GaN-on-Silicon

Plessey purchased EVG's production wafer bonding system

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a collaboration with EV Group (EVG), a wafer bonding and lithography equipment producer. As part of the agreement, Plessey purchased EVG's GEMINI production wafer bonding system to enable bonding and alignment at Plessey’s fabrication facility in Plymouth, UK.

Plessey's EVG -Gemini production wafer bonding system photo

Plessey says that the new system will enable it to bond its GaN-on-Si microLED arrays to the panel’s backplane at a wafer level. Plessey also says that EVG’s patented automated bond alignment system technology is suitable for Plessey’s requirements because it allows face-to-face alignment of the wafers with very high precision which will enable very small pixel sizes.

ALLOS and Veeco demonstrated the reproducibility of ALLO's GaN-on-Si epiwafer technology for uniform Micro-LED production

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.

ALLOS GaN-on-Si wafer photo

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.

Plessey placed an order for Aixtron's G5+ C MOCVD tool for GaN-on-silicon growth

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced that it has placed an order for Aixtron's AIX G5+ C MOCVD reactor that will expand Plessey's production capacity for gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers.

Aixtron G5+ C MOCVD system photo

The new Aixtron reactor will be installed in the first quarter of 2019, at Plessey’s fabrication facility located in Plymouth, UK. The AIX G5+ C MOCVD system has two separate chambers, which enables to use either eight 6" wafers or five 8" ones. The system will be an addition to the company’s existing (and smaller) Aixtron MOCVD reactor

Plessey signs a strategic partnership with Jasper Display to use Jasper's backplane on its GaN-on-Silicon wafers

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced a strategic partnership with Taiwan's Taiwan's Jasper Display Corp (JDC). Under the new partnership, Plessey will use JDC's silicon backplane to drive its monolithic micro-LED displays produced on the company's proprietary GaN-on-Silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers.

In May 2018 JDC demonstrated its latest JD27E2 8" wafer, and a 0.7" Full-HD monochrome (960x540 color) microLED microdisplay that is said to be the world's brightest at 100,000 nits (JDC later demonstrated a million nits micro display). JDC's backplane allows Plessey to fabricate highly efficient and ultra-bright micro-LEDs displays.

Aledia selected Veeco's GaN MOCVD system for large-area silicon R&D

France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia has selected Veeco Instruments’s Propel GaN metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system to support its advanced R&D. Aledia aims to scale up its technology for large-area silicon using Veeco's system.

Veeco Propel GaN MOCVD system photo

Veeco's Propel system will enable Aledia to process 6- and 8-in. wafers or 2- to 4-in. wafers in a minibatch mode. Aledia already uses Veeco's K465i MOCVD system.

Plessey's Quanta-Brite and Quanta-Ray micro-LED microdisplay technologies explained

Yesterday we reported that Plessey partnered with AR supplier Vuzix to bring Micro-LED display engine, Quanta-Brite, for next generation AR Smart Glasses - which Vuzix expects to introduce in 2019.

Plessey MicroLED HUD prototype (CES 2018)

An interesting article at LED Inside explains Plessey Semiconductor's technology. The Quanta-Brite display engine is not a 'true' Micro-LED display - it is an LCoS or DMD (digital mirror) display engine that is lit by a micro-LED array and special optics. Usual LCoS and DMD displays are lit by larger LEDs, and Plessey claims that its micro-LED solution will provide a more efficient and more uniform display.

Vuzix and Plessey to co-develop MicroLED based AR glasses, aiming to commercialize a first device by 2019

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor announced that it has partnered with AR supplier Vuzix to develop advanced Micro-LED display engines for Vuzix waveguide optics to enable next generation AR Smart Glasses. Vuzix expects to introduce the Micro-LED microdisplay based AR glasses in 2019.

Vuzix says that Plessey's Quanta-Brite light engine is highly efficient and bright, and will enable smaller and more efficient AR devices. The Quanta-Brite engine is based on Plessey's advanced and proprietary gallium-nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology, with an integrated monolithic array of RGB pixels with advanced micro-optical elements.

Aledia raised $36 million from Intel Capital and existing investors

France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia announced its Series-C Financing round, totaling $36 million. Its existing investors participated in this round, and Aledia also announced that Intel Capital has joined as a new investor.

Aledia also says that it is developing next-generation Micro-LED displays with several large industrial partners. Aledia is developing both mobile displays (for smartphones, tablets, etc) and micro displays for AR/VR applications.

Seren Photonics completes the first tranche of a £1 million investment round

UK-based Seren Photonics has successfully completed the first tranche of a £1 million investment round with funding from existing and new investors. Seren says that these funds will be used to continue the manufacturing scale-up of its template technology along with the further development of green LED epitaxy structures.

Seren develops a suite of long wavelength LED epitaxy on its novel semipolar GaN aimed at delivering higher efficiency and more color stable green, yellow and red devices. Seren says that its Semipolar enabled LEDs overcome shortcomings of green LEDs manufactured on polar GaN, mainly low wall plug efficiency and poor poor wavelength stability over a range of current densities.

Researchers use a micro-LED covered with perovskite QDs to achieve high-speed visible light communication

Researchers from Fudan University, Shanghai develop a high-bandwidth white-light based system made from a blue gallium nitride (GaN) micro-LED with a yellow-emitting perovskite quantum dots. This system could be a way to enable high-speed real-time visible light communication (VLC).

The researchers used a 80 x 80 um blue-emitting micro-LED that has a modulation bandwidth of about 160 MHz and a peak emission wavelength of ~445 nm. The white-light system (following the perovskite QD conversion) achieves 85 Mhz - which means a maximum data rate of 300 Mbps.