Tianma

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. 

During the company's latest innovation conference, Tianma unveiled that it developed a small 1.63" 403 PPI microLED display, that targets wearables and small mobile terminals.

The company did not disclose more information on this new display, and did not say how close it is to commercialize it.

During Display Week 2023, Tianma demonstrated its latest microLED display prototypes - all of which are transparent displays, stating that the main application for such displays is in the automotive sector.

The first display is a 8.75" panel, offering a resolution of 880x480 (114 PPI), a brightness of 800 nits and high transparency of over 70%. The display is an active-matrix microLED produced on an LTPS backplane.

Tianma announced plans to establish a 1.1 billion Yuan ($164 million USD) full-process microLED pilot line, in Xiamen. This line will be built by a joint venture between Tianma display, Xiangtou Group and Torch Investment.

In 2021 Tianma held its first "2021 Micro-LED Ecosystem Alliance Conference" in Xiamen, During the conference, the company unveiled several microLED prototype displays, including a 9.38" 960x480 transparent LTPS panel, a 7.56" 720x480 flexible LTPS panel, a 11.6" 2470x960 rigid LTPS display and a tiled microLED display, made from 5.04" 480x320 panels.

Tianma Microelectronics held its first "2021 Micro-LED Ecosystem Alliance Conference" in Xiamen, China, during which several producers and researchers gathered to discuss microLED technologies and challenges.

During the conferences, Tianma showed several new microLED prototype display, including some new ones. The first display is a 9.38" 960x480 (222 um pixel pitch) transparent LTPS panel. Tianma's second-gen transparent panel features higher transparency (>70%), larger size and a refined TFT process compared to the company's first-gen transparent microLEDs shown in 2019.

Tianma demonstrated several new microLED display prototypes at SID Displayweek 2021. First up is a 7.56" 720x480 (114 PPI) flexible MicroLED display, developed in collaboration with PlayNitride. The display is driven by an LTPS backplane and achieves a brightness of over 600 nits. The bending radius is 50 mm.

The second display is a tiled display that combines two 5.04" 480x320 (114 PPI) LTPS microLED displays. This one was develop again in collaboration with PlayNitride. The border (bezel) of the panel is less than 0.03 mm - although looking carefully at the display you can see a black line separating the two panels.

Earlier this week China-based Tianma unveiled a new 7.56" 720x480 (114 PPI) transparent Micro-LED display prototype at SID, and the display won SID's people's choice award - the best new display technology.

Tianma today revealed that the Micro-LED prototype was co-developed with Taiwan's PlayNitride. In 2017 PlayNitride started to sample micro-LED panels and shipped samples to 10-20 potential customers. The company's chairman and CEO, Charles Li, said in June 2018 that 5-6 of these customers are continuing the developing of micro-LED modules based on these panels. Apparently TianMa is one of these customers.

China-based Tianma announced that it has developed a transparent 7.56" 720x480 (114 PPI) Micro-LED display. The new display, which will be demonstrated at SID next week features a transparency of over 60%.

Tianma says that the new display has an ultra-thin border of less than 0.8 mm (left and right). Tianma says that such durable and long-lasting transparent displays could be very suitable for automotive applications (such as HUDs or in-window displays).