HKUST Helps to Shape the Future of Display Innovations

Abstract

THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (HKUST) was founded in 1991 to support the city's aspirations for growth and innovation. Built on a sprawling 150-acre hillside campus overlooking the Clearwater Bay on the Sai Kung Peninsula (Fig. 1), the university has seen more than 112,000 students complete their undergraduate or graduate degrees during the past three decades. As of the 2024/2025 academic year, the university was home to more than 19,000 full-time students, with more than one third studying in its School of Engineering. HKUST expanded its geographic footprint in 2022, opening a satellite campus in Guangzhou in mainland China.

Fostering a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, the university has produced many pioneers in science and technology, including Frank Wang, who graduated from HKUST in 2005. The following year, he founded the company DJI, which is now the world's largest supplier of drones and aerial imaging devices as well as action cameras and portable cameras with integrated gimbals known for their image quality, ruggedness, and reliability.

In the visual display field, HKUST alumni have founded companies such as Shenzhen NED Optics, maker of GOOVIS head-mounted displays; Sitan Semiconductor International, manufacturer of microLED turn-key solutions; Roumei Technology; SmartChip Optoelectronic Semiconductor; and Raysolve Technology, maker of the first full-color ultrahigh brightness microLED microdisplay using quantum-dot (QD) technology. The university's track record for fostering successful technology companies and start-ups stems from its emphasis on advanced, hands-on practical research.

HKUST's School of Engineering is particularly strong in display sciences with its own Center for Display Research (CDR). Founded in 1994 by Professor Hoi-Sing Kwok, the CDR includes an advanced on-site laboratory facility that acts as a bridge among the university, state research institutes, and private corporations (Fig. 2). The facility is known as the State Key Laboratory (SKL) of Displays and Opto-Electronics. Its stated goal is to “become the leading display research center in China by collaborating with the display industry and market to develop advanced displays and optoelectronics technology.”

Professor Abhishek Srivastava is the associate director of the CDR and an associate professor in the Electronics and Computer Engineering Department. He is also the editor in chief of the Journal of the Society for Information Display. Srivastava received his PhD from the University of Lucknow, India, in 2009. Since then, he has received multiple awards and achievements within the field of display research, has published more than 200 research papers, and holds or has applied for upward of 50 patents.

Srivastava attributes the university's success to its close collaboration among students, professors, and industry experts. In addition to performing hands-on experiments and research, HKUST students also actively participate in conferences and speaking opportunities with their professors. Srivastava told us that his group's recent focus has been on nanomaterials and improved efficiency for displays and photonic devices, fast-response liquid crystals (LCs), and thin-film photonic devices development. One specific area that Srivastava and his team have been involved with recently is in ferroelectric LC applications (Fig. 3).

“Our group has recently developed ferroelectric liquid crystals for fast amplitude and phase modulation. The group has developed multiple new electro-optical modes, including electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals, the Kerr effect in standing helix short pitch ferroelectric liquid crystals, and many display and photonics devices. Field-sequential color displays, fast-switchable lenses, and LiDARs are a few examples. In 2018, our group first demonstrated the field-sequential color display, which received the SID I-Zone's Best Display Prototype award in the same year,” said Srivastava.

The results of this research are being applied in industry today. For example, Realfiction Labs in Denmark has adopted CDR technology in its advancement of holographic display devices for commercial use. The research also has spawned several spin-offs from the university.

Srivastava and his team recently enhanced the efficiency and commercial viability of quantum rods (QRs) in LC displays that use QD-LED backlighting systems (Fig. 4). QD-LEDs are generally acknowledged as offering superior color purity compared to mainstream LED-backlit LC displays, but outcoupling efficiency has been a bottleneck in advancing the technology. Srivastava and his team focused on boosting the optical performance of QR-LEDs via refined synthesis engineering, achieving a photoluminescence quantum yield of up to 92 percent for both green and red QRs, along with uniform size distribution and shape confinement. These are essential for optimizing QR-LED performance and commercializing their use in display devices.

According to Srivastava, “Previous QD-LED research primarily focused on optimizing quantum dot structures for high efficiency, but this approach does not apply to elongated-shaped quantum rods, such as QR-LEDs. By utilizing equivalent circuit models and quantum rod micromorphology, we revealed that QR-LEDs have widespread pinholes due to their shape, which leads to critical leakage currents—an issue not encountered in tightly packed QD-LEDs. By modifying the device structure, we addressed the quality issues in the emissive layer and verified fundamental advantages of quantum rods over quantum dots. This work is set to guide research on similar anisotropic nanocrystal and advance their commercial applications.”

More details on this project are available elsewhere.¹

A large portion of the university's success to date can be attributed to its two research laboratories: CDR and SKL of Displays and Opto-Electronics. “These labs are well supported by the local government and the display industry and are deeply committed to cutting-edge research and to translating it into commercial impact,” said Srivastava. “Companies such as Sitan, SCOS, Roumie, and Photon Tech are a few examples of SKL and CDR startups making an impact in the display industry. Additionally, the group has been very active in technology transfer from university to commercial applications.”

While many US universities face ongoing funding challenges, Srivastava told us that HKUST receives support from the government and industrial partners. The university is publicly funded but also receives strong financial support from private industry thanks to outreach efforts from its faculty and senior management (Fig. 5). Per Srivastava, the school's biggest recent challenge has been the retirement of a large number of senior faculty members, which “is proving to be a big challenge to fill the void they have left.”

As for challenges facing the display industry, Srivastava cited examples such as scaling-up production of advanced new materials, reducing manufacturing costs, and overcoming technical hurdles such as pixel uniformity, energy efficiency, reliability, and lifetime/longevity. “These are the most common issues that slow down commercialization,” he said, “despite strong demand for flexible, immersive, and high-performance displays.”

While display makers are releasing ever larger screens for both consumer and commercial use, Srivastava sees opportunities for advancements on much smaller screens, namely in the glasses and goggles used for augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR). “Currently, AR/VR displays are very hot, but components such as waveguides, displays, and related materials are not mature enough to support full-color AR and VR applications. AR presents greater challenges. So our group is focusing on designing a more efficient light engine and a better full-color display with high pixel density,” said Srivastava.

Specific challenges his team is tackling related to AR and VR include

Srivastava believes that QR- and QD-based LC microdisplays can overcome many of the limitations of microLEDs while offering more realistic displays with full-color bandwidth for AR and VR headsets. And he is confident that his team of students, researchers, and colleagues at HKUST can help bring this technology to bear in successful commercial applications.

Many HKUST graduates go on to make their mark with careers in the display and technology industries, including at companies such as TCL, CSOT, BOE, Tianma, and Huawei (Fig. 6). However, many students enjoy their academic experience at HKUST so much that they choose to remain in academia, accepting professorships and research positions at universities throughout Asia and beyond, including Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen University, Southern University of Science and Technology, Fudan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, EUSTC Shanghai, and of course, HKUST, helping to usher in a new generation of display scientists and engineers. These graduates extend HKUST's influence across both industry and academia, shaping the future of display innovations.