December 2024

A state-of-the-art GaN production facility in Europe has been put up for sale. As per the seller, the facility offers extensive GaN capabilities as well as a track record of doing high-volume CMOS production. The facility include 40,000 sqft of cleanroom space, and about 200 process tools (80% of which are 200 mm). This facility is currently engaged in R&D development and low-volume micro LED manufacturing with existing profitable revenue. The identity of the seller has not been published.

The sell has exclusively retained ATREG to handle the sale. ATREG says that the facility is offered with a comprehensive IP portfolio, over 250 skilled employees (of which 110 are engineers), and specialized capabilities in MOCVD, CMP, and wafer bonding. In addition to the current micro LED capabilities, the fab is suited for GaN power devices, advanced photonics, GaAs processing, and MEMS/sensors manufacturing. The fab has received significant investment over the past five years, including sub-fab upgrades, cleanroom expansion, utility improvements, and other facility upgrades.

Pyramidical GaN microLED developer Polar Light Technologies announced that it has managed to produce red (625 nm) microLEDs based on its non-etching bottom-up platform. The company now has demonstrated the production of red, green and blue pyramidal microLEDs using the same material compound. 

Red is the most challenging microLED emitter, and companies have been looking at several alternatives to native GaN red microLEDs, including 3D nanowires, color conversion, and color tunable LEDs.  Polar Light Technologies’ microLED is composed of pyramid shapes that are built with a novel bottom-up approach, a technology that the company says comes with unique benefits, including reduced strain in the lattice of the InGaN/GaN structure, a unique possibility of frontplane integration, no etching damage (and so higher efficiency), ability to produce small microLEDs, even sub-micron, a narrow emission cone and more. 

Veeco announced that PlayNitride has evaluated its Luina MOCVD systems for microLED growth, and has now qualified it for production. PlayNitride placed an order for two systems that will be delivered in 2025

PlayNitride is building a complete supply chain for microLED production, from epiwafer production through chip processing, transfer process and more. Last year AUO announced a $21.5 million agreement with PlayNitride to build a 6-inch microLED production line at AUO's Longtan factory. Earlier in 2023, PlayNitride said that it is increasing its production volume to 10,000 6" wafers per month.

Last month OTFT developer Smartkem announced that it has partnered with AUO to jointly develop rollable transparent microLED displays, based on Smartkem's OTFT backplane technology. The project will be based on a novel OTFT production process developed at ITRI. 

Smartkem announced today that it was granted $1.1 million from the Innovate UK fund to support this project. This funding is part of the 2024 UK-Taiwan Collaborative R&D Initiative. The funding will be paid over the period of the two-year project, starting in early 2025.

In 2022, Google acquired Raxium, a US-based microLED microdisplay developer. The company has since continued the development of these microdisplays, and yesterday it has demonstrated its latest Project Astra AR headset, that is powered by Raxium microdsiplays.

Google did not disclose any more information on these displays or the headset. The new prototype was shown during the company's joint-event with Samsung showcasing Google's new XR initiatives and Samsung's latest headset design.

PlayNitride reported its earning results for Q3 2024 - with an increase in revenues to $16.1 million USD (up 49% from Q3 2023). The company reported its first net income, of $1.8 million (up from a loss of $2.7 million in Q3 2023).  For the first nine months of 2024, PlayNitride reported revenues of $32.5 million USD, up from $21.5 million in the first nine months of 2023.

PlayNitride also approved a bond issue, raising $24.6 million USD. The company's stock price has risen shapely in recent months. 

HKC unveiled its first microLED display prototype, a 6.67" 100 PPI (roughly 580 × 325) panel that offers 1,000 nits of brightness, and a 99% DCI-P3 color gamut. 

HKC's display is produced on the company's high mobility oxide (HMO) backplane. The company says that its HMO material offers an electron mobility that is 20 to 50 times higher than that of amorphous Silicon (a-Si).

Belgium-based QD developer and MicroLED Association member QustomDot announced that it has raised 5 million Euros at its pre-Series A financing round.

Several investors participated in this recent round, including Noshaq, EIC Fund, Qbic Fund, Venture Capital, PMV and VIGO Venture. 

The MicroLED Industry Association’s 2025 annual meeting dinner will be held during Touch Taiwan 2025, in Taipei (which will take place at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center). This dinner will be an excellent opportunity for MicroLED Association members to connect in a friendly environment.

The dinner meeting will take place at the 1010 Hunan Cuisine restaurant, located only 5 minutes walk from the Exhibition Center. We hope to meet all our members and enjoy a unique dinner experience and networking!

Trendforce analysts say that microLED chip revenues is set to grow from around $27.5 million in 2023 to $489.5 million by 2028, driven by adoption of microLED displays in automotive and AR applications.

The industry still suffers from technology challenges and high production costs, which means that demand for microLED displays is weak. Trendforce actually reduced its previous estimation (just a few months ago, it estimated that sales will reach almost $580 million in 2028).