Solar-Tectic LLC announced a breakthrough OLED display technology that promises to revolutionize the industry by replacing the standard LTPS (low temperature polysilicon) process used world-wide by the major display manufacturers and thereby solving the industry's "backplane problem."

Inorganic microLEDs are the next big thing in displays, not as backlights for LCDs, but like OLEDs, as the actual light emitting pixel elements, ranging from applications in Micro-displays for Augmented /Virtual Reality (AR/VR) to wearables such as Smartwatches and Cellphones. Unlike OLED displays, however, they are far more robust and long-lived, and most importantly, far more efficient and much brighter, making them viable even for larger displays, such as video walls in advertising and in cinema in place of projection.  But to make the technology cost effective, manufacturing challenges abound, particularly as pixel sizes shrink in next generation micro-displays. For example, various coatings must be rapidly deposited in a precise, controlled manner, such as the Quantum Dots (QDs) integrated with the LEDs used in larger displays either to sharpen the color characteristics of traditional phosphors, or fully replace them in micro-displays, relying solely on QDs for color conversion. Better technology is needed for reliably depositing the various costly materials used, and even for rapidly assembling or arraying the microLEDs themselves.

Samsung officially released 34-foot Cinema Screen in 2017, and the screen has been installed at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Korea. This is the first product that brings LED digital display into the movie theater application around the world. Samsung’s goal is to take up 10% movie theater market in 2020.

Apple might be cutting the size of its Micro LED R&D team, but it does not seem to give up on the next generation display technology, a few sources reported. It is collaborating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop an alternative approach to sidestep challenges including the notorious mass transfer of chips.

Much hope has been put in Micro LED to drive the next generation display technology, but there isn’t a concrete date to see it commercialized yet. The production cost is still high, and development of mass transfer technologies gets stuck. Even Apple is rumoured to have downsized its secret team that develops Micro LED in Taiwan.

There are many recent articles explaining mini LED or Micro LED. Some are correct, but some are not. Let LEDinside explain and tell you the differences between fine-pitch LED, mini LED and micro LED.

The Electronic & Optoelectronic System Research Lab (EOSRL) under the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is co-developing ultra fine-pitch Micro LED displays with PlayNitride, LED Driver IC expert Macroblock, and PCB maker Unimicron Techology, sources from the industry have revealed.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 2018 Global LED Digital Display and Micro LED Display Market Outlook, due to economic recession, global LED display market experienced limited growth and market demand of traditional display decreased. However, thanks to the development of LED fine pitch display in recent years, display market demand increased again. In 2017, global LED display market scale reached USD 5.092 billion. Indoor fine pitch display (≤P2.5) will continuously maintain growth after experiencing rapid development in the past few years, and the market scale in 2017 was USD 1.141 billion with CAGR of 2017-2021 is expected to reach 12%.

Electronic & Optoelectronic System Research Lab under ITRI attempts to build a Micro LED pilot line which will start operating in 3Q18 at the earliest and offer products to Taiwan-based VR companies. 

2017 Micro LED International Symposium, organized by the Consortium for Intelligent Micro-assembly System (CIMS), is held today (November 3) at Taipei Marriot Hotel to look into the value chain of Micro LED and discuss its business opportunities and connection with AR/VR devices in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Veeco Instruments completed a strategic initiative with ALLOS Semiconductors (ALLOS) to demonstrate 200mm GaN-on-Si wafers for Blue/Green microLED production.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 4Q17 Micro LED Next Generation Display Industry Market Report- Micro/Mini LED in Automotive Display Market, the total passenger car display in 2017 was about 241 million sets and is predicted to total 624 million sets in 2025, CAGR of 2017-2025 is 13%. The growth driver comes from rising IoV penetration, new energy carand autonomous vehicles. Hence, interior automotive display usage volume significantly rose.

The ideal solution for microLED makers would be the availability of efficient nitride LEDs in both green and red. In this case, all RGB LEDs would be composed of the same material with the same behaviors and driving conditions. The challenge is to find one material capable of spanning the blue to red spectrum. 

OLED patent holder Samsung Electronics now also steps into the realm of Micro LED, reported the Investor. It is also looking to acquire PlayNitride, a Taiwan-based Micro LED developer in an attempt to offset the sluggish sales of its QLED TVs.

The first Micro LED product is Crystal LED Display that Sony showcased at CES 2012. Outwardly similar to a regular TV, it was an ultimate combination of the most state-of-the-art technologies back then. However, Sony, after its first success, had gone silent for quite a while until 2016.

2017-2018 is a pivotal period for the display industry. Companies are scrambling for new display technologies to bring better user experience with devices that sport them. Micro LED display technology is believed to combine the LED and display industries together to create a supply chain rolling out screen products more appealing, power-saving, and refined. This chain is even anticipated to replace a part of the current LCD chain worth USD 30-40 billion in the future (see here). The Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) revealed two months ago a refined roll-transfer technology which enables a successful mass Micro LED transfer onto flexible target substrates.

AIXTRON announced that it has received an order for an AIX G5+ platform from Swedish-American company glō-USA, Inc. The group focuses on the commercialization of Micro-LED products based on their proprietary defect-free GaN nanowires technology. Such 3D structures enable the growth of Micro LEDs while maintaining the reliability of an inorganic material system. AIXTRON’s AIX G5+ Planetary Reactor® system was selected in the scope of glō’s strategic expansion and will be delivered with an 8x150 mm configuration in the course of Q4/2017.

At Semicon Taiwan 2017, PlayNitride showcased both single-color and multi-color transparent Micro LED displays for wearable devices and game consoles. With a transparency level up to 50%, those displays, once upsized, can be used on more applications, which possibly leads the market of Micro LED to enlarge. On the other, in response to clients’ needs for fine-pitch LED displays, PlayNitride also gets Mini LED under development. Its Mini LED displays as of now are able to reach P 0.75 (0.75 mm per pixel pitch). The company attempts to develop Micro LED displays of larger sizes and anticipates to roll out its innovations in 2018 at the earliest.

Taiwan-based LED chip giant Epistar’s revenue in August stood at NTD 2.332 billion (USD 77.59 million), with a rise of 3.7% MoM (5.3% YoY). It has hit a new high in the past 28 months. The company explained the fully-utilized capacity for blue LED manufacturing and the AlInGaP demand driver from the horticultural lighting market accounted for the growth, despite an overall slide of 0.3% YoY in the consolidated revenue of 2017 (accumulated until the end of August).

Japan-based Yano Research Institute issued on 4th September a research report projecting the market value of Micro LED in 2017 to be USD 7 million following Sony’s launch of CLEDIS display that features Micro LED technology. The market is slowly shaping up. 

Google Inc has invested 15 million USD for a 13 percent stake in Glo, a university spin-out focused on creating nanowire-based LED-displays for mobile phones and smart watches as well as AR- and VR-applications.

Earlier in May, the world’s highest PPI emissive Micro LED display was announced. The whole industry was left baffled with knowing that it came out from a young Canadian startup- VueReal. When other companies- some of them are major in other application sectors-are still moping over poor yields and technological difficulties during Micro LED’s manufacturing processes, the launch already spoke for the company’s competency.

Technology giants such as Apple and Sharp have been actively running a series of research and development on Micro LED technology. PCB manufacturers are also eager to seize the related business opportunities. Unimicron has invested in related advanced manufacturing processes. It will start a small batch production in 2018 at the earliest and plans to mass produce PCBs for Micro LED applications in 2019. The rest of PCB makers intend to follow suit, which is expected to drive the growth of the PCB market to a new high. 

Organized at the Langham, Shenzhen, on 19th July, Macroblock LED Display Conference 2017, gathering makers of displays and LED light sources worldwide, ended on a high note as it always did for the past 12 years. At this high-profile annual event, Macroblock’s chairman Dr. Li Chang Yang stated that display technology has been more widely used for various applications in different ways, such as displays in retail spaces, theaters, restaurants with immersive AR technology, and interactive applications.

Organized at the Langham, Shenzhen, on 19th July, Macroblock LED Display Conference 2017, gathering makers of displays and LED light sources worldwide, ended on a high note as it always did for the past 12 years. At this high-profile annual event, Macroblock’s chairman Dr. Li Chang Yang stated that display technology has been more widely used for various applications in different ways, such as displays in retail spaces, theaters, restaurants with immersive AR technology, and interactive applications. 

The Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) announced on 24th July that it developed a new technology to possibly facilitate the mass transfer process of Micro LED manufacturing, as Business Korea carried in its report.

Monocrystal, a global leader in synthetic sapphire growing and processing, celebrates the shipment of its 150-millionth two-inch equivalent product.

The LED industry had quite a peaceful time in 1H17. Apart from a few M&As, the most-discussed technology would be Micro LED. Lots of high-tech giants worldwide have already started a series of R&D and the number of participants is getting bigger. The supply chain of Micro LED, although of limited mature technologies, is slowly shaping up. Here, LEDinside lists out major events and milestones made on the path of developing Micro LED in the first half of 2017.

A major bottleneck in the commercialization of Micro LED displays is the mass transfer of micron-size LEDs to a display backplane. Research by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reveals that many companies across industries worldwide have entered the Micro LED market and are in a race to develop methods for the mass transfer process. However, their solutions have yet to meet the standard for commercialization in terms of production output (in unit per hour, UPH), transfer yield and size of LED chips (i.e. Micro LED is technically defined as LEDs that are smaller than 100 microns).

The China LED chip industry is highly concentrated at this point. It is undergoing an reshuffle and slowly transitioning to a dynamic where LED chip and package behemoths San’an Opto and HC SemiTek pretty much lead and even control the pack. In the face of upcoming capacity expansion from major manufacturers, is there really a way for other SMEs to sail through such turbulent waters?