April 2019

In September 2018 it was reported that China-based Sanan Optoelectronics started to build its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line and in early 2019 it was reported that Sanan plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019.

Now Sanan announced that it has signed a contract with the Gedian Economic and Technological Development Zone in China's Hubei Province to setup a 12 billion Yuan ($1.78 billion USD) Mini-LED and Micro-LED production site.

Researchers from Lehigh University, West Chester University, Osaka University and the University of Amsterdam developed a new technique to color-tune Gallium-Nitride (GaN) LEDs.

The new technique is based on Atomic Emission Manipulation under Current Injection. The researchers demonstrated that it is possible to attain red, green and blue emissions originating from just one GaN LED-structure that uses doping with a single type of rare earth ion, Europium (Eu).

Researchers from the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan has been able to enhance the light-emitting intensity of Micro-LEDs by 143.7% by using ALD passivation layers. The researchers used ALD equipment produced by Finland-based Picosun.

Picosun says that its Micro-LED technology has "immense potential" to dirupt the solid state lighting market, and its ALD solutions has been proven to dramatically boost the efficiency of Micro-LEDs.

US-based VerLASE Technologies announced that it is developing technologies for massively parallel assembly of microLED dies or films. The company has already files for multiple patents for its new technology.

VerLASE says that it is using practical methods and well-proven semiconductor and MEMs industry methods and existing tools. The company's technology will enable "deterministic, massively parallel transfers of microdie, with provisions that allow selective repair". The methods involve techniques used daily in Ink-Jet Printing but is not printing per se.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is building a display production fab in Wisconsin, USA. Announced in 2017, the fab changed its designation a few times (from LCD display panel production, to R&D and finally to LCD module production).

Foxconn now announced that it may also add OLED and Micro-LED production lines in the Wisconsin factory. It did not disclose any more details or timeline, this is certainly not a commitment yet, it's not even clear if the plan is to produce MicroLED panels or assemble modules.

Korea-based driver IC developer MagnaChip announced its latest 28-nm process, and the company said that it is now starting to develop driver ICs for Micro-LED TVs.

This is just an early announcement, hopefully the company will give more details in the future about its MicroLED driver program. For OLED displays, the company says it is currently using the world's most advanced process and has already secured its first 28 nm design win with a leading smartphone maker.

The Germany Bavarian state ministry for regional development has funded a new three-year project to develop transparent micro-LED displays for automotive applications.

The SmartVIZ project consortium consists of Osram, Fraunhofer IISB and ASM Amicra. The partners aim to develop direct-view high-resolution transparent and demonstrate a prototype in October 2021.

Sony is set to install the world's largest micro-LED display - 16K (15360x4320) 19.2 x 5.4 meters "CLEDIS" panel that was installed at Shiseido new research center in Yokohama, Japan.

Sony is also creating its own 16K content specifically for this display, using a method it call œdemosaicing to create ש quad ultra-high definition footage.

The Korea Intellectual Property Office released a report on the Micro LED industry IP situation - in which it says that Korean display companies may lose their current industry lead as they account for less than 15% of all micro LED display patent applications.

The leading countries in Micro-LED IP are China and the United States - which together account for more than 50% of all applications.