Drivers

IC designer Sapien Semiconductors announced that it has signed a strategic agreement with SEMFIVE, a provider of customer AI ASIC designs, to jointly advance the design and technical evaluation of CMOS microLED backplane technology.

The partnership covers both technology and business aspects, including design verification and simulation to enhance technical maturity, technical guidance on microLED display driver IC (DDI) implementation, and joint strategies for global market expansion.

IC designer Sapien Semiconductors announced that it has successfully completed the development of its first microLED driver IC. The S25LM81 IC utilizes Sapien's Memory-inside-Pixel (MiP) that stores image data inside each pixel and a partial update technique that refreshes only portions of the screen, and can be used to drive microLED chips ranging in size from 15 to 30 μm.

The Sapien S25LM81 can drive a 10x10 RGB microLED module (300 microLED chips), where each pixel can be controlled individually. The company presented a 2.9-inch tile, branded as Micro-Tile, that supports resolutions ranging from 100 to 500 PPI. Multiple tiles can be seamlessly connected, allowing to scale the screen size and resolution.

Visionox demonstrated a new microLED display prototype, a 58-inch tiled display, made from a matrix of 16 modules (each 14.5" in size). The display offers a 10-bit color depth, 240Hz refresh rate, and an ultra-high contrast.

Visionox says that the new display uses 25 um microLED chips, and utilizes China's first dedicated microLED driver IC and a TFT backplane (likely LTPS). From the image we have, it seems as if there are much more than 16 modules, and the seams are quite visible, this seems to be an early-stage display prototype.

Driver IC developer Solomon Systech launched what it says is the world's first PM-MicroLED display driver, the SSD2363. Solomon Systech targets applications such as wearables, home appliances and industrial applications.

The SSD2363 supports a range of resolutions up to 256x256, full-color, with 768 segments and 256 common output, SPI and MIPI interface and sizes up to 3-inches. The company is now sampling the new driver.

AR glasses developer Kura Technologies, which is using an in-house develooped microLED display its products, announced a partnership with TSMC to build its initial custom micro-LED display chipset.

The company's custom mixed-signal display driver integrated circuits and other supporting devices, have already been successfully taped out on a standard, high-volume CMOS node at TSMC. Kura says that its DDIC is the smallest process node ever used on a micro-display driver and is also the world’s fastest micro-LED driver.

SAPIEN Semiconductors, based in Korea, is a fabless design company that provides innovative PWM CMOS backplane and μ-driver ICs for Micro-LED displays. The company utilizes its own patented technologies to achieve lower power consumption, lower leakage, better repairability and improved testability.

In the following interview, we discuss the company’s technology and business with its CEO, Myunghee Lee.

Q: Hello Mr. Lee, thank you for your time. Can you give us a short introduction to SAPIEN and your microLED technologies?

SAPIEN specializes in developing CMOS Backplane SoCs (System-on-Chip) for Micro-LED display applications. SAPIEN was founded in 2017 by industry veterans who have over 230 years of combined design experience in Display Driver ICs (DDI).

Digitimes reports that Touch screen IC designer Elan Microelectronics has formed a strategic alliance with LED driver IC developer Macroblock, to develop solutions for micro-LED and mini-LED displays.

As part of the alliance, Elan acquired a 7.87% stake in Macroblock. Elan's president says that the new alliance will focus on driver and touch controller ICs for microLED displays in wearable products, and miniLED drivers and TDDI ICs.

In April 2019, Korea-based driver IC developer MagnaChip announced it is starting to develop driver ICs for Micro-LED TVs, based on the company's 28-nm process.

During the company's Q1 2020 financial report, MagnaChip updated that its microLED TV DDIC is now expected to enter production in the first of 2021. MagnaChip believes Micro LED "represents an untapped market opportunity for growth".

China-based display maker Konka launched tiled large micro-LED displays, under the APHAEA brand. These are modular displays (similar to Samsung's The Wall and Sony' Crystal LED displays) and Konka demonstrated several possible configurations - including 118" 4K and 236" 8K.

Konka already announced the prices of its new TVs - the 118" 4K one costs around $240,000 while the 236" 8K TV costs $1.25 million. For those that think that this is extremely expensive, Konka says that the cost is around 30% cheaper than a comparable Samsung The Wall TV (Samsung is not disclosing the prices of these tailor made displays).

Korea-based driver IC developer MagnaChip announced its latest 28-nm process, and the company said that it is now starting to develop driver ICs for Micro-LED TVs.

This is just an early announcement, hopefully the company will give more details in the future about its MicroLED driver program. For OLED displays, the company says it is currently using the world's most advanced process and has already secured its first 28 nm design win with a leading smartphone maker.