According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 1Q18 Micro LED Next-Generation Display Technology Market Report- 2018 Micro LED and Mini LED Industry Trend, the Micro LED market value in 2025 is expected to reach USD 2.891 billion.

A series of acts of Samsung developing Micro LED has been gradually unveiled. From the rumor about its investment in Taiwan-based Micro LED startup PlayNitride to the recent demonstration of its gigantic Micro LED modular TV The Wall at CES 2018, they more or less suggest Samsung’s attempt to rival other display makers with the Micro LED technology.

During the trade show, LEDinside visited exhibitions of equipment providers and attended conferences of fabrication process developers to find answers on all areas of Micro LED manufacturing. Below are displays and presentations made by companies that are expected to make crucial contributions to the Micro LED supply chain.

NEPCON JAPAN 2018, the largest exposition for electronics manufacturing and R&D technologies in Asia, started today (January 17, 2018) at Tokyo Big Sight. The three-day show has grown larger with approximately 2,600 Japanese and overseas exhibitors presenting their advancements in both the East and West Exhibition Halls this year. The number of attendees is anticipated to hit 127,000. The show is ready to witness Asia’s first large-scale dialogue between tech companies in 2018.  

Micro LED is an enticing display technology considerably future-proof yet hard to fully realize. All already-known challenges are basically induced by three key factors: the size, material, and number of LED chips. The industry refers to a LED chip as a Micro LED chip when its size is below 100μm—almost as tiny as the diameter of human hair. Different colors of Micro LEDs are made with different materials. Some companies attempt to develop a solution for chips of all colors, while the others invent several approaches to transfer, bond, and drive Micro LEDs produced with different compounds. What about the Number of Micro LEDs used for a display, let’s say, a TV, for example? It’s going to be single- to double-digit millions of them.

To be fair, none of the products launched in 2017 can arouse such a heated discussion as the iPhone X did. Its futuristic appearance, including the notch at the top of its OLED screen, attracted a lot of attention. Apart from that, the public also anticipated it to launch Apple Watch Series 3 featuring a Micro LED display but it did not happen.

Competition between QLED TV and AMOLED TV has continued in CES this year, and resolutions of the latest TVs include both 4K and 8K specifications. Major TV brands now focus on video processing chips in addition to constant improvements of HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging technology, says WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Together with AI technology, TVs are now featuring “smart” video processing capability and superior image quality.

Perhaps one of the most attention-garnering products unveiled by Samsung Electronics at CES 2018 is its 146-inch The Wall, the world’s first modular Micro LED TV. Featuring a number of display technology advancements, The Wall is set to usher in the future of displays by providing an unsurpassed viewing experience while seamlessly integrating into consumers’ lives – and living rooms.

Not just Samsung, another Korean display maker is unveiling its Micro LED displays. We covered last December that Lumens started producing two types of Micro LED displays and it alleged to bring them to CES 2018. It seems the company made it, too.

Whether you are at CES 2018 at the moment, you’ve probably already learnt that Samsung is exhibiting its gigantic Micro LED TV ‘the Wall’ at its First Look event.

Samsung Electronics today introduced “The Wall” – the world’s first consumer modular MicroLED 146-inch TV – at its annual First Look CES event. The modular, self-emitting MicroLED 146” TV display was featured alongside Samsung’s latest innovations in display technology, demonstrating how television is evolving to offer consumers an outstanding viewing experience, while acting as a centralized connected smart hub to enhance everyday life.

Plessey Semiconductor announces its commitment to being the first to market with a monolithic Micro LED based display based on GaN-on-Silicon.

JBD, a Hong Kong based technology startup company, reports the realization of monochromatic red, green and blue active matrix micro-LED (AMµLED) micro-displays with >5,000 dpi pixel density using wafer scale monolithic hybrid integration process. 

In retrospect, companies had already realized the only way to earn themselves new opportunities in such a mature market is to redevelop their technologies and gear up for niche markets with higher margins. LEDinside picks five trends that drove the LED industry this year and gives a quick analysis on what they will lead the industry to in 2018.

IQE plc, the Welsh supplier of advanced wafer products and wafer services to the semiconductor industry, announces that its wholly ownedsubsidiary, NanoGaN Limited, has secured the purchase and assignment of a portfolio of patents from Taiwan based Luxtaltek Corporation.

Among lots of companies developing Micro/ Mini LED, an Idaho-based startup is looking to use its products in a totally different segment. Rohinni, first exposed in 2014, has been developing Micro LED for keyboard backlighting and automotive lighting.

Successfully obtaining technologies able to mass produce Micro LED products, Korean mid-sized LED maker Lumens begins to produce both small- and large-sized Micro LED display prototypes planned to be showcased at CES 2018.

eLux announced that the U.S. Patent Office has issued in early December US Patent No. 9,825,202 titled “Display with Surface Mount Emissive Elements”. This is the first issued eLux patent which covers the foundational work done on massively parallel fluidic assembly of µLEDs to make high resolution displays. 

A new war is looming in the display market. The rumor that Samsung may team up with the Micro LED supply chain in Taiwan has caught the attention of Foxconn CEO Terry Gou.

Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturer Epistar announced its business plan for 2018 will be around five cores—backlighting, high-end LED lighting, infrared application, automotive lighting, and innovative digital display. Ming-Chun Chou, General Manager of Epistar, stated the company will officially produce Mini LED in 2Q18 at the earliest.

LEDinside this time collected insights on Micro LED from seven experts. What do they think about Micro LED and the feasibility of its mass production? What are the elements they think Micro LED should have to be able to win the competition against LCD and OLED?

LED epi-wafers and chips supplier Epileds has posted flat revenue in 2H17 due to seasonal headwinds and the relocation of its factory. 

The global research company TrendForce held 2018 Forum on Key Trends in Electronic Components Industry on December 7, 2017. Here are the key excerpts from the forum.

Epistar General Manager Chou Ming-Chun revealed at the company’s investor conference on December 5 that Mini LED is likely to be mainstream in the backlight market.

Taiwan-based sapphire substrate supplier Crystalwise Technology suffered a loss per share of NTD 2.99 in the past three quarters in 2017 mainly due to the low price of patterned sapphire substrates (PSS). The market has gone through a reshuffle and gradually turned healthy in recent years.

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, points out that LED manufacturers have turned to research and development of Mini LED, due to Micro LED’s technological bottlenecks which make it harder to realize commercialization in short term.

The new display technology Micro LED actually has a history of over a decade. After Apple acquired LuxVue Technology, it officially became famous. Its properties- high resolution, high brightness, real-time response, and low power consumption- win hearts of many A-list high-tech companies such as Apple, Sony, Google and Facebook, as well as companies in the display industry.

Rumors have been spreading like crazy since May that Samsung would acquire Taiwanese Micro LED startup PlayNitride. Sources from the industry recently leaked that the two companies are at the final stage of their talk.

The US Patent & Trademark Office this month published a patent application related to the foldable iPhone from Apple. In this patent, the iPhone maker includes Micro LED as one of the display materials for the model and liquid metal as the bendable part of the phone structure.

Apple is partnering with TSMC to develop silicon-based Micro LED displays, while Samsung Electronics is also planning to showcase a new Micro LED TV next year in January at CES 2018.