Epiwafer

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.

Aixtron announced its financial results for Q3 2024, with solid orders and revenue, despite a slight miss on guidance due to a project delay. This project was a large order for a microLED customer, with tools shipments pushed to December instead of October.

Aixtron says that "despite the news from Apple and ams OSRAM" the microLED industry is continuing to work on the technology, and the company received orders from several customers building R&D and pilot production lines. Aixtron expects its microLED revenues in FY2024 to be at high double-digit million euros.

In August 2023, China-based BOE HC Semitek started building its $700 million microLED epiwafer production line in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, China.

The company now held a ceremony marking the beginning of sample wafer production at the new line. This is the first phase of this project, and total investment to date is $275 million. It is likely that ramping up will take some time and full scale production of the first phase will take place later in 2025. When the fab is complete, with all three phases, it will have a yearly capacity of 58,000 6-inch microLED wafers. 

Researchers from Hunan University have designed and grown wafer-scale uniform green GaN epilayer on silicon wafers (4-inch and 6-inch in size). The epilayer was of very high uniformity and showed excellent properties. Using this wafer, the researchers developed green microLED displays reaching over 10 million nits.

This epilayer demonstrated a low dislocation density of 5.25×108 cm^-2, minimal wafer bowing of 16.7 μm, and high wavelength uniformity (STDEV<1 nm). The researcher integrated the Micro-LEDs with CMOS circuits and created 1080x780 monochrome green microLED displays, which offered the ultra high brightness.

In February 2024, ams-Osram announced that it's cornerstone customer (Apple) cancelled its microLED project, which will have dire implications for Osram's own $850 million 8-inch microLED epiwafer factory in Malaysia. Back then ams-Osram estimated that it will have impairment charges of $650 to $900 million and it will also likely to cancel or delay some of its investments in Malaysia.

ams-Osram now announced its plans and strategy following Apple's decision to cancel its project. It seems as if the company has decided to pretty much withdraw from the microLED display market, and the only remaining microLED development efforts will focus on automotive lighting products. ams-Osram now believes that microLED displays will primarily play a role in several smaller applications that also will scale slower and later than previously expected. We also believe that microLED displays will take a longer time to mature than some in the industry have expected.

Aixtron reports strong results for its recent quarter, with both revenues and profit significantly higher than last year, driven by strong demand for SiC production systems for power electronics.

Aixtron reports revenues of 19.6 million Euro (up from 6.9 million last year) for LED and microLED systems. There's a strong new momentum for microLED production systems, which accounted for 37% of the equipment order intake. This development was boosted by the continued development activities of Micro LED customers, who are continuing to invest in development and pilot lines for the commercialization of Micro LED technology.