December 2017

NanoGaN (a subsidiary of UK-based Eipwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE) announced that it has purchased a portfolio of 54 quasi photonic crystals patents from Taiwan's Luxtaltek for $500,000.

NanoGaN says that these newly acquired patents have applications in optical components - including Micro-LED displays. Other possible applications are in the fields of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), modulators, silicon photonics, fiber-optic systems, biosensors and more. IQE believes that due to its existing in-house NIL capability, the firm is well positioned to commercialize the new technology.

According to LEDsInside, Korea-based LED developer Lumens has begun to produce small and large-area micro-LED display prototypes, and it plans to demonstrate these prototypes at CES 2018 (January 2018).

Lumens focuses on automotive HUD displays and digital signage. The small HUD display is a 0.57-inch VGA (640x480) display (either VGA or 720p, it's not clear) that uses 8 μm LED chips while the signage display is a 100" panel that uses LEDs which are 300x100 μm.

In April 2017 it was rumored that Samsung Display is set to acquire PlayNitride for around $150 million, but the deal did not materialize. According to a new report from Taiwan's LEDsInside, the two companies are at the final stage of their talk.

In September 2017 PlayNitride's said that Micro-LED displays are not as challenging as originally expected, and the company now aims to start trial production of Micro-LED displays by the end of 2017. The company has mass transfer and placement yield rates of over 99% in its lab.

LEDInside discusses Micro-LED displays with five researchers in Taiwan, who detail their thoughts on Micro-LED displays and the challenges that still need to be overcome before commercialization of such displays can begin.

It seems that these researchers are very upbeat on Micro-LED displays in terms of the image quality and potential, but all agree that the technology is not ready for mass production yet.