Micro-LED Production - Page 6

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.

Aixtron announced its financial results for Q2 2022, with the company's highest quarterly order intake since 2011. The company said that it received its first order for tools used in volume production of microLED devices.

Aixtron announced several microLED system orders in the past, but these were R&D or pilot line systems. In 2021 Aixtron said that a US Tier-1 LED producer has selected Aixtron's AIX G5+ C equipment for microLED device production. In February 2022 Wuhan-based HC Semitek selected Aixtron's Planetary AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) and AIX G5+ C MOCVD systems to produce microLEDs.

Towards the end of 2020, Samsung announced it's first "consumer" MicroLED TVs (on LTPS backplanes, rather than PCB used by Samsung for its professional models), including smaller 77-inch to 89-inch models. The smaller models were scrapped later in 2021, and then Samsung further delayed its plans for "consumer" microLED TV production.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung decided to move the production of its MicroLED TVs from its Vietnam fab to its fab in Korea, and aims to start producing LTPS microLED TVs in Q3 2022. Samsung is likely to start with a 89-inch model which will hopefully ship before the end of 2022, and will carry a price tag of around 100 million Won (or around $77,000).

Tianma announced plans to establish a 1.1 billion Yuan ($164 million USD) full-process microLED pilot line, in Xiamen. This line will be built by a joint venture between Tianma display, Xiangtou Group and Torch Investment.

In 2021 Tianma held its first "2021 Micro-LED Ecosystem Alliance Conference" in Xiamen, During the conference, the company unveiled several microLED prototype displays, including a 9.38" 960x480 transparent LTPS panel, a 7.56" 720x480 flexible LTPS panel, a 11.6" 2470x960 rigid LTPS display and a tiled microLED display, made from 5.04" 480x320 panels.

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display is building a 650 million Yuan ($92 million USD) display production line in Hefei, China. The construction of the building is already at a final stage.

It is estimated that JBD will be able to annually produce around 120 million panels in this fab. The company's current main product is a 0.13" VGA panel, so it is likely that JBD is referring to 120 million 0.13" panels.

During Aixtron's Q1 2022 financial results conference call the company's CEO made some interesting comments on its microLED business and the market in general.

Aixtron says that it sees the microLED display industry advancing "as expected". Demand for its microLED production tools has "started to kick in". The company is "increasingly confident" that we will 'soon' see commercial microLED displays on the market.

In December 2021, Visionox announced that it finished the construction of its MicroLED pilot line, which is the first full-process line built in China. The pilot line can produce complete displays, from driver backplane, through transfer process to full module production. The LED chips themselves are produced by a third party.

During Visionox's 2022 Technology Innovation Launch Event, the company announced that it has successfully built 1.84" wearable microLED display samples, in addition to glass-based 12.7" tiled display modules. Visionox did not reveal any more details about these new display samples.

ams Osram announced that it will expand its LED production plant in Kulim, Malaysia, with an investment of around $850 million.

The new fab will produce LED chips and microLED chips, on 8-inch wafers. ams Osram regards microLED as one of its key initiatives, but also sees the market a few years away.

Aixtron announced that Wuhan-based HC Semitek is using Aixtron's Planetary AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) and AIX G5+ C MOCVD systems to produce microLEDs. All of these systems, shipped in Q4 2021, feature a configuration of 8x6 inches.

Aixtron says that this AIX G5+ C system uses wafer-level control (based on Auto-Feed Forward) of the film surface temperature during the epitaxial process in combination with Ultraviolet (UV) pyrometry. This warrants, according to Aixtron, a very accurate control of the Indium incorporation into the Multi-Quantum wells (MQW), which will ultimately define the wavelength consistency among all produced wafers

This is a sponsored post by Coherent

Coherent is a leading global supplier of lasers and photonics technology. For the MicroLED industry, Coherent provides several solutions from a single laser source, optical systems up to an integrated system for the three vital processes in MicroLED fabrication – Laser Lift-Off (LLO), Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT), and Repair/Trimming.

Coherent recently published a new white paper that provides an update on how high-energy ultraviolet laser beams enable LLO and LIFT processes. The white paper shows the importance of a perfect combination of laser and optical design to a how these lasers ensure placement accuracy and mass transfer that will remain future-proof as microLED chip die size continues to shrink.