Micro-LED Production - Page 10

Digitimes reports that PlayNitride raised $50 million and is ready to start trial production of micro-LED chips by the end of August 2019. PlayNitride will increase its headcount by 100 employees.

PlayNitride told Digitimes that it achieved a yield rate of 99.9% in its LED transfer (pick-and-place) process. Using mass repair technologies, the company is certain it can achieve commercial viability of its process. The company's mass transfer speed is 10,000 chips per second. This means that for a Full-HD (1920x1080) display it will take just over 10 minutes to transfer the LED chips. A 4K display will take just over 40 minutes.

In May 2019 Taiwan-based PMOLED display maker RiT Display announced a strategic partnership and share swap with MicroLED developer PlayNitride. Digitimes now states that RiT expects to start shipping its first microLED smartwatch displays in 2020.

According to the new report, a US-based smartwatch brand will start a design process in Q3 2019 using a 1.25" micro-LED display that was co-developed by RiTDisplay and PlayNitride. RiT will start shipping samples in Q4 2019.

In November 2017 we reported that Taiwan's Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL, part of ITRI) has launched a project that brings together PlayNitride, LED driver IC designer Macroblock and PCB maker Unimicron with an aim to develop production technologies for high-density Micro-LED displays.

Digitimes today reports that EOSRL has achieved a breakthrough in its mass transfer technology, and is now able to transfer 10,000 micro-LED chips from an sapphire-based epitaxial wafer onto a substrate within an hour. EOSRL demonstrated the process with PCB, Polyimide and glass substrates. Trial production runs will commence in Q4 2019.

Micro-LED microdisplay developer VueReal will start accepting orders for its first micro-LED display samples by June 2019. The company says that its patented self-aligned technology resulted in a robust and high yield microdisplay production process.

VueReal says that it developed Micro-LED microdisplays that achieve a brightness of 100,000 nits and a density of over 30,000 PPI - breaking its own world record of 6,600 PPI set in 2017.

In October 2018 VueReal announced that it has raised $8.5 million and that it will build an advanced nano technology fabrication center in Waterloo, Canada - which will include an integrated pilot production system that will use the company's proprietary sub-10 micrometer, high-efficiency, solid printing process at commercial volumes.

In September 2018 it was reported that China-based Sanan Optoelectronics started to build its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line and in early 2019 it was reported that Sanan plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019.

Now Sanan announced that it has signed a contract with the Gedian Economic and Technological Development Zone in China's Hubei Province to setup a 12 billion Yuan ($1.78 billion USD) Mini-LED and Micro-LED production site.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is building a display production fab in Wisconsin, USA. Announced in 2017, the fab changed its designation a few times (from LCD display panel production, to R&D and finally to LCD module production).

Foxconn now announced that it may also add OLED and Micro-LED production lines in the Wisconsin factory. It did not disclose any more details or timeline, this is certainly not a commitment yet, it's not even clear if the plan is to produce MicroLED panels or assemble modules.

UK-based GaN-on-Si MicroLED developer Plessey Semiconductor developed its proprietary 2D planar gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) process to emit Green light without the need for color conversion techniques.

Plessey says that its native Green LEDs are formed inherently using its proprietary GaN-on-Si epitaxial growth process similar to the native Blue LEDs with the principal difference coming in the amount of indium that is incorporated in the quantum well structures of the LED. The native Green emission is orders of magnitude times brighter than color-converted process for micro-LEDs.

In July 2018, France-based 3D GaN LED developer Aledia announced that it has selected Veeco Instruments’s Propel GaN MOCVD system to support its advanced R&D. Veeco's Propel system enables Aledia to process 6- and 8-inch wafers or 2- to 4-inch wafers in a minibatch mode. Aledia also uses Veeco's R&D K465i MOCVD system.

Aledia and Veeco now announced that Aledia "expands its portfolio of Veeco equipment to develop and produce 3D micro-LEDs". It is not clear what kind of equipment Aledia ordered - and it also seems that the two companies are collaborating to develop next-generation Micro-LED production equipment.

US and Sweden based Glo has been developing Micro-LED displays on both LTPS and CMOS (microdisplay) backplanes for many years. The company has been rather quiet until now (even though the 2017 investment from Google created some buzz).

Glo has now started to disclose its technology and achievements. At CES 2019, Glo demonstrated two displays. First up is the 1.5-inch smartphone type display you can see in the image above. The 264 PPI 120Hz display is produced on a LTPS backplane and produces 4,000 nits brightness - you can see how it is much brighter compared to the LGD OLED in the Apple Watch next to it (1,000 nits max).

In September 2018 we reported that China-based San'an Optoelectronics is gearing up to setup its first micro-LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line in Q1 2019, and in early 2019 it was reported that San'n plans to start sampling Micro LED chips as early as January 2019.

In a new press release, San'an announced that it is advancing with its Micro-LED R&D and capacity investment, and the company has filed for 27 patents and has signed several key partnerships. San'an also says that it has "expanded its manufacturing capabilities and facilities for micro-LED production".