Aixtron announced today that ams OSRAM has qualified Aixtron's AIX G5+ C and G10-AsP MOCVD systems on 200mm wafers for Micro LED production.
ams Osram will be using Aixtron's systmes at its upcoming 200 mm mass production line in Malaysia, which is expected to begin production in 2024.
The MicroLED Industry Association published today a new white paper, that is focused on MicroLED production yields. This whitepaper discusses microLED yields, the current status, challenges ahead and several strategies and technologies that should help to mitigate the yield problem. Together with the white paper, the association is also hosting an open webinar.
Yield is an important parameter for display makers, as low yields can drastically increase production costs per panel sold. In the microLED industry, yields are even more crucial and are still a major challenge. In addition, as microLED production involves several separate steps, the yield discussion is more complex compared to the situation in LCD or OLED production.
The white paper is published on the MicroLED Association's website, and is open to the public.
Specialized Korea-based LED developer Lumens announced that it has developed a Monolithic RGB epitaxial wafers for micro-LED display production. The new technology stacks the three color LEDs on on top of the other on the wafer.
A comparison between Lumen's stacked RGB transfer process (bottom) and the standard process (top)
A stacked microLED architecture improves the performance, while also making the transfer process more productive. The company says that its design will offer a dramatic reduction in the production costs - especially the transfer process, which is reduced to a third (in terms of number of transfer steps), while also doing all the process from a single wafer.
Apple's involvement in the microLED display market is not a secret, and rumors over the years suggested that the company's first microLED display will be adopted in a smartwatch project.A couple of weeks ago we heard estimates that Apple is working to produce a 2.1" microLED display, to be adopted in the next Watch Ultra device, due in late 2023 or (more likely in 2024).
DSCC's Ross Young gives an update today, saying that according to his information, LG Display is building a small production line that will make microLED backplanes for Apple. The line will begin operation in the second half of 2024, which means that the watch device itself will be released in 2025. This timeline makes more sense than an early launch in 2023.
In 2021, ams Osram announced that it will expand its LED production plant in Kulim, Malaysia, with an investment of around $850 million. Osram plans to produce mini-LED and micro-LED chips on 8-inch wafers in Kulim.
ams Osram already said it regards microLED as one of its key initiatives, and in a recent conference call the company's CEO emphasized that that microLED is one of the areas in which the company has clear advantages and is a market leader - and it will direct more efforts on microLEDs. The company is on track, it was revealed, to start microLED production in Kulim in 2024.
Towards the end of 2020, Samsung announced it's first "consumer" MicroLED TVs that adopt small microLED chips (this followed its professional/commercial TVs that used larger chips and are already in production for several years). These smaller TVs were scrapped later in 2021, and then Samsung further delayed its plans in April 2022 and did so again in June 2022, due to technical issues.
According to the latest report from Korea, Samsung finally started to produce 89-inch LTPS microLED TVs. Its larger 101-inch and 114-inch models, however, are still not in production.
According to Ennostar, the company intends to invest around $122 million USD in its Epistar subsidiary, with an aim to setup a production capacity of 150mm microLED epitaxial wafers. The investment will be performed in several stages.
Ennostar also updates that Epistar has completed its mini LED chip production capacity, but the demand for such chips is lower than expected, and so the company's mini LED production utilization is not at 100%.
Belgium-based microLED microdisplay developer MICLEDI launched microLED microdisplays with integrated micro-lenses, which it says it is a first for the display industry.
MICLEDI has already produces samples and test kits of blue microLED arrays, in addition to blue and green microLED arrays, and has shipped samples to potential customers. The company says that red microLED arrays will arrive in Q4 2022. The microLED arrays were produced in the company’s proprietary 300 mm manufacturing flow.
China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display announced that it is developing a native full-color microLED microdisplay. JBD is working to integrate InGaN and AlInGaP on the same chip, fabricated using conventional thin-film processes.
JBD says it developed a proprietary (and patented) technology in which the epitaxy layers were designed to be less susceptibility to edge effects, which helps to increase the display's efficiency. JBD's technology also enables effective mesa sidewall passivation. JBD refers to its technology as monolithic hybrid integration and says it can reach a PPI of up to 10,000 with a pixel pitch of 2.5 um.
LED display market Leyard Optoelectronics announced that it developed the world's first mass-produced microLED display that uses quantum dots color conversion technology. Leyard collaborated with Saphlux (of which it owns around 12%).
Leyard adopted Saphlux's NPQD R1 micro LED technology, and have completed the development and testing of the display technology, and now it can mass produce NPQD-powered displays.
