April 2026

Scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), led by Prof. Yang Lu, have successfully used mechanical stretching technology to dynamically control the emission color of GaN LEDs, from UV to blue light.

The researchers utilized micro-nano processing technology to fabricate single-crystalline GaN material into tiny bridge-like structures. Through precise mechanical stretching, the material achieved an elastic deformation of up to 6.8%, with a tensile strength of approximately 11 GPa. This demonstrates the extraordinary elastic deformation capability brought by the size effect, offering broad prospects for deep strain engineering.

MicroLED Connect 2026, the premier industry event dedicated to microLED technologies, will bring together leading companies, researchers, and innovators from across the display and semiconductor ecosystems for a focused program of talks, networking, and technology insights.

As part of this year’s event, which will take place on 16-17 September at Eindhoven's High tech Campus, a dedicated full-day “Optical I/O Connect” session will highlight one of the most important emerging directions in the field.

US-based Palomino Laboratories announced that it has raised $15 million in a private placement offering. Following a merger with Unite Acquisition, the company is public (OTCQB: PALX).

Palomino Labs develops a GaN microLED-based optical transceiver platform for AI data center communication for high-speed, energy-efficient data transfer. Palomino has the right to use and license the University of California, Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) advanced microLED technology.

Kopin Corporation announced a strategic collaboration with Fabric.AI to develop microLED-based optical interconnect technology for AI infrastructure.  Kopin says that Fabric.AI placed a $15 million purchase order with Kopin to fund the demonstration chipset development.

Kopin and Fabric.AI jointly are jointly developing an optical interconnect technology (branded as Neural I/o) designed to replace traditional copper wiring between GPUs and high-performance processors in data centers. The technology leverages Kopin's microLED displays and bi-directional NeuralDisplay architecture, repurposing programmable microLED pixels as optical transceivers for data transmission.

The OLED Marketplace website is expanding its microLED microdisplays catalog, with a new 0.13" VGA (640x480) 2.7 million nits green monochrome microLED microdisplay.

This is the second microLED on the catalog, following the 0.12" VGA ultra-high-brightness monochrome display that was added last month.

Towards the end of 2025, LG Electronics launched its first microLED-backlit LCD TVS, branded as LG Micro RGB Evo. The TVs, will be available at 75-, 86-, and 100-inch sizes.  

LG now announced that it is starting to accept pre-orders for the new micro RGB TVs - with prices of $4,999 for the 75-inch model, $6,999 for the 86-inch model and $7,999 for the 100-inch model.

3D Nanowire microLED developer Aledia announced that it has successfully demonstrated a fully functional monolithic RGB epitaxial wafer. This breakthrough validates the company’s end-to-end monolithic RGB process, enabling the emission of red, green, and blue light from a single epi wafer processed in one run.

Aledia’s proprietary nanowire-based approach enables the simultaneous growth of nanowires with diameters
ranging from 100 nm to 400 nm, depending on the color, all within a single process step.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo have demonstrated how a combined dry/wet etching process with polymeric encapsulation to construct InGaN-based microLEDs that show negligible degradation due to sidewall effects for devices having diameters as small as 6 µm.

The researchers report that the microLEDs exhibit low surface recombination velocities ( <10 cm s⁻¹) and high wall plug efficiencies of 20.3% at a current density of 2.5A cm^-2.

US-based VCEL and Resonant Cavity LED developer InPHRED announced that it is expanding into the optical interconnects market, planning to utilize both of its technologies.

For micro-RC-LED optical I/O, InPHRED syas it is targeting an initial demonstration of a 200-lane array architecture with 0.3 numerical aperture on sapphire. The demonstration is expected to include initial proof metrics such as target coupling loss of below 3 dB and system energy efficiency of 4 pJ/bit.

LED developer Seoul Semiconductor has entered in a government-approved restructuring plan, as its traditional LED package market is suffering from reduced prices and profitability.

Seoul Semiconductor has decided to direct 250 billion Won ($180 million USD) investment in the next 5 years, mostly into the R&D and manufacturing of microLED microdisplay modules, for AR applications. The company will base the new microdisplays on its own WICOP (Wafer Integrated Chip on PCB) technology.