MicroLED-Info.com: the Micro-LED experts

As promised last year, Samsung is set to launch the world's first consumer micro-LED TV. According to the company, in July 2019 it will start shipping (or accepting orders?) for the new TV, which (in a similar way to "The Wall Professional") will be made from tiled and seamless Micro-LED modules. The TVs will come in sizes ranging from 73" (2K resolution) to 292" (8K).

Samsung says that its Micro-LED TVs will offer unparalled viewing experience, and will offer a 2000 nits peak brightness, high contrast and 100,000 hour lifetime. The price will probably be very expensive, but Samsung did not reveal it yet.

AR developer Mojo Vision announced that it developed a 14k sub-pixel PPI (1.8µm sub-pixel pitch) Micro-LED microdisplay, to power its upcoming AR platform. The microdisplay is a monochrome green one, that the company says is the smallest display ever developed at 0.48 mm diameter.

This prototype, according to Mojo Vision, demonstrates the capability that MicroLEDs have to create more seamless AR experiences. The company did not say how close it is to commercialize the display, but did say that it will release more details on its MicroLED displays and technology development at a "future date".

US and Sweden based Micro-LED developer Glo has partnered with Japan-based display maker Kyocera to demonstrate a 1.8" Micro-LED display that features a resolution of 256x256 (200 PPI). For this demonstration panel, Kyocera provided the LTPS backplane and driving technology while glo provided its InGaN RGB micro-LEDs and its transfer technology.

Glo says its micro-LED technology enables the production of displays ranging from micro-displays to smartphone-sized panels, and have demonstrated several such panels at SID DisplayWeek 2019.

In November 2017 we reported that Taiwan's Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL, part of ITRI) has launched a project that brings together PlayNitride, LED driver IC designer Macroblock and PCB maker Unimicron with an aim to develop production technologies for high-density Micro-LED displays.

Digitimes today reports that EOSRL has achieved a breakthrough in its mass transfer technology, and is now able to transfer 10,000 micro-LED chips from an sapphire-based epitaxial wafer onto a substrate within an hour. EOSRL demonstrated the process with PCB, Polyimide and glass substrates. Trial production runs will commence in Q4 2019.

Earlier this week China-based Tianma unveiled a new 7.56" 720x480 (114 PPI) transparent Micro-LED display prototype at SID, and the display won SID's people's choice award - the best new display technology.

Tianma today revealed that the Micro-LED prototype was co-developed with Taiwan's PlayNitride. In 2017 PlayNitride started to sample micro-LED panels and shipped samples to 10-20 potential customers. The company's chairman and CEO, Charles Li, said in June 2018 that 5-6 of these customers are continuing the developing of micro-LED modules based on these panels. Apparently CSoT is one of these customers.

Taiwan-based PMOLED display maker RiT Display announced a strategic partnership and share swap with MicroLED developer PlayNitride. RiTDisplay will have access to PlayNitride's technology and will be able to produce and sell micro-LED panels.

According to the Taipei times, RiTDisplay aims to produce small displays for wearable applications. The article says the display size will be around 3-inch, which actually sounds rather large for wearables.

In June 2018, UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor and AR developer Vuzix announced a partnership to develop advanced Micro-LED display engines for Vuzix waveguide optics to enable next generation AR Smart Glasses by 2019. Today Plessey announced it has entered into a long-term micro-LED supply agreement with Vuzix.

The new agreement will support the development and production of next-generation AR products that utilize Plessey's micro-LED light source. Vuzix say that the agreement includes an exclusive display device design.

Researchers at CEA-Leti developed a new process to produce high performance GaN Micro-LEDs displays, which the researchers say is simpler and more effective than current approaches.

The first step in the new process is transferring the micro-LED chips directly on top of a CMOS wafer. In the second step each complete "pixel", made from a CMOS driving circuit and micro-LED chips, is transferred to the display substrate.

In 2018, UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a strategic partnership with Taiwan's s Jasper Display Corp (JDC). Under the partnership, Plessey will use JDC's silicon backplane to drive its monolithic micro-LED displays.

Today JDC and Plessey demonstrated the world's first GaN-on-Silicon monolithic full-HD (1920x1080) microLED bonded display. Plessey says that it has succeeded in wafer level bonding of its GaN-on-Silicon monolithic microLED wafers with JDC’s eSP70 silicon patented backplane technology, resulting in microLED displays that contain addressable LEDs. The pixel pitch of this display is 8 microns and the JDC backplane provides independent 10-bit single color control of each pixel.

Micro-LED microdisplay developer VueReal will start accepting orders for its first micro-LED display samples by June 2019. The company says that its patented self-aligned technology resulted in a robust and high yield microdisplay production process.

VueReal says that it developed Micro-LED microdisplays that achieve a brightness of 100,000 nits and a density of over 30,000 PPI - breaking its own world record of 6,600 PPI set in 2017.

In October 2018 VueReal announced that it has raised $8.5 million and that it will build an advanced nano technology fabrication center in Waterloo, Canada - which will include an integrated pilot production system that will use the company's proprietary sub-10 micrometer, high-efficiency, solid printing process at commercial volumes.