In November 2017 we reported that Taiwan's Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL, part of ITRI) has launched a project that brings together PlayNitride, LED driver IC designer Macroblock and PCB maker Unimicron with an aim to develop production technologies for high-density Micro-LED displays.

Digitimes today reports that EOSRL has achieved a breakthrough in its mass transfer technology, and is now able to transfer 10,000 micro-LED chips from an sapphire-based epitaxial wafer onto a substrate within an hour. EOSRL demonstrated the process with PCB, Polyimide and glass substrates. Trial production runs will commence in Q4 2019.

In March 2018, Australia-based RPCVD developer BluGlass announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with a microLED company to investigate the use of its Remote Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition (RPCVD) production technology to produce RGB MicroLED devices.

BluGlass now announced that its partner is X-Celeprint, that used the process to demonstrate a 2,000 cd/m² micro-LED display that offers good luminance with color uniformity, quantum efficiency and forward voltage that equals current high-performance commercial applications. BluGlass reveals that X-Celeprint has been a long-standing customer of BluGlass’ foundry services and were the first adopter of its RPCVD system for Micro-LED production.

In September 2018 it was reported that China-based Sanan Optoelectronics started to build its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line and in early 2019 it was reported that Sanan plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019.

Now Sanan announced that it has signed a contract with the Gedian Economic and Technological Development Zone in China's Hubei Province to setup a 12 billion Yuan ($1.78 billion USD) Mini-LED and Micro-LED production site.

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor developed its proprietary 2D planar gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) process to emit Green light without the need for color conversion techniques.

Plessey says that its native Green LEDs are formed inherently using its proprietary GaN-on-Si epitaxial growth process similar to the native Blue LEDs with the principal difference coming in the amount of indium that is incorporated in the quantum well structures of the LED. The native Green emission is orders of magnitude times brighter than color-converted process for micro-LEDs.

In July 2018, France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia announced that it has selected Veeco Instruments’s Propel GaN MOCVD system to support its advanced R&D. Veeco's Propel system enables Aledia to process 6- and 8-inch wafers or 2- to 4-inch wafers in a minibatch mode. Aledia also uses Veeco's R&D K465i MOCVD system.

Aledia and Veeco now announced that Aledia "expands its portfolio of Veeco equipment to develop and produce 3D micro-LEDs". It is not clear what kind of equipment Aledia ordered - and it also seems that the two companies are collaborating to develop next-generation Micro-LED production equipment.

Researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology managed to vertically integrate nanowire gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LEDs. Such technology could be useful for future Micro-LED displays.

The researchers say that this integration could provide to enable smaller structures and more cost-effective processes compared to alternative light emitting architectures - such as high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) combined with LEDs.

Fuji Chimera Research Institute says that the global microdisplay market reached $161 million in 2018, led by LCoS panels (59.7%) and OLED panels (27.8%).

While some analysts expect Micro-LED to take over the AR microdisplay market, Fuji Chimera says that the technology is not mature enough and there are some technology challenges to overcome still - including those in epitaxial wafer process, mass transfer, defect detection and current drive.

In September 2018 we reported that China-based San'an Optoelectronics is gearing up to setup its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line in Q1 2019, and in early 2019 it was reported that San'n plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019.

In a new press release, San'an announced that it is advancing with its Micro-LED R&D and capacity investment, and the company has filed for 27 patents and has signed several key partnerships. San'an also says that it has "expanded its manufacturing capabilities and facilities for micro-LED production".

In September 2018 we reported that China-based San'an Optoelectronics is gearing up to setup its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line in Q1 2019.

According to Digitimes, San'an now plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019. San'an says that micro-LEDs are not mature yet, but early trial adoption will begin in the second half of 2019 - for movie theaters, TVs and automotive displays.

In November 2017 Veeco and ALLOS Semiconductors announced that the two companies have completed their micro-LED strategic initiative and demonstrated 200mm GaN-on-Si wafers for blue and green micro-LED production. ALLOS proprietary epitaxy technology was transferred onto Veeco's Propel Single-Wafer MOCVD System to enable micro-LED production on existing silicon production lines.

Yesterday ALLOS and Veeco announced the completion of another phase of their mutual effort to provide the industry with leading GaN-on-Silicon epiwafer technology for microLED production. The two companies now demonstrated the reproducibility of ALLOS’ 200 mm GaN-on-Si epiwafer technology on Veeco’s Propel MOCVD reactor when producing epiwafers for many prominent global consumer electronics companies.