Micro-LED News - Page 1

This article is the second article in a short series of articles that discuss the efficiency of microLED displays. Our previous article discussed the quantum efficiency of microLED chips - with a conclusion that these can be quite efficient.

This article will look at the entire microLED display, and also compare it to current LCD and OLED displays. After all one of the main advantages of microLED displays is the increased efficiency (and brightness) compared to current displays. Most people assume that indeed microLEDs are much more efficient than OLEDs and LCDs.

In May 2020, China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display announced a new 0.13" VGA microdisplay - which it says is the world's smallest microdisplay. JBD today announced that next month it will stat selling these displays.

The JBD4UM480P microLED display is a monochrome 640x480 0.13-inch display, that offers a brightness of 2 million nits (green), 200,000 nits (red) or 150,000 nits (blue), with a power consumption of a few hundred milliwatts under average operation conditions.

Last month France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia announced that it plans to establish a 140 million euros LED production fab in Champagnier, near Grenoble in France. Today the company announced that it closed €80 million in funding, out of the planned €120 million Series D investment round.

The lead investor in this round is the Investment Fund Société de Projet Industriel (SPI), a fund managed by Bpifrance. SPI is joined by the majority of the existing strategic investors, including Intel Capital.

LED developer Lextar and microLED display developer X Display Company (XDC) announced that the two companies entered into a development, licensing and services agreements. Lextar licensed XDC's IP and Lextar will supply its high-performance microLED chips to XDC's customers.

Lextar says that this agreement will accelerate the commercialization of next-generation microLED displays, and its customers can now benefit from a one-stop service, from microLED chips to display modules.

This article is a first article in a short series of articles that discuss the efficiency of microLED displays. And we start with the quantum efficiency of microLED chips.

LED devices are quite efficient. In the chart above (by the DoE), you can see that the efficiency (external quantum efficiency, or EQE) of a blue LED is around 70%. It is generally accepted that as LED chip size decreases, the efficiency of LED devices decreases as well.

Compound Photonics announced a new partner ship with Axus Technology to help accelerate MicroLED microdisplay development. The two companies will integrate critical wafer-scale processes needed for mass-production scale of CP's microLED displays.

Specifically, Axus will deploy its Capstone CMP system with integrated post-CMP clean to enable wafer planarization and surface preparation process solutions for successful wafer-scale bonding of microLED wafers to high-performance CMOS backplanes.

According to reports from Japan, Sharp plans to split-off its display unit, in order to better focus on MicroLED technology development. The spin-off will also enable the new company to more easily secure funds, according to the report.

The new unit will be called Sharp Display Technology, or SDTC, and will be based in Kameyama. SDTC will focus on microLED technologies as its next-generation display tech, but in the meantime the company will also take over Sharp's existing LCD factories (and OLED R&D lines). The company aims to use the Hakusan LCD factory (recently acquired from JDI) for microLED R&D - and eventual production site.

Yole Développement (Yole) says that the microdisplay market is set for impressive growth in the next few years. By 2025, the total market will reach $4.2 billion in revenues (CAGR from 2020 to 2025 at 100%), while microdisplays for AR headsets will generate $1.8 billion.

This optimistic forecast has a warning though - it all depends whether next-generation display technologies will deliver on their promises - and whether actual use-cases will be found and commercialized.

According to Digitimes, Foxconn is developing its own AR glasses product, which it hopes to launch in 2022. The report says that Foxconn will first target smart retail, factories and medical care for its AR system.

Digitimes also says that these AR glasses will be based on microLED microdipslays, which are being developed by EOSRL (part of ITRI). EOSRL apprantly developed its own blue-light 5-micron LED technology with QD color conversion that enable it to produce 2000 PPI displays. First displays are expected to be produced in Q1 2021.

Last month we reported that Taiwan-based microLED developer PlayNitride is planning to raise $50 million to establish its second microLED production line. According to Digitimes, the company secured the first part of the $50 million financing round, and is starting to construct the second production line.

PlayNitride hopes to start volume production in the new line by Q2 or Q3 2021. This new line will expand the company's microLED production capacity by 2 to 3 fold. Digitimes also updates that by the end of 2021, the company plans for an IPO at the Taiwan Stock Exchange.