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AR microLED microdisplay developer Mojo Vision announced that it has achieved a process milestone and has lit-up its first 300 mm GaN-on-Silicon blue microLED array wafer. The company says it is on track to maturing its 300 mm CMOS fab process.

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Mojo Vision is developing microdisplays based on blue LEDs and quantum dots color conversion. The company developed the world's highest density microLEDs, achieve up to 28,000 PPI (sub-micron LEDs).

Apple's microLED projects and goals have been reported and rumored many times in the past, and now the respected Nikkei Asia newspaper posted an interesting article with new details of Apple's microLED plans. Some parts of this plan were already published by other reporters, note.

According to the new report, Apple is aiming to get more involved in display manufacturing, to increase its control over its supply chain, and reduce its reliance on Samsung Display specifically. Apple has decided, therefore, to handle the LED transfer (pick-and-place) process by itself, at its R&D facilities in Longtan, Taoyuan, Taiwan. 

InZiv announced a new industrial-level microLED inspection system, called the REL. The company says that this new system provides unprecedented speed wafer-level EL testing of microLEDs. The REL system can rapidly obtain EL measurements on a microLED wafer, with up to 6 million LEDs in 1 hour.

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The company's unique technology offers repeatable, high- accuracy measurements, with no damage to the device. The system is fully compatible with both vertical and flip-chip designs. InZiv says that the REL offers the most critical and reliable microLED inspection on the market, enabling the advancement of all microLED applications. The company is already working on its next-generation system, which will double the output.

MicroLED developer VueReal says that it achieved a breakthrough in its MicroSolid Printing Platform, enabling it to go below 7um LED pitch (on the wafer) for full color microLED deposition. The company reports that its newest (and smallest) microLEDs show minimal impact on EQE, and this enables high-efficiency display production.

VueReal says that its new technology could soon compete on price with OLED displays while offering higher performance, and could be viable for many display segments - from wearables through smartphones to automotive and more. According to its current tests, its microLED displays will offer a brightness of 3,000 nits (and higher), while consuming around half the power compared to the latest AMOLED displays. In addition, its printing process is highly scalable and should not have a problem handling the demands of even the smartphone industry with hundreds of millions of displays per year.

Aixtron announced today that ams OSRAM has qualified Aixtron's AIX G5+ C and G10-AsP MOCVD systems on 200mm wafers for a Micro LED production.

ams Osram will be using Aixtron's systmes at its upcoming 200 mm mass production line in Malaysia, which is expected to begin production in 2024.

Researchers from the US and Korea, led by MIT, developed full-color vertically-stacked microLEDs that achieve the highest array density (5100 PPI) and the smallest size (4 µm) reported to date.

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To end up with such high resolution and small microLED chip size, the researchers used a 2D materials based layer transfer (2DLT) technique. The resulting microLEDs, that have near-submicron thickness, are grown on 2D material-coated substrates, removed, and then stacked.

Specialized Korea-based LED developer Lumens announced that it has developed a Monolithic RGB epitaxial wafers for micro-LED display production. The new technology stacks the three color LEDs on on top of the other on the wafer.

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A comparison between Lumen's stacked RGB transfer process (bottom) and the standard process (top)

A stacked microLED architecture improves the performance, while also making the transfer process more productive. The company says that its design will offer a dramatic reduction in the production costs - especially the transfer process, which is reduced to a third (in terms of number of transfer steps), while also doing all the process from a single wafer.

Aixtron launched a new fully-automated production system, the G10-AsP, targeting the microLED and laser markets. The company says that the G10-AsP ,the first system to offer a fully automated process, enables the highest throughput of its class with uniformity and defect levels never seen before.

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Aixtron says that this system will allow, for the first time, the mass production of 10um (or lower) microLED chips, with high performance. The G10-AsP offers a 200mm AsP Batch reactor and comes with In-Situ Cleaning and an automated cassette-to-cassette (C2C) wafer loading.

Stacked-RGB microLED microdisplay developed Sundiode announced that it has achieved the successful growth of a monolithic, all-InGaN RGB LED structure on a single sapphire wafer. This structure was developed in collaboration with Soft-EPI.

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Sundiode's epitaxial technology enables stacked-RGB LEDs with multiple junctions, capable of emitting RGB colors independently. This structure makes it easier to produce ultra-high density microdisplays.

In 2021, ams Osram announced that it will expand its LED production plant in Kulim, Malaysia, with an investment of around $850 million. Osram plans to produce mini-LED and micro-LED chips on 8-inch wafers in Kulim.

ams Osram already said it regards microLED as one of its key initiatives, and in a recent conference call the company's CEO emphasized that that microLED is one of the areas in which the company has clear advantages and is a market leader - and it will direct more efforts on microLEDs. The company is on track, it was revealed, to start microLED production in Kulim in 2024.