Micro-LED Production - Page 3

Micro-CPV: a promising new solar technology that may benefit from microLED production processes

Researchers from the  Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and MIT, published a review article on Micro-Scale Concentrating Photovoltaics, or micro-CPV, a new technology that uses miniaturized solar panels and optics that concentrate the sun's energy into these micro panels. The benefits of micro-CPV compared to normal solar panels include potentially lower cost (much less solar absorption area), better thermal management, shorter optical path and lower resistive losses.

There are many challenges yet before micro-CPVs can be produced in large volume and at competitive prices. Interestingly, microLED production processes can be applied to the production of micro-CPVs, as these solutions can be seen like inverted technologies - tiny devices that either absorb or emit light.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 01,2023

AUO reiterates its plans to mass produce microLED smartwatch displays by the end of 2023, to expand microLEDs to TVs and Automotives

During the company's latest conference call, AU Optronics made some interesting remarks on its microLED project. First of all, the company intends to continue investing in micro-LED technologies going forward. That's not a surprise. Second, the company re-iterated its plans to mass produce microLED smartwatch displays by the end of 2023.

AUO also says it plans to apply microLED displays to an "increasing number of high end TV and automotive display products". AUO will increase its microLED display range and make it commercially available to more products and applications. As far as we know, this is the first time that AUO discusses microLED TVs.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 01,2023

ams Osram signs a $420 million sale-and-lease agreement for its Kulim microLED production site

ams Osram is progressing with its microLED production fab project in Kulim, Malaysia, and the company has now signed a sale-and-lease agreement with three local Malaysian funds, with a total sum of 2 billion RM (or about $420 million USD). 

ams Osram will sell its Kulim facility (The building itself) to Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Retirement Fund (KWAP), and will lease it back for at least 10 years. The deal is expected to be formally signed by December 2023.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 31,2023

Aledia raises €120 million from existing investors as it starts to mass produce microLEDs

France-based microLED developer Aledia has closed a new financing round, raising €120 million from existing investors. The company also appointed Pierre Laboisse as its CEO (Giorgio Anania, the previous CEO, remains on the company’s board of directors).

Aledia microLED produced on 300mm silicon at CEA-Leti

Aledia's investors include CEA Investissement, Supernova Invest, and the SPI and Ecotechnologies funds. In 2020 Aledia announced that it plans to establish a 140 million euros LED production fab in Champagnier, near Grenoble in France. The company already raised 110 million Euros towards that goal, and now it has raised another significant amount of money. In total, the company raised over €360 million to date.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 10,2023

ETRI researchers develop a highly efficient semiconductor chip packaging technology, applicable for microLED production

Researchers from Korea's ETRI institute developed a new chip packaging material, that is said to reduce the power consumption of the process by 95%, and reduce the number of required stages from 8 to 3. This could make semiconductors production much more efficient and lower in cost. 

The technology is applicable to all high-end semiconductor production - including microLED production. Indeed the team reports that they have reached out to several microLED developers to evaluate the technology, and the initial testing has been very positive. The material could be commercialized in three years.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 24,2023

PlayNitride to expand its production volume to 10,000 6-inch wafers per month by the end of 2023

Taiwan-based MicroLED developer PlayNitride that it is increasing its production volume, and by the end of the year it will produce 10,000 6" wafers per month (that's up from about 2,000 wafers per month last year). 

PlayNitride is developing a wide range of displays: tiled large-area displays (PixeLED Matrix), wearable panels, microdisplays, transparent displays, and more.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 07,2023

JBD starts shipping full-color RGB microLED microdisplay samples

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display have started shipping engineering samples of single-panel RGB microLED microdisplays. The company brands these new microdisplays as the Phoenix series, while its monochrome panels are now branded as Hummingbird. The Phoenix series is designed to be used with 50+ degree FOV waveguides.

JBD's first Phoenix samples are 0.22" panels, with a 2K resolution (2.5 um pixel pitch). The three LEDs (RGB) are all AlInGaN emitters, and are vertically stacked. JBD says that its plans for a standard product include a 0.3-inch panel with 4K resolution (2 um sub-pixel pitch. The company expects to begin full mass production in 2025.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 29,2023

HC Semitek starts building a $700 million microLED production line in Zhuhai, China

China-based HC Semitek is embarking on a 5 billion Yuan project (almost $700 million USD) to produce microLED wafers in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, China. The project will have three phases, with the first one (estimated at $275 million) has officially started last month.

HC Semitek hopes to light up the new production line in September 2024, and to start production by December 2024. When all three phases are complete, the new production line will have a yearly capacity of 58,000 microLED wafers (we do not the wafer size at this project, but we estimate these are 8-inch wafers). It is not clear from the reports, but this production line may also produce mini LEDs, not just microLEDs.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 01,2023

TrendForce: Apple delays the launch of its microLED smartwatch further to 2026

Apple has been developing microLED displays for wearable devices for many years, but the company and its production partners are not yet ready to initiate mass production. It was reported before that the company planned to launch the first microLED-powered watch in 2023, but this was delayed several times.

According to a new report by TrendForce, Apple delayed its microLED plans again, now hoping to introduce the first device in 2026. The main problem, as always, is the high production costs.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 06,2023

AU Optronics may close down its OLED fab as it focuses on microLED display technologies

According to reports from Japan, AUO is thinking about closing down its 4.5-Gen AMOLED production line in Singapore, as the company is shifting its focus on microLED display technologies.

AUO's first target it to start producing wearable microLED displays. It has reportedly signed a deal with Tag Heuer to supply it with smartwatch displays. In April 2023 AUO 'launched' its wearable microLED display, and it seems it is ready to begin small scale production. It will take time for AUO to expand production, as the path towards low-cost and mass-production of microLED displays (even for applications such as smartwatches) it not clear yet. 

Read the full story Posted: Jun 22,2023