Native red

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display announced that it has developed a higher-efficiency AlGaInP-based (native) red microLED, that achieves a brightness of 750,000 nits, an increase of 50% compared to its currently-used emitter. The company says that this it the industry's brightest native red emitter.

JBD says that it managed to redistribute the local charge carriers by a breakthrough in surface treatment process and in this way, minimize the surface non-radiative recombination and boost the efficiency. The company says it expects to implement this technology in mass production by middle of 2023.

Specialized Korea-based LED developer Lumens announced that it has developed a Monolithic RGB epitaxial wafers for micro-LED display production. The new technology stacks the three color LEDs on on top of the other on the wafer.

A comparison between Lumen's stacked RGB transfer process (bottom) and the standard process (top)

A stacked microLED architecture improves the performance, while also making the transfer process more productive. The company says that its design will offer a dramatic reduction in the production costs - especially the transfer process, which is reduced to a third (in terms of number of transfer steps), while also doing all the process from a single wafer.

Belgium-based microLED microdisplay developer MICLEDI demonstrated a "Ferrari" red microLEDs on aluminium indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) starting material. The company says that these red microLED devices are produced using a CMOS-compatible flow, free of arsenide.

MICLEDI says that it uses advanced photolithography available in 300mm wafer fabs. The company's first red microLED on GaN is solidly in the red range with wavelength centered at 620nm and good full-width half-maximum (FWHM) of <50nm. This newest announcement of red on AlInGaP achieves 653nm wavelength at extremely narrow FWHM of <9nm.

Belgium-based microLED microdisplay developer MICLEDI has demonstrated 630nm wavelength red GaN with a full-width-half-max (FWHM) in the range of 50nm. New red microdisplay samples are projected to be available to customers before the end of the year.

MICLEDI says that its red GaN device is compatible with the company's proprietary CMOS-fab technology and it follows the identical process recipe of the company’s blue and green arrays for consistency. The new red device is tailored for 300 mm processes for high-volume mass production.

Porous-GaN material platform developer Porotech announced that it has raised $20 million in its Series A investment funding round. The new funds Will help Porotech mass produce its microLED products,and expand its global reach. The round has been led by Ameba Capital and includes a "multinational electronics giant".

In 2021 Porotech announced it has created the world's first microLED microdisplay based on a native red InGaN LED. The microdisplay was a 0.55" diagonal panel with a resolution of 960x540 Porotech says that its native InGaN red LEDs will offer higher efficiency than currently-used AlInGaP red LEDs. Developing an RGB microdisplay all from InGaN chips will also offer easier driving and process design.

Porous-GaN material platform developer Porotech announced that it has created the world's first microLED microdisplay based on a native red InGaN LED. The microdisplay is a 0.55" diagonal panel with a resolution of 960x540.

Porotech says that its native InGaN red LEDs will offer higher efficiency than currently-used AlInGaP red LEDs. Developing an RGB microdisplay all from InGaN chips will also offer easier driving and process design.

Porous-GaN material platform developer Porotech announced a partnership with Jade Bird Display (JBD). Under the agreement, Porotech provide JBD with its porous gallium nitride (GaN) technology.

Porotech says its native red InGaN LED epiwafer is not commercial. JBD now plans to use Porotech's porous GaN templates to manufacture InGaN-based red micro-LED displays for use in applications such as VR/AR headsets, AR smart sports goggles and head-up displays.

Cambridge University spin-out Porotech has launched a native red GaN LED epiwafer for microLED applications. The company says this is the industry's first commercial red GaN epiwafer.

Current red LEDs are mostly produced from aluminum indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) materials. These materials show a drastic efficiency drop as the LED side decreases (due to their large carrier diffusion lengths and high surface recombination velocity) and in addition a hybrid AlInGaP and GaN RGB device is more difficult to drive. This is why it is beneficial to produce red LEDs from GaN materials.

GaN-on-Si IP developer ALLOS Semiconductors announced it is collaborating with with Prof. Ohkawa and his team at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to develop high efficiency nitride-based red LEDs on large diameter silicon substrates.

Prof. Ohkawa and team have developed an indium gallium nitride (InGaN)- based red LED stack with low forward voltage of less than 2.5 V and high efficiency by using local strain compensation and a modified MOCVD reactor design. ALLOS and the KAUST team will combine their unique technologies to handle strain and optimize crystal growth conditions for GaN-on-Si and red LEDs. To this end, the KAUST team will grow its red LED stack on top of ALLOS’ GaN-on-Si-buffer layers, which will be fine-tuned during the collaboration to optimize the performance of KAUST’s red LED stack.

UK-based GaN-On-Si MicroLED microdisplay developer Plessey Semiconductor announced that it has successfully developed the world’s first GaN on Silicon-based Red LED.

Red LEDs are typically based on AlInGaP materia, or are color-converted from blue LEDs. These red LEDs limit the efficiency and the ability to create ultra-fine pitch sub pixels. Plessey says that InGaN red LEDs will also offer lower manufacturing costs, scalability to larger 200 mm or 300 mm wafers and better hot/cold factor over incumbent AlInGaP-based Red.