Micro-LED Production - Page 12

The Taiwan-based Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL, part of Taiwan's ITRI) is developing 60-100 inch indoor micro-LED displays.

EOSRL is collaborating on this research with driver IC designer Macroblock. EOSRL is using LED chips that are 70-80 micrometers in size. EOSRL expects trial production to begin by Q4 2017, with mass production coming in 2018.

Taiwan-based Micro-LED developer Mikro Mesa's chariman, Chen Li-yi, estimates that it will be difficult for micro-LEDs to compete with OLED displays in the small/medium display market - but the opportunity for large area displays is more promising.

According to Chen, 55" micro-LED panels will be competitive in cost with LCDs, and if companies manage to achieve yields of over 80%, a 55-inch micro-LED will be cheaper by around 30% from an equivalent high-end LCD.

PlayNitride's CEO, Charles Li, says that Micro-LED displays are not as challenging as originally expected, and the company now aims to start trial production of Micro-LED displays in the second half of 2017. The company has mass transfer and placement yield rates of over 99% in its lab.

In PlayNitride's R&D setup, it takes about 10 seconds to transfer and place 200,000 LEDs - which means that a 5" panel will take only 10 minutes to produce. However the cost for a single smartphone panel could reach about $300 - much higher than the cost of even the highest-end flexible OLED. Possible applications where Micro-LED displays could succeed commercially at this stage include smartwatches, VR / AR, automotive and transparent displays.