GaN-on-Silicon

Veeco reports its financial results for Q2 2023, with revenues of $162 million (towards the high-end of its guidance) with a net income of $24 million.

Veeco says it remains committed to its microLED opportunities, as its long-term outlook on the microLED industry is positive. In the short term, however, it has sold some GaN-on-Silicon tools, but it has seen market pushing out about a year, and does not expect any significant orders until 2025.

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.

Image

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).

MicroLED microdisplay developer Mojo Vision announced that it has raised $22.4 million in a Series A investment round, to further develop and commercialize its microLED display technology. 

We're happy to interview ALLOS Semiconductors, as part of our new series of interviews with MicroLED Industry Association members. ALLOS Semiconductors is an IP licensing and technology company that focuses on GaN-on-Si technology for the microLED industry. ALLOS offers a turn-key technology transfer to establish a super-uniform CMOS-compatible large epiwafer process at customers within only 12 weeks.

Q: Hello! Can you introduce your company and technology?

ALLOS Semiconductors is the global leader for gallium nitride on silicon epiwafer technologies (GaN-on-Si) for next generation, micro LED-based display solutions and other applications building on more than 20 years track-record.

Our customer and partner base includes top-tier companies from the electronic device, display, LED and semiconductor foundry industries. They benefit from the cost, yield and performance advantages of our patent-protected 200 and 300 mm GaN-on-Si micro LED epiwafer technologies – including our unique 1 bin® technologies.

Kyocera Corporation announced that it has successfully developed a new process technology to produce microLED (and micro-laser) devices. The process is based on lateral growth of GaN layer on a silicon wafer, in a way that limits defects in most of the area.

The basic process has three steps. First you grow a GaN layer on silicon. The second step is to apply a mask with a has a horizontal gap. The third step is to continue growing the GaN layer. The defects are concentrated in the opening nucleus, but the rest of the growth area remains almost defect free. The actual microLED devices are fabricated from the low-defect region.

China-based GaN epiwafer producer Enkris Semiconductor launched new microLED epiwafers. The "Full Color GaN" series offers GaN-on-Si microLED epiwafers, with wafers sizes of up to 300 mm.

Enkris' new epiwafers offers blue, red and green LED arrays, all based on the same material platform. Enkris Semiconductor uses its patented strain engineering and polarization engineering, which it says is unique, to expand its GaN-on-Si LED epiwafer product portfolio to all colors (with wavelengths of 390-650nm).

Hong Kong based microLED microdisplay developer Raysolve Technology announced that it raised $10 million USD in its Pre-Series A Financing Round. The funding will be used to scale up its R&D activities and initiate production of its first microdisplays.

In the last 6 months, Raysolve raised almost $15 million from an angel investor (Source Code Capital) and VCs. This new funding round was led by Gaorong Capital along with Glory Ventures.

Porous-GaN material platform developer Porotech raised £3 million as it accelerates its microLED production technology development.

Porotech developed a new class of porous GaN semiconductor material, which according to the company offers performance improvements over current materials. In November 2020, the company announced what it says is the first commercial native red LED epiwafer for micro-LED applications.

Global digital signage solution provider STRATACACHE is constructing the first US-based complete display production facility in Eugene, Oregon. The future MicroLED E4 fab is planned to commence production in 2022, and the fab will be a complete microLED production line, from epiwafer (on 300 mm silicon wafers), through transfer process and to final module assembly.

This project is extremely interesting, and we set out to discuss it with STRATACACHE's founder and CEO, Chris Riegel. At STRATACACHE, Chris leads strategic direction, technology development and engineering operations, and the MicroLED fab project seems to be personally spearheaded by him.

Global digital signage solution provider STRATACACHE is embarking on a project to construct a microLED display production line in Eugene, Oregon. The company aims to start production in this fab at around 2022-2023, with plans to adopt these microLED displays in its own solutions.

The new factory (E4) will be a complete microLED production line, from epiwafer (on 300 mm silicon wafers), through transfer process and to final module assembly. The company plans to produce a wide range of displays, from tablet-sized panels to large-area displays. Some of these displays will be flexible and transparent as the company sees a market demand for such technologies. The yearly capacity of the E4 is expected to start at a 1 million square meters per year.