Recent Micro-LED News - Page 2

In the past year, microLED startups have raised over $200 million. As some companies (most notably Aledia and JBD in this case) mature and start to build production capacity, the need for funds grows, and we have indeed seen large investment rounds in these companies.

• Kubos Semiconductors: $2 million (May 2024)
• MICLEDI: $17 million (March 2024)
• Mojo Vision: $21.1 million (October 2023)
• Aledia: $129 million (October 2023)
• Comptek Solutions: $8.6 million (August 2023)
• QNA Technology: $4 million (August 2023)
• JBD: A4 round, estimated at $30-130 million (June 2023)

It is great to see these recent funding successes, which will hopefully lead to increased innovation and also initial production. It should be noted that most (if not all) of these financing rounds have been finalized before Apple made its decision to cancel its main microLED wearable project. We do not see Apple's decision as having a major impact on the long-term viability of microLED technologies or on the industry - but we do know that some investors are now hesitant to invest in this market following Apple's project cancellation. 

Justin Brown is X Display's Executive Vice President for Operations & Equipment. Justin leads the company’s supply chain development, manufacturing partner relationships and also its Equipment division, which provides mass-transfer equipment for XDC’s partners and licensees. Justin was kind enough to answer a few questions we had for XDC.

Q: Hello Justin, thanks for your time. XDC has been a bit quiet in the last few years. Can you bring us up to date on your microLED technologies, processes and products?

Thank you for the opportunity to share the progress at XDC. We have been busier in the near past than ever before. As you know, we first announced our MicroIC technology, our mass transfer process, our manufacturing equipment and the uniqueness of our approach, the IP strength we possess and the experience of the team. This led to broad customer visibility and we narrowed down our efforts to a select set of partners that we are currently working with. We have deep engagements with customers that we anticipate will result in end product announcements in the future.

According to reports from Korea and Taiwan, both Samsung Display and LG Display have decided to slow down their microLED business plans. The main reasons behind this are the high production costs of microLEDs and high competition which is seen to lead to low profitability. 

Samsung Display will continue to invest in microLED R&D, but has delayed plans to expand production. LG Display has already reduced the size of its microLED R&D teams and is looking into deploying some of its microLED developers into the OLED side of its business.

Do NOT miss the most important meeting of the year: Book your tickets before 12 July and save up to 500 Euro per person!

The most important dedicated MicroLED conference and exhibition worldwide. And it is the first ever dedicated MicroLED event!

Dates: 25 & 26 Sept 2024
Location: High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Organizers: TechBlick and the MicroLED Industry Association

Agenda: Amazing speaker line-up including Google, Yole, Continental, Aixtron, Applied Materials, Toray Engineering, TCL CSOT, JCDecaux, CEA Leti, Coherent, VueReal, Omdia, and many others.  

We're happy to introduce WEVE , a South Korean microLED inspection solution developer. The company collaborates with Korea’s largest display manufacturers, and is now approaching the global markets with its systems and solutions.

Can you introduce your company and technology?

WEVE is based in South Korea, and we specialize in Micro LED inspection solutions. Our technology is trusted by the biggest display manufacturers in Korea. We closely cooperate with industry-leading companies from Taiwan, Europe, and China. As a key technological partner of leading manufacturers, we have had to keep our operations out of the light for some time, which is why there is not much information about us available yet.

We do simultaneous AOI, PL, and Color difference analysis (xyY) of CoW, Epi-Wafers, and panels. We provide highly accurate, stable, and reliable solutions that can withstand high-volume inspections and the hardships of 24/7 heavy operations. I believe that WEVE is among the world's top companies by the total number of Micro LED wafers inspected thanks to our partners and customers who on one hand required us to keep things low but on the other, opened rare opportunities to sharpen our technology. Significant Inspection volumes provided valuable insights and experience needed to be at the frontier of the inspection field.

UK-based OTFT developer Smartkem demonstrated its first microLED display, which was produced with its own proprietary OTFT materials. The company says that its materials could reduce the cost of microLED production thanks to their low-temperature processing.

Smartkem demonstrated a sapphire wafer with arrays of 96x96 microLEDs with dimensions of 18um x 25um (produced by Enkris), planarized with Smartkem’s materials (cross-linkable polymers). Vias were then formed down to the device contact pads using photolithography and etching, and finally a metal layer was sputtered and patterned to form the anode and cathode contacts to the microLEDs. The metal connections were made selectively to generate a patterned image (see photo above).

Today we published a new edition of our MicroLED and OLED Microdisplays Market Report, with all the latest information. The AR/VR market is of high interest and companies are investing heavily in microdisplay technologies, both OLEDs and MicroLEDs. The new edition offers 14 updates and bringsg this report up to date, including the latest prototypes and technologies announced at Displayweek 2024.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• The advantages of OLED and MicroLED microdisplays
• The microdisplays that are available on the market today
• Information on all companies involved in this market
• Future technologies and roadmaps

The report package also provides:

• A list of all OLED microdisplays on the market
• A list of all OLED and MicroLED microdisplays makers
• Microdisplays spreadsheet
• Over 25 datasheets, presentations
• Free updates for a year

This microdisplays market report provides a great introduction to MicroLED and OLED microdisplays, and covers everything you need to know about the current status of the market and industry. This is a great guide if you're considering to adopt OLED microdisplays in your product, if you're looking to learn more about next-generation micro-LEDs and if you want to understand this industry better.

The MicroLED Industry Association released a new internal market note, detailing its member views on the current goals and direction the industry should take. The market note includes analysis into the current industry situation, future projections and display segmentation based on members’ opinions, and also includes a market/industry sentiment review.

Following Apple’s decision to cancel its main microLED wearable display project, many in  the industry feel that there is a strong need for the microLED industry to align its strategy to make sure the industry moves in the right direction and manages to achieve a successful market introduction of microLED display technologies.

As you can see in the graph above, most microLED association members believe that the first goal of the industry should be to target niche applications, as it is highly challenging to target the display industry’s main segments (TVs, smartphones, wearables and IT devices). Targeting niche applications may be easier as the volume requirements are lower, the price pressure may be lower and such applications could benefit from the performance gains enables by microLED displays. 

Samsung Electronics launched two new MicroLED TVs, in sizes 89-inch and 101-inch. Samsung's "consumer" microLED TV range now includes 89", 101", 110” and 114" sizes.

The price of the 89-inch model is $110,000, and the 101-inch model costs $130,000. Samsung's largest consumer MicroLED TV costs $150,000 at 114-inches.