July 2026

Polar Light Technologies announced that it has produced its first MicroLEDs via its Pilot Line at VTT Technical Research Centre Finland. The company says that its process flow transfer from the laboratory to the VTT pilot line is ahead of schedule - "demonstrating the advantages of pyramidal MicroLEDs and selected area growth".

The next step for PLT is to focus on homogeneity, yield and the integration of the MicroLEDs to a CMOS backplane. The company's goal is to produce a complete microLED microdisplay in the pilot line, and towards that it will develop bonding and integration of the MicroLEDs frontplane onto the CMOS backplane.

Aixtron reported its financial results for Q2 2026, with revenues of 214.5 million Euro, up 81% from last year, saying that it sees very strong demand for optoelectronic systems, mainly for last systems.

Demand for the company's microLED end markets, though, remained soft.

Today we published a new edition of our Transparent MicroLED and OLED Market Report, with all the latest information and updates from this interesting upcoming industry and market, including the new technologies, prototypes and displays recently unveiled by microLED developers.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• Transparent OLED and MicroLED properties and advantages
• The transparent OLED and MicroLED industry
• What kind of transparent OLEDs are currently on the market
• The transparent OLED lighting market

The report package also provides:

• Transparent OLED display product listing
• A guide into buying transparent OLEDs
• The main challenges towards transparent displays
• Free updates for a year

This transparent displays market report provides a great introduction to transparent OLED and MicroLED technologies and covers everything you need to know about the market and industry now and in the future. This is a great guide for anyone who's thinking about adopting transparent displays in their products or that wants to understand this industry and market throughout.

US-based microLED optical I/O developer and MicroLED Industry Association member Palomino Laboratories announced that it has shipped its first microLED light engine prototypes to its first hyperscaler customer. Palomino says that this customer completed its evaluation and provided Palomino test measurement results. The company says that the tested bandwidth actually exceeded its initial design targets.

Palomino Labs says it is on-track to sample its 2nd generation microLED technology by end of September 2026, with improved bandwidth performance to multiple customers. The company also expects to receive its first development contract from a strategic AI customer by the end of the year.

In September 2025 Garmin launched its Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED smartwatch, the world's first with a microLED display. The panel is a 1.4" 454x454 round display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits, produced by AUO. 

Yesterday Samsung launched its flagship smartwatch for 2026, the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 - with a circular 1.52" 498x498 OLED that reaches 5,000 nits of peak brightness. This is the world's brightest wearable display, surpassing AUO's 4,500 microLED. This shows how OLEDs have room to improve and will make it very challenging for microLED to introduce improved performance.

Halliday launched its second generation microLED-powered AR glasses, the G2. The G2 is based on dual 600x300 1600 nits microLED microdisplays (likely produced by JBD, but not confirmed yet). The G2 do not have a camera (to improve on privacy concerns, and reduce weight), but do include four microphones and offer a battery life of over 12 hours.

The G2 glasses enables AI features such as real-time translation, research lookups, captioning, and more. It is available for pre-order today, with a $599 retail price. It will start shipping in September 2026.

Discounted pricing for MicroLED Connect + AR/VR Connect 2026 ends on July 25, 2026 - after that, rates go up. If Eindhoven is on your radar for September, now is a good moment to lock in your place!

A 1-person Hybrid Annual Pass starts at just €825/year (down from €1100), or €900/year with masterclasses (down from €1300) - and it's more than a ticket: the pass bundles onsite admission with a full 12 months of online access to the MicroLED Connect platform and its on-demand library. Group passes for 2–5 people are available at bigger discounts, so it's easy to bring the team.

Value Electronics, an independent Audio/Video retailer in New York, hosted its well-respected annual TV Shootout Evaluation event a couple of days ago, bringing together several OLED and the new MicroLED RGB flagship TVs side-by-side to compare picture quality attributes. The TVs, which were professionally calibrated to their best potential, were reviewed by a panel of judges using test patterns.

The judges looked at six flagship displays. Three OLED models and three Micro-RGB LCD models (Samsung's R95H, Sony's XR90M2, and LG's MRGB95B).  Judges evaluated picture quality attributes in SDR and HDR categories. Every display delivered outstanding performance, with exceptionally close results overall and across many of the individual picture quality attributes. 

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer JBD is starting to construct the 2nd phase of its Hefei MicroLED production fab. The company held a ceremony to break ground on its new project, saying that it actually started 62 days ahead of its original schedule, as the local government of Hefei processed its applications faster than expected.

This is the 2nd phase of JBD's $92 million microLED fab, that started production in 2023. JBD says that the 2nd phase investment will total $100 million. In 2025, the company said that its output volume increased over 160% from 2024, and the new line will help it increase its capacity, while also enabling more R&D projects.

On September 16-17, 2026, MicroLED Connect + AR/VR Connect returns to the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven for its third edition. If microLED is on your roadmap, this is the event you cannot afford to miss! This year's event will also feature the first Optical I/O Connect segment on September 17.

This event brings together the entire ecosystem, from major display manufacturers to emerging startups and research pioneers, for three days of insights and collaborations. Expect a world-class conference program spanning the full value chain - materials, equipment, manufacturing, and device development - plus an exhibition floor, industry-led masterclasses, guided tours of local state-of-the-art facilities, and the networking that has become the event's hallmark. Masterclasses kick off on September 15 for those who want to go deeper.