Konka

China Resources has received an approval from China's market regulation administrator to acquire a stake in Konka Group. The financial details were not disclosed.

Konka is facing financial difficulties, its revenues in 2024 declined almost 40% and it posted a loss of $450 million. China Resource aims to assist Konka and as it has its own semiconductor business, it may find alignment with Konka's microLED and mini-LED business. It will be interesting to see how this will effect Konka's microLED R&D and commercialization projects.

A few days ago, Apple decided to cancel its microLED project with ams-Osram, a development that took the display industry by surprise (or at least parts of the industry). MicroLED developers are now looking to understand how Apple's decision will shape the industry, and a couple of days ago two China-based developers, Tianma Microelectronics and Konka, said that they are continuing their own microLED developments projects, as the companies are still optimistic about the future of microLEDs.

Konka has vertically integrated its supply chain and is producing its own microLED chips using Aixtron's MOCVD systems. Back in 2019, Konka announced it is building a $365 million micro-LED R&D center in Chongqing, as the company believes that Micro-LED will become the leading technology for ultra-high quality consumer TVs. Earlier that year, Konka launched tiled large micro-LED displays called APHAEA brand. Konka demonstrated several possible configurations - including 118" 4K and 236" 8K. The price of a 118" 4K display was around $240,000 while the 236" 8K TV had a price tag of $1.25 million. Click here for more information on Konka's APHAEA micro-LED TVs. 

At CES 2024, Konka is demonstrating a massive 310" microLED display. The display offers 4K-Plus resolution (Konka did not detail the exact resolution), low reflectivity (<5%), 800 nits of brightness, high refresh rate (not detailed) and a large color gamut (85% BT.2020).

Konka says that this display uses the company's self developed and fully proprietary microLED chips. Konka produces its microLED chips using Aixtron's MOCVD systems.

During the IFA 2023 tradeshow, China-based Konka is showing a 59" tiled microLED TV prototype screen. This is the smallest microLED TV shown to date - since Sony showed the world's first microLED display back in 2012.

It seems as if this display is an early-stage prototype. According to reports, the resolution is poor, the contrast is very low and the seam between the tiles is clearly visible. This is clearly not ready for commercialization. You can see the display in the video below, and indeed the seams are visible. The display is made by 16x9 modules, and it uses a PCB backplane.

During the 2020 Chongqing Micro-LED Industry Innovation Forum, Konka introduced the world's first MicroLED Watch, the APHAEA Watch. This groundbreaking product uses a 2-inch microLED display with a pixel pitch of 0.12 mm - which means the resolution is around 400x400. The MicroLED chips are 30 um in size.

It is not clear how close Konka is to commercialize this product - but in any case this is a great achievement and this is the world's first microLED wearable display shown in a real product. The display is produced on an LTPS backplane, it achieves a brightness of 1,500 nits and a color gamut of 147% DCI-P3. Konka says that battery life of this watch is up to 35 days.

In December 2019, China-based display maker Konka launched its tiled large micro-LED displays, under the APHAEA brand. The company demonstrated two such displays - a 118" 4K one that costs $240,000 and a 236" 8K one that costs $1.25 million.

Konka is gearing up to produce its own MicroLED and miniLED chips, and has ordered several Aixtron production systems, specifically the AIX G5+ C and AIX 2800G4-TM MOCVD systems. Konka will use these CVD reactors to produces GaN-based and AsP-based microLEDs and miniLEDs.

In December 2019, China-based display maker Konka launched its tiled large micro-LED displays, under the APHAEA brand. The company demonstrated two such displays (4K and 8K) at CES 2020, as you can see below:

Konka's MicroLEDs are modular displays (similar to Samsung's The Wall and Sony' Crystal LED displays).

China-based display maker Konka announced it is building a micro-LED research and development center in Chongqing, China. Total investment in this initiative is around $365 million, out of which Konka will invest $215 million (the rest is contributed by the local government)

These funds will be used to purchase micro-LED production equipment, R&D and also to increase the production of support the sale of Micro-LED related products. Konka hopes that this investment will propel it to leadership in the microLED industry. Konka believes that Micro-LED will become the leading technology for ultra-high quality consumer TVs.

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).