The MicroLED Industry Association (MIA) continues to grow and welcome new members from across the MicroLED industry. The MIA offers its members a chance to be a part of a unique community and enjoy resources like participation in white papers, online meetings, webinars, and much more. 

Some of the latest members of the MIA include 3M, University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Fraunhofer FEP, and here is what they have to say:

Minbeom Seo, 3M's Display Materials Business Development & Strategy manager said : "3M joins the MicroLED Industry Association to solve big problems in microLED display technology and market. We believe we can come up with innovative microLED solutions through collaboration with 3M science and world class partners".

Stacked-RGB microLED microdisplay developed Sundiode announced that it has achieved the successful growth of a monolithic, all-InGaN RGB LED structure on a single sapphire wafer. This structure was developed in collaboration with Soft-EPI.

Sundiode's epitaxial technology enables stacked-RGB LEDs with multiple junctions, capable of emitting RGB colors independently. This structure makes it easier to produce ultra-high density microdisplays.

We're happy to interview Unikorn Semiconductor Corporation, as part of our series of interviews with MicroLED Industry Association members. Unikorn is a professional III-V compound semiconductor foundry that was spun-off from Epistar and now is a part of Ennostar. Unikorn focuses on epitaxy and wafer/chip processing.

Q: Can you introduce your company and technology?

Unikorn Semiconductor Corporation, a subsidiary of Ennostar Inc., is a professional compound semiconductor foundry located in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, and focuses on epitaxy and wafer/chip processing by providing corresponding process parameters and production platforms that meet customers’ unique specifications and technology requirements. Not only does Unikorn offer customers our professional and quality manufacturing service on lead time, yield and customized designs, but it also ensures the protection of intellectual properties, process recipes, and structural designs of our customers with the strictest standards.

With the development of new technologies and applications, markets grow rapidly. Unikorn has the proven ability to provide comprehensive foundry services that meets these booming applications.

MicroLED-Info and Perovskite-Info are happy to announce the 2023 edition of The Perovskite Handbook. This book is a comprehensive guide to perovskite materials, applications and industry, and it is now updated to January 2023 and lists recent developments and new companies, initiatives and research activities.

Perovskites are an exciting class of materials that feature a myriad of exciting properties. Perovskites are now entering the display market, with applications in quantum dots, LEDs, lasers and more.

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• Different perovskite materials, their properties and structure
• How perovskites can be made, tuned and used
• What kinds of applications perovskites are suitable for
• Perovskites Quantum Dots
• Perovskite solar cells, their merits and challenges
• Perovskites-based LEDs
• The state of the perovskite market, potential and future
   

The book also provides: a history of perovskite research, a guide to perovskite companies and developers, information on leading collaboration and development projects, a comprehensive list of perovskite companies and much more!

TCL announced and demonstrated its latest AR smart-glasses, the RayNeo X2, which features a full color microLED display engine.

We do not have any information on the microLED display, but other specifications include a Snapdragon XR2 chipset and a wearable ring controller. The RayNeo 2 will ship to developers in Q1 2023, and TCL hopes to launch it as a commercial product later on.

AR developer Mojo Vision announced that as it finds it challenging to raise more funds, it is changing its focus to develop its microLED technology and "decelerating" its work on the smart contact lens system.

According to reports, Mojo Vision has laid off 75% of its employees - it is estimated that the company laid off around 100 employees (it had around 150 employees before the change). The company's CEO says that the its microLED display technology has "is significant near-term market potential".

Belgium-based microLED microdisplay developer MICLEDI demonstrated a "Ferrari" red microLEDs on aluminium indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) starting material. The company says that these red microLED devices are produced using a CMOS-compatible flow, free of arsenide.

MICLEDI says that it uses advanced photolithography available in 300mm wafer fabs. The company's first red microLED on GaN is solidly in the red range with wavelength centered at 620nm and good full-width half-maximum (FWHM) of <50nm. This newest announcement of red on AlInGaP achieves 653nm wavelength at extremely narrow FWHM of <9nm.

Samsung announced its 2023 microLED TV lineup, with a wide range of sizes - from 50-inch to 140-inch. The TVs will still be highly expensive, but Samsung is expected to reduce its prices, and in addition it will be possible (finally) to self-install the TVs.

The MicroLED CX range of TVs will include sizes of 50-, 63- 77-, 89-, 101-, 104- and 140-inch. Not all the TVs will ship at once and in all regions. It is expected that the main TV will the the 77-inch one. But at the expected high prices, these will be sold at very low volumes, most likely.

There are some new rumors (or analyst estimates, really) that Apple is working to adopt a microLED display in its next Watch Ultra smartwatch, to replace the currently-used OLED display. The new display, according to what we hear, will have a 2.1" display. Apple aims, it seems to release its first microLED display powered device in 2024, or even possibly 2023.

The current (Gen-1) Watch Ultra has an advanced 1.92" (49 mm) 2000 nits 502 x 410 pixels LTPO AMOLED display.

Germany-based 3D-Micromac is the industry leader in laser micromachining and roll-to-roll laser systems. The company develops and manufactures processes and laser systems delivering powerful, user-friendly and leading-edge processes with superior production efficiency. 3D-Micromac offers industrial laser solutions for the mass production of microLED displays.

We had the pleasure of talking to Frank Richter, Head of Sales and Product Management at 3D-Micromac. Frank explained 3D-Micromac's solutions and technologies for microLED production, and the company's views on the future of microLEDs.

Q: Can you detail 3D-Micromac's solutions for the MicroLED market?

Frank Richter, Head of Sales and Product Management: 3D-Micromac’s product portfolio includes several laser-based system solutions for various manufacturing steps in the MicroLED production process. All systems offer an integrated process control and monitoring to assure stable and reliable operation thus enabling high throughput and low yield losses.