January 2025

MicroLED display developer VueReal announced that it has raised $40.5 million USD in ts Series C funding round. The round was led by Export Development Canada (EDC) and included participation from existing VueReal investors, including Cycle Capital, BDC Capital's Cleantech Practice, and TDK Ventures.

VueReal says that the new funds will enable it to scale its production capabilities and enhance its ecosystem to support partners in achieving their goals of integrating microLEDs in commercial production.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has established a secretive facility in Santa Clara, to develop microLED microdisplay technologies for future AR headsets.

The report suggests that Apple is not looking to launch its microLED AR headset before 2028, or likely even before 2030. This coincides with the MicroLED Association's own industry and market roadmap.

Halliday launched their first AR glasses, called simply the Halliday Glasses. These enable a rather unique AR solution, that uses a monocular direct projection into the eyes without waveguides. The display engine is a green monochrome microLED microdisplay - likely produced by JBD.

The Halliday Glasses launched in a crowdfunding campaign, with a price tag of $400 (including a $90 discount for early supporters). The company aims to deliver the first products by April 2025. The company already has over 3,500 supporters and has raised over $1.4 million (with 41 days left to the campaign). 

China-based San'an Optoelectronics is experiencing increased demand for its microLED wafers, and the company is expanding its production capacity. San'an currently has the capacity to produce 250 6" microLED wafers per month, and by the end of the quarter, it will be increase its capacity to 1,400 monthly wafers.

San'an also has passed Samsung's audit and microLED validation tests for its latest chips, and the company is now entering into Samsung's supply chain for the company's large-area tiled Wall microLED TVs. 

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China and Jilin University developed a novel method for the remote epitaxial growth of continuous crystalline perovskite thin films, that allows for seamless integration into ultrahigh-resolution microLED displays - with pixels less than 5 μm.

The results of their research describe a remote epitaxial growth technique that utilizes a graphene interlayer to create continuous crystalline perovskite thin films over an area of 4 cm². This method effectively eliminates grain boundaries and achieves a pure out-of-plane crystallographic orientation. Using these single-crystalline, freestanding perovskite thin films, the researchers achieved impressive results for micro-LEDs, including electroluminescence efficiency of 16.1%, brightness of 4 × 105 cd m^-2, and ultrahigh resolution with a pixel size of 4 μm.

The MicroLED Industry Association has published its 2025 MicroLED Industry Roadmap and State-of-the-Industry document. 

The 2025 MicroLED Roadmap covers the latest microLED technology trends, details the MicroLED Association’s roadmap and projections for the future of the microLED industry and market, by application segments. The summary edition can be downloaded here.

MicroLED Industry Association members can access the full document here, which includes detailed insights into technology and architectures, challenges and forecasts.

We're happy to announce the 2025 edition of The Perovskite Handbook. This book is a comprehensive guide to perovskite materials, applications and industry. Perovskites are an exciting class of materials that feature a myriad of exciting properties and are considered the future of solar cells, displays, sensors, LEDs and more. The perovskite industry is at an inflection point, with dramatic investments and commitments, and perovskite could become important material to watch for all display developers, especially for microLEDs where perovskites could be used for both color conversion and actual emission (PeLEDs). The handbook is now updated to January 2025 and lists recent developments and new companies, initiatives and research activities. 

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 may be suitable for
• What the obstacles on the way to a perovskite revolution are
• Perovskite solar cells, their merits and challenges
• Perovskite QDs, LEDs, and other applications
• 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, market updates and much more!

In September 2024, OTFT developer Smartkem, a MicroLED Industry Association member, announced that it has signed an agreement with Shanghai Chip Foundation Semiconductor Technology (Chip Foundation) to co-develop microLED-based backlight units for LCD displays. Smartkem now announced that it has completed the first sale of its TRUFLEX semiconductor materials to Chip Foundation. 

Smartkem prototype microLED display

Smartkem is supplying its proprietary organic dielectric single layer material, or Redistribution Layer (RDL), to Chip Foundation to combine with its own microLED devices, for the joint development of microLED based device structures. The resulting manufactured chip is expected to have the properties of high brightness coupled with high current efficiency, reducing power losses in driving backlights and improving uniformity of illumination.  Additional sales of RDL materials to Chip Foundation are expected to continue throughout 2025.

MicroLED-Connect is a hybrid event series, a year-long program of virtual and onsite events, all focused on the microLED industry. The 2nd flagship MicroLED Connect display conference will take place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on September 23-25, co-located with the 1st AR/VR-Connect conference.

Following a very successful 2024 event, MicroLED-Connect 2025 is set to be an even better event, with an expanded agenda. We already confirmed some early speakers (including Google, PlayNitride, The University of Michigan, Aegis Rider, Aledia, Ingantec, LAM Research, AIST, DELO, the Holst Centre, and more) and have posted a call-out to potential speakers for the event. Companies, research institutes, start-ups, analysts, and academics are all welcome to propose a talk. We encourage contributions from round the world. In general, we prefer talks which represent state-of-the-art technologies or real commercial and industrial impact.

RayNeo announced its latest AR headset, the RayNeo X3 Pro, powered by full color microLED displays. The company says that the optical engine is ultra compact - and is in fact the world's smallest mass-producible full-color micro-LED optical engine. It is based on three monochrome microLEDs and can deliver up to 2,500 nits of brightness. 

The RayNeo X3 Pro is based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 Platform, and it features a dual-camera system, one for high-definition photography and AI applications, and the second, lower power and with a wide field of view, for perception (such as SLAM and hand tracking).