MicroLED lighting

In January 2025, microLED developer VueReal launched reference design kits (RDKs) to enable product designers to buy microLED display samples and integrate into new designs. There were three different kits: monochrome microLED lighting panels, microLED microdisplays, and passive matrix and active matrix (LTPS) transparent microLED displays, ranging in size from 3.5-inch to 10-inch.

Now VueReal announced that it is expanding its RDK portfolio, with new industry-specific bundles (what they refer to as vertical RDKs). These new kits are specifically built for automotive and consumer electronics.

MicroSolid Printing pioneer VueReal is going to unveil several new technologies and products at CES, as the company gets ready for microLED display commercialization. VueReal wants companies to take advantage of the unique properties of microLED displays (mainly the customized production process and the high transparency and high brightness) and this year it will focus on new applications that can be enabled only by microLEDs.

First up, VueReal is launching new microLED Design Reference Kits to enable product designers to buy display samples and integrate into new designs. The first kit will provide microLED-powered lighting panels. These resemble OLED lighting panels - area lighting that is uniform. But unlike OLEDs, microLEDs will provide high brightness, long lifetime, and reduced costs. These are basically monochrome simple displays, and VueReal will offer either in native colour (R, G, B) or phosphor coated (white, red, amber).

The W Hotel in Taipei has an old Philips OLED installation (called You Fade to Light, designed by rAndom International creative studio). This beautiful piece consists of 2,000 modules, each lighting up as a response to people moving in front of it.

Due to the limited lifetime of the OLED devices, after years of use the installation started to fail and fade (which is rather ironic, given its name). PlayNitride collaborated with the hotel to replace the OLED panels with microLED powered panels. Each single module included over 14,000 microLEDs, and in total there was over 30 million microLEDs - 20% more than the number of microLEDs in a 4K display.

Researchers from the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan has been able to enhance the light-emitting intensity of Micro-LEDs by 143.7% by using ALD passivation layers. The researchers used ALD equipment produced by Finland-based Picosun.

Picosun says that its Micro-LED technology has "immense potential" to dirupt the solid state lighting market, and its ALD solutions has been proven to dramatically boost the efficiency of Micro-LEDs.

n-tech Research says that the Micro-LED lighting will experience very fast growth, with revenues exceeding $1.4 billion by 2028 with 170 million lighting units shipped.

n-tech says that some industry analysts say that micro-LED lighting will always remain a tiny niche and only cater for novelty lighting. n-tech, however, sees several advantages of micro-LEDs compared to conventional HB LEDs and expect that these will be enough to earn micro-LEDs a healthy share of the LED lighting market.

US-based Rohinni announced a new joint-venture with Magna Electronics to develop flexible mini-LED and micro-LED based lighting devices for the automotive market.

The new JV, controlled by Magna Electronics will be called Magna Rohinni Automotive Electronics and will be based in Holly, Michagan, US. In addition to the JV, Magna also made a minority equity investment in Rohinni.