HC Semitek

China-based BOE HC Semitek says that it is expanding its microLED business, from focusing on microLED epiwafer production to also developing microdisplays and optical I/O solutions.

The company says it has developed a monochrome microLED microdisplay, and is now working to improve the performance and the production yields. It is already shipping samples to potential customers, and is slated to begin low-volume commercial production soon. 

In August 2023, China-based BOE HC Semitek started building its $700 million microLED epiwafer production line in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, China. In October 2024, the company announced that it started producing sample wafers.

A few days ago the company held a ceremony as it is starting to mass produce 6-inch microLED wafers, as the project enters its commercial stage. BOE now has a full microLED industry chain, from epiwafers to modules and applications.

Aixtron announced its financial results for Q3 2024, with solid orders and revenue, despite a slight miss on guidance due to a project delay. This project was a large order for a microLED customer, with tools shipments pushed to December instead of October.

Aixtron says that "despite the news from Apple and ams OSRAM" the microLED industry is continuing to work on the technology, and the company received orders from several customers building R&D and pilot production lines. Aixtron expects its microLED revenues in FY2024 to be at high double-digit million euros.

In August 2023, China-based BOE HC Semitek started building its $700 million microLED epiwafer production line in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, China.

The company now held a ceremony marking the beginning of sample wafer production at the new line. This is the first phase of this project, and total investment to date is $275 million. It is likely that ramping up will take some time and full scale production of the first phase will take place later in 2025. When the fab is complete, with all three phases, it will have a yearly capacity of 58,000 6-inch microLED wafers. 

China-based HC Semitek is embarking on a 5 billion Yuan project (almost $700 million USD) to produce microLED wafers in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, China. The project will have three phases, with the first one (estimated at $275 million) has officially started last month.

HC Semitek hopes to light up the new production line in September 2024, and to start production by December 2024. When all three phases are complete, the new production line will have a yearly capacity of 58,000 microLED wafers (we do not the wafer size at this project, but we estimate these are 8-inch wafers). It is not clear from the reports, but this production line may also produce mini LEDs, not just microLEDs.

Aixtron announced its financial results for Q2 2022, with the company's highest quarterly order intake since 2011. The company said that it received its first order for tools used in volume production of microLED devices.

Aixtron announced several microLED system orders in the past, but these were R&D or pilot line systems. In 2021 Aixtron said that a US Tier-1 LED producer has selected Aixtron's AIX G5+ C equipment for microLED device production. In February 2022 Wuhan-based HC Semitek selected Aixtron's Planetary AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) and AIX G5+ C MOCVD systems to produce microLEDs.

Aixtron announced that Wuhan-based HC Semitek is using Aixtron's Planetary AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) and AIX G5+ C MOCVD systems to produce microLEDs. All of these systems, shipped in Q4 2021, feature a configuration of 8x6 inches.

Aixtron says that this AIX G5+ C system uses wafer-level control (based on Auto-Feed Forward) of the film surface temperature during the epitaxial process in combination with Ultraviolet (UV) pyrometry. This warrants, according to Aixtron, a very accurate control of the Indium incorporation into the Multi-Quantum wells (MQW), which will ultimately define the wavelength consistency among all produced wafers

Wuhan-based LED producer HC Semitek announced it is launching nine new development projects, with support from the Yiwu Information and Optoelectronics Hi-Tech Industrial Park.

One of these future new projects involves the development of components for Micro-LED displays. HC Semitek's investment in these nine projects will be $1.7 billion (this also includes the company's expansion and buildings in the Yiwu industrial park). The construction of HC Semitek's new facilities will be completed by 2025.