France-based microLED developer and MicroLED Association member Aledia announced that it has finished the construction of its $200 million microLED production line in Grenoble, and the company is now starting to produce AR microLED microdisplays based on its 3D Nanowire platform.
The new microLED microdisplays are full color displays, based on monolithically grown native red, green and blue devices. The company says that is 3D GaN Nanowire material platform is more efficient and bright than regular (2D) LEDs. The company grows the LED on 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafers, and can currently ramp up to almost 20,000 monthly wafers.
Aledia has raised almost $600 million USD to date, with the latest $129 million funding round in October 2023.
In May 2024, Aledia announced some breakthrough advances, including a 1.5 um microLED device with 32% EQE (Aledia says this is the world's most efficient microLED under 2 um). Aledia says that this new device leads to a Wall Plug Efficiency (WPE) of 320 milliwatts of visible light output per watt of electrical power input.
Aledia was spun-off from CEA-Leti, to commercialize 3D-Nanowire LED technology. The company has almost 300 patents (granted, or in application) and has two nanowire LED platforms:
- The most mature, now being optimized for volume manufacturing, is based on blue-emitting GaN nanowires on 8’’ silicon wafers, using color conversion for green and red colors. This platform has one of the smallest µLED (1.2µm in diameter) with up to 30% WPE, and has demonstrated the first 300mm µLED wafers fully operational. With this platform Aledia is releasing its first product, a 160µm RGB single-chip LED for fine pitch videowalls and luxury TVs.
- Aledia next-generation microLED platform (Platform 2), still in R&D, allows direct emission in RGB (all colors obtained with GaN) with a controlled emission angle — most of the light can be emitted in a +/- 20° cone. This platform targets 6500ppi (2µm subpixel) single-chip RGB arrays for AR applications.
Aledia's epiwafer production uses Veeco's CVD production equipment.
