MicroLED-Info.com: the Micro-LED experts

Cambridge University spin-out Porotech has launched a native red GaN LED epiwafer for microLED applications. The company says this is the industry's first commercial red GaN epiwafer.

Current red LEDs are mostly produced from aluminum indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) materials. These materials show a drastic efficiency drop as the LED side decreases (due to their large carrier diffusion lengths and high surface recombination velocity) and in addition a hybrid AlInGaP and GaN RGB device is more difficult to drive. This is why it is beneficial to produce red LEDs from GaN materials.

In May 2020, Compound Photonics (CP) announced that its high-performance digital backplane is available for microLED developers to integrate into complete microdisplay subsystems. In August 2020 CP formally announced the platform, under the IntellPix brand.

Compound Photonics now announced the MicroLED Innovation Acceleration Center (MiAC) in Chandler, Arizona. CP says that the MiAC (which will inaugurate in January 2021) will be the first industry known fab in the world dedicated to accelerate the time-to-market of sub 5 µm pixel monolithically integrated microLED displays. The facility will serve as a hub for microLED developers that want to use the workspace to deliver innovative process solutions to accelerate microLED R&D - from prototypes to products.

In 2019 San'an Optoelectronics announced that it aiming to build a $1.78 billion Mini-LED and Micro-LED production site in Hubei. The project will include a LED production plant, an R&D center and also a sales offices.

The plant construction was said to take up to 3 years, and production to begin a year later. According to a news report from China, construction was delayed due to the COVID pandemic, but Sanan now resumed construction the new facility.

DSCC says that the microLED TV is going to grow quite fast in the next few years, from around $25 million in 2020 to $228 million by 2026:

While this sounds impressive, it means that according to DSCC MicroLED technology penetration will remain very small into the TV market (which is estimated at over $200 billion in 2020) - around 0.1% in 2026. Just for comparison, six years after being commercialization, in 2019 OLED TV revenues were estimated at $2.5 billion. The high retail price of microLED TVs will hinder faster growth.

Laser equipment maker Coherent says that it saw a "significant increase" in the level of investment and bookings related to MicroLED displays. These tools are going to be used for process development, as a precursor to mass production.

Coherent reveals that its MicroLED customer base includes almost all current OLED and LCD manufacturers and many well-known MicroLED specific startups and display industry integrators. Coherent is offering multiple UV solutions for four separate MicroLED processes - CLA for high performance low power consumption back planes, laser lift-off for customers using sapphire carrier, laser transfer and laser repair.

Digitimes reports that Taiwan-based HannStar Display plans to start developing and producing microLED display panels.

HannStar Display announced it will buy several display factory floors from its affiliate (of which it owns 26.6%) HannsTouch Solutions for $95.5 million. HannStar Display will setup a mini-LED and micro-LED facility at these factory floors (which are currently used to produce touch sensor panels).

US-based parallel microLED assembly technology developer VerLASE Technologies reports today that it has achieved substantial progress in its mass transfer process for micro-LED displays.

VerLASE now plans to develop the process flow for an assortment of dies sizes from 200 X 200 um (mini-LEDs) down to 10 X 10 um and eventually also 5x5 um. VerLASE plans to demonstrate the transfer of both flip-chip, and vertical thin film LED architectures.

TCL's China Star subsidiary (CSoT) demonstrated new display technologies at the DTC 2020 trade fair a few days ago.

One of these displays is the 4-inch 320x180 microLED prototype you see above. The active-matrix display is produced on an IGZO backplane.

Display market analysts from Yole Développement posted an interesting article, that speculates that Apple and Huawei are looking into microLED displays based on Si-CMOS micro-ICs. This model could have tremendous implications for the display market.

The idea is that the device maker (Apple is likely to be the first to go down that route) will source micro LEDs from LED producers (or produce these in-house) and source microICs from foundries. Apple could then assemble these into its own displays, in-house. This means that in this model there's no room for traditional display makers which could lead to large disruptions in the display market, according to Yole.

Veeco announced that France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia has selected the company's Propel 300mm HVM MOCVD system for its microLED production plant. Veeco says that the Propel system, featuring a SEMI-compliant Equipment Front End Module (EFEM) with cassette-to-cassette automation, was chosen due to its highest productivity with the lowest defectivity compared to alternatives.

Last month Aledia announced that it plans to establish a 140 million euros LED production fab in Champagnier, near Grenoble in France. The company already raised 80 million Euros and its great to see the company already ordering production equipment.