AUO

During AUO's recent investor conference call, the company updated on its microLED project and made some interesting comments. First of all, AUO says that it has started to ship wearable microLED display panels at the end of 2024 (that's in line with AUO's previous announcement).

As far as we know, AUO is working with a Swiss luxury watch producer (like Tag Hauer) that will announce its microLED smartwatch soon. AUO says that it expects to expand its wearable microLED production soon.

Last week during Touch Taiwan 2024, AUO demonstrated several new (and not new) microLED display prototypes. The company released this short video showing the displays in action:

AUO showed its large-area (60") microLED displays, its automotive microLED solutions (including transparent automotive displays), a 30" real-depth 3D microLED display for entertainment applications, medical-grade displays and a 31" microLED display that is a single panel (not a tiled display) - which AUO says is the world largest.

Lenovo is demonstrating a new prototype laptop device that uses a 17.3" transparent microLED display (produced by AUO). This is just a prototype at this stage, Lenovo says it has no plans to actually commercialize its Project Crystal device.

Lenovo suggests several use cases for such a device - for example sharing information (in a doctor's office, or a hotel desk), or AR applications such as identifying objects behind the screen (although this seems more suitable for higher mobility devices such as tablets or smartphones). 

Next week AUO will showcase two new transparent microLED display prototypes at SIE 2024. The first display is a large 60-inch display, and the second is a smaller 30-inch one, that includes a touch later.

AUO's new transparent microLED display prototypes feature 60% transparency, and wide viewing angles. 

AUO is demonstrating several new displays at CES 2024, including some new automotive microLEDs.

The first display is a new touch-enabled transparent microLED panel that is integrated in vehicle side windows. AUO did not disclose any technical specifications. In the past, AUO demonstrated many transparent microLEDs, including a 13.5" 1920x1080 panel shown in 2023, with a transparency of 55% and a high brightness of 5,000 nits. The microLEDs used in that display were 30 micron in size.

AUO announced that it will demonstrate a 108-inch residential microLED TV during ISE Europe 2024 (January 30, 2024). As far as we know, this is the first time that AUO shows a large-area microLED display. The screen is most likely a tiled microLED display.

Last month AUO announced its plans to invest further in its microLED technologies, and re-iterated its plans to mass produce microLED smartwatch displays by the end of 2023 - and also to introduce automotive and TV displays. You can read more about AUO's microLED wearable display project here. 

AU Optronics announced an agreement with PlayNitride, to build a 6-inch microLED production line at AUO's Longtan factory. AUO will pay PlayNitride NT$700 million (around $21.5 million USD) for this new line.

AUO says that the new line will utilize PlayNitride's Chip-on-Carrier (COC) technology, that produces the microLEDs on temporary substrates ready for the transfer process. This will enable AUO to more easily realize the production of display panels based on these microLEDs. AUO says that this new line will also enable it to reduce microLED production costs. 

According to reports from Japan, AUO is thinking about closing down its 4.5-Gen AMOLED production line in Singapore, as the company is shifting its focus on microLED display technologies.

AUO's first target it to start producing wearable microLED displays. It has reportedly signed a deal with Tag Heuer to supply it with smartwatch displays. In April 2023 AUO 'launched' its wearable microLED display, and it seems it is ready to begin small scale production. It will take time for AUO to expand production, as the path towards low-cost and mass-production of microLED displays (even for applications such as smartwatches) it not clear yet. 

AUO has demonstrated its latest microLED displays at Display Week 2023. Most of these displays have been shown before, but this was an impressive lineup for the Taiwanese display maker, and we'll detail the displays below.

So first up we have the 13.5" 1920x1080 (163 PPI) transparent microLEDs, which AUO says is the highest-resolution transparent microLED display ever demonstrated. The display offers a transparency of 55% and a high brightness of 5,000 nits. The microLEDs used in this display are 30 micron in size.