micro-ICs

Justin Brown is X Display's Executive Vice President for Operations & Equipment. Justin leads the company’s supply chain development, manufacturing partner relationships and also its Equipment division, which provides mass-transfer equipment for XDC’s partners and licensees. Justin was kind enough to answer a few questions we had for XDC.

Q: Hello Justin, thanks for your time. XDC has been a bit quiet in the last few years. Can you bring us up to date on your microLED technologies, processes and products?

Thank you for the opportunity to share the progress at XDC. We have been busier in the near past than ever before. As you know, we first announced our MicroIC technology, our mass transfer process, our manufacturing equipment and the uniqueness of our approach, the IP strength we possess and the experience of the team. This led to broad customer visibility and we narrowed down our efforts to a select set of partners that we are currently working with. We have deep engagements with customers that we anticipate will result in end product announcements in the future.

Yole Intelligence has published its latest microLED market report, in which it sees commercial microLED production starting in 2-3 years, following several delays. In 5-10 years, adoption will increase.

In its base scenario, Yole sees microLED panel sales reaching $1.5 billion in 2029 and $2.2 billion in 2030, with almost 90% coming from wearables and AR/VR/MR microdisplays. The rest of the panels will be used in TV applications. If you want to hear more about Yole's microLED market insights, you are welcome to join the MicroLED-Connect online event later this month.

TechBlick will soon host its virtual microLED and QD event, and here is a good preview of some of the technologies and advances that will be detailed during the event. MicroLED-Info readers enjoy a special discount to this interesting upcoming industry event.

We highlight important advancements in MicroLED and/or QD displays in this article using technology slides. These advancements of the art will be presented at TechBlick’s 2-day global conference on “Mini- & Micro-LED Displays: Markets, Manufacturing Innovations, Applications, Promising Start-ups” taking place online in TechBlick’s ‘in-person virtual’ platform on 30 Nov - 1 Dec 2022.

The agenda includes the likes of Samsung, Sharp, AUO, Coherent, ASMPT, Komori, CEA, Micledi, 3D Micromac, Allows Semiconductors, and many more. Full agenda can be seen here.

This conference is supported by the MicroLED Association.

LED developer Seoul Viosys announced a new technology called WICOP mp, that combines the company's no-wire, no-package WICOP tech with microLEDs to create so-called micro Pixels.

The company says that its WICOP technology makes it possible to populate brand-new semiconductor chips into a general manufacturing process directly without modification. Seoul Viosys says that using WICOP mc microPixels enables higher efficiency (as there's no efficiency degradation) and high density displays (up to 2000 PPI)

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.

MicroLED display technology developer X Display Company (XDC) announced that it installed the world's first 300 mm elastomer stamp based mass MicroLED transfer equipment late in 2020. This tool was installed in the US and the company hopes to start shipping several similar tools for its customers later in 2021.

XDC spun out of X-celeprint in 2019 and retained the equipment organization from that transaction. XDC has over 15 years of experience with mass transfer micro printing technologies, and is offering a range of tools for microLED transfer, suitable for R&D work and industrial-scale production.

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.

Display market analysts from Yole Developpement posted an interesting article, that speculates that Apple and Huawei are looking into microLED displays based on Si-CMOS micro-ICs. This model could have tremendous implications for the display market.

The idea is that the device maker (Apple is likely to be the first to go down that route) will source micro LEDs from LED producers (or produce these in-house) and source microICs from foundries. Apple could then assemble these into its own displays, in-house. This means that in this model there's no room for traditional display makers which could lead to large disruptions in the display market, according to Yole.

PlayNitride introduced several new display technologies at SID DisplayWeek 2020. First up we have the PixeLED Matrix, which is a tiled microLED display module based display, each produced on its own PCB.

Each PixeLED module is made from 16 pixels (4X4), and can reach pitches of 0.3-0.4 mm. PlayNitride says that this technology can compete with mini LED displays, and says that it achieves a superior contrast and can also be fitted on curved surfaces. PixeLED displays can be used for TV displays, for commercial signage displays and also for automotive lighting. The display can currently achieve a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits.

iBeam Materials announced that it had successfully demonstrated the ability to produce high-performance GaN Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) directly on thin, flexible and rollable metal foil substrates.

This new technology complements iBeam's microLED deposition technology (demonstrated in the video above), and these FETs can be integrated with microLED chips in a side-by-side architecture. Both FETs and MicroLEDs are deposited on the flexible substrate without any transfer process.