled by expectations of advanced headsets powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, alongside new offerings from Meta, ByteDance, and Apple. Despite a steep price tag, Apple's Vision Pro, equipped with optical inserts from Zeiss, is expected to make a mark in the market.

Apple Vision Pro is an upcoming mixed-reality headset developed by Apple Inc. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, with availability scheduled for early 2024 in the United States and later that year internationally. It is Apple's first product in another major category since the Apple Watch in 2015

The shift towards multiple displays in AR/VR products is another notable trend, with most devices incorporating dual displays. DSCC projects a staggering increase in display shipments for AR/VR, reaching 124 million units by 2028. While VR is set to dominate consumer spaces, see-through AR will be more prevalent in professional settings.

The battle of display technologies is central to this evolution. While VR and pass-through AR mostly rely on TFT LCD and AMOLED, MicroOLED has started to make inroads. MicroOLED, particularly favored by Apple's Vision Pro, offers high resolution and luminance, crucial for an enhanced user experience. Additionally, the emerging MicroLED technology, known for its high brightness and reliability, is poised to revolutionize see-through AR displays.

Despite these advancements, the AR/VR market continues to grapple with challenges in display technology. Innovations in Micro OLED and MicroLED are essential to overcome these hurdles and drive market growth. As the industry continues to evolve, these technologies will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of spatial computing.

ALD offers significant advantages in Micro OLED and MicroLED display manufacturing. Its ability to deposit ultra-thin, uniform layers is crucial for layer uniformity and display quality. ALD is pivotal for creating barrier layers in Micro OLEDs, protecting them from environmental degradation, and for depositing dielectric layers in MicroLEDs, essential for improving efficiency and reducing pixel cross-talk. Additionally, ALD enhances light extraction, encapsulation, and interface engineering, crucial for flexible and transparent displays. While initially costly, ALD's scalability and material diversity make it a key technology for advancing Micro OLED and MicroLED displays, potentially reducing overall manufacturing costs and enhancing display longevity and performance.

Sources: 

MicroOLED and MicroLED: The Future of AR/VR Displays – Display Daily

Wikipedia