We're happy to bring you a new interview with Instrument Systems, as part of our series of interviews with MicroLED Industry Association members. Germany-based Instrument Systems manufactures high-precision spectrometers, complex systems and software solutions for spectral light measurements.
Dr. Marc Lünnemann joined Instrument Systems as CEO in January 2026. In this interview, he shares his perspective on the company's direction. The interview then turns to technical questions for Dr. Tobias Steinel, Product Manager.
Strategy and direction
What are your top priorities as CEO for the first year?
Marc Lünnemann: Instrument Systems has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. A history like this cannot be built through technology alone. It is the result of the dedication, courage and integrity of every individual, together with an enduring commitment to solving our customers' problems. Looking ahead, I would like to emphasize three priorities: growth, transformation and collaboration. Growth means that our next stage will not come simply from extending what has worked in the past. We will build on our strong technology expertise and identify new applications, markets and solutions with the demand for precise light and color measurement. Transformation implies challenging our assumptions, evolving how we work and becoming a more resilient and efficient company. And collaboration is about working together not only with customers but also connecting complementary strengths across the Sensing Businesses of Konica Minolta to create even more value for our customers.
How would you describe Instrument Systems' current strategic direction?
ML: We remain committed to Instrument Systems' position as a trusted global standard for color and light measurement, while strengthening our customer partnerships. We will continue to invest in hardware, but place greater emphasis on software, services and integrated solutions that fit naturally into our customers' workflows, especially if the application is quality driven or highly regulated. Our objective is not growth for its own sake, but to create sustainable value for customers and a more solution-oriented business. But one thing is certain: Also, in future our customers can rely on our solutions as the 'global gold standard in metrology'.
How does MicroLED fit into this strategy?
ML: MicroLED is, in my view, the next major display technology beyond OLED. It combines high technical demands with significant market potential. Compared with OLED, MicroLED has a distinct set of characteristics and features, but manufacturing challenges as well; no technology is universally best. For measurement, each architecture requires application-specific methods, but the fundamentals remain the same: precise characterization of optical power and spectral data over time, and channel uniformity across increasingly small pixels and complex display structures. That combination of technology, application knowledge and metrology expertise is a natural fit for Instrument Systems and for the solutions we want to develop.
What do you see as the main opportunity for the next phase of development?
ML: One major opportunity is the clear trend towards 100% inline inspection and Metrology-as-a-Service. As processes become more complex and tolerances become tighter, customers need measurement systems that deliver accurate and precise light and color data at production speed, with robust integration into their workflows. We see this need in displays and increasingly in future applications beyond display, including photonic integrated circuits and optical data communication. Optical I/O metrology presents challenging requirements: small optical interfaces, demanding alignment and coupling conditions, high data rates, and the need for repeatable measurements in both development and production environments. Bringing our hardware, software, services and application expertise together will enable us to address these challenges and create solutions that are easier to implement and deliver more value over the long term.
MicroLEDs for AR displays
Why are MicroLEDs so promising for AR displays?
Tobias Steinel: AR remains one of the most promising application areas for MicroLEDs. This technology combines high brightness, low power consumption and excellent outdoor readability in a compact form factor.
What is currently holding back mass adoption?
TS: The central challenge is reducing costs across the entire value chain – from epitaxy and wafer processing to transfer, repair, testing and system integration. Yield, throughput and uniformity remain critical, while the economics of high-volume production are still not competitive enough for many applications.
How quickly is the AR display market developing?
TS: The market is accelerating. Many companies are now preparing concrete mass-production plans for the coming months, increasing the need for scalable and production-ready processes.
How can metrology help make MicroLED production scalable?
TS: Developing a camera-based system designed to increase throughput in the demura process by orders of magnitude. Innovations like this are essential for scalable MicroLED manufacturing. We will present and discuss the technology at the MicroLED Connect conference in Eindhoven in mid-September.
MicroLED-based optical interconnects
Beyond displays, is your company active in MicroLED-based optical interconnects?
TS: Yes. We are closely following optical interconnects and related photonic integration concepts because they offer exciting opportunities for short-reach, high-bandwidth communication. As with displays, moving from laboratory concepts to higher-volume production will require scalable processes and production-ready metrology.
What must be measured at the device level?
TS: Device-level characterization must cover wavelength, spectral width, angular emission, optical power, polarization and coupling efficiency – often at high data rates and on extremely small structures.
What challenges arise at the array and system levels?
TS: Array uniformity, alignment accuracy, thermal stability and long-term reliability become decisive when emitters are integrated into multi-device systems. Measurements must also correlate component characteristics with system-level performance.
What is needed for production-ready optical interconnect metrology?
TS: Manufacturers need fast, non-destructive in-line methods – rather than relying solely on laboratory analysis. Our camera-based measurement solutions combine speed and accuracy to improve quality, yield and throughput. This balance of precision and production relevance is both the main challenge and a major opportunity for innovation.
Measuring MicroLED displays
Why can't established OLED metrology simply be transferred to MicroLEDs?
TS: MicroLEDs use extremely narrow emission peaks to achieve a wider color gamut, but their peak wavelengths can vary by several nanometers across a wafer or display. Even small shifts can noticeably change chromaticity and amplify mismatches between a colorimeter's filters and the theoretical color matching functions. A fixed calibration may therefore work for one emitter but produce significant errors for another. Combined with the need to test millions of microscopic emitters at high spatial resolution and production speed, this calls for fast, spectrally accurate, adaptive and highly parallel measurement methods.
What challenges come with the wider color gamut of MicroLED displays?
TS: Narrow-band, wide-gamut displays make differences between observer models and individual viewers more visible. Since the CIE 1931 2° standard observer represents only one model of human vision, evaluating multiple color matching functions helps assess observer metamerism and predict color consistency more reliably.
What is a practical measurement solution?
TS: Spectrometer-referenced imaging combines fast, pixel-level camera measurements with accurate spectral data. Live calibration adapts the measurement to spectral variations, while different color matching functions can be evaluated from the same measurement.
Thank you Dr. Lünnemann and Dr. Steinel, good luck to you and Instrument Systems!