Microdisplays

A year ago Foxconn announced a strategic partnership with Porotech to co-develop microLED microdisplays, targeting AR, wearable and other applications. Foxconn said that this partnership will utilize Porotech's Dynamic Pixel Tuning color-tunable GaN-on-Silicon microLED technology and Foxconn's technologies in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, packaging, IC drivers, CMOS backplanes, module assembly and system assembly.

According to a new report from China, Foxconn plans to build a microLED epiwafer production line in Taichung, Taiwan. Foxconn aims to start mass production by the end of 2025.

China-based MicroLED microdisplay developer Jade Bird Display have developed a full-color microLED microdisplay that achieves a brightness of 2 million nits (white-balanced).

JBD says that its Phoenix series RGB microdisplays offer a pixel pitch of 5 micron, an ultra-thin stack of less than 5 micron, native RGB emitters and high color fidelity. JBD hopes to commercialize its full color microdisplays in Q3 2025. 

In 2022, Google acquired Raxium, a US-based microLED microdisplay developer. The company has since continued the development of these microdisplays, and yesterday it has demonstrated its latest Project Astra AR headset, that is powered by Raxium microdsiplays.

Google did not disclose any more information on these displays or the headset. The new prototype was shown during the company's joint-event with Samsung showcasing Google's new XR initiatives and Samsung's latest headset design.

INMO Technology officially launched its latest AR glasses, the INMO GO 2, that feature microLED microdisplays. The glasses use JBD's Hummingbird Mini II Optical Engine, with the company's 0.13" green monochrome VGA microdisplays. 

The INMO GO2 offers real-time simultaneous translation technology, supporting 40 languages and 90 accents.  The company says the battery life is 150 minutes of use on a full charge. The GO 2 are powered by a quad-core CPU and run on Android 9 with 2GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. 

Rokid announced a new AR headset, called Rokid Glasses, that are based on JBD's 0.13" VGA microLED microdisplays.

The Rokid Glasses offers a Snapdragon Qualcomm AR1 chipset, 12MP camera, 2GB of RAM, a battery life of 4 hours, and a charging carry case that can hold up to 10 full charges. The Rokid Glasses weigh 49 grams and offers several frame colors. Rokid will start selling the new AR headset by June 2025, with a price tag of 2,499 Yuan (around $350).

The MicroLED Industry Association published its first soft-standard document, that focuses on microLED microdisplays. Most analysts and developers agree that the AR market is one of the targets for microLED displays. MicroLED microdisplays offer many advantages for AR developers – mainly very high brightness and high efficiency.

In this soft-stsandard document, the MicroLED Industry Association provide guidelines for microdisplay developers and device makers, identifying the different properties of microLED microdisplays and suggesting how to disclose display metrics and performance.

Hong Kong based microLED microdisplay developer Raysolve Technology announced a new microdisplay product line, branded as PowerMatch 1. These are 0.13" 320x240 full-color microLED microdisplays, that achieve a high brightness of 250,000 nits (up from 150,000 nits in the company's previous panels). The company is using blue LEDs with quantum dots (QD) color conversion.

The company says that it managed to increase the brightness compared to its previous panels by optimizing both the GaN blue material and the quantum dots conversion materials, in addition to updates to the manufacturing process and the CMOS driver. The new dispalys achieve the same olor performance of its predecessor (108.5% DCI-P3).

In March 2024, Apple decided to cancel its microLED project to develop and produce its own wearable display. Apple started developing microLED displays for wearable devices years ago, first aiming to launch the first product in 2023. The project was delayed several times, as the cost of production for microLED displays was too high for Apple, to the point where it was suggested Apple's goal is to launch the first microLED watch in 2027. But that project was cancelled.

Apple's decision made many people pessimistic about microLED displays, especially in the near term. We already posted an article speculating how Apple's decision may affect the industry. And as we also know, Apple has several other active microLED projects still under development.

A twitter account (@Jukanlosreve) that is new but said to be reputable under a different username, now suggests that Apple indeed has not given up on microLEDs. Apple is still developing an AR headset based on microLED microdisplays, which it hopes to release in 2026. The company also still plans to release a microLED smartwatch in 2026.

Today we published a new edition of our MicroLED and OLED Microdisplays Market Report, with all the latest information. The new edition offers more that a dozen new updates, new companies, new brochures and catalogs, and more. It is a major release with over 10 updates, new companies, new predictions and new devices. Global multinational companies are working hard to develop and deploy next-generation AR and VR devices, and these devices will all be based on OLED and microLED microdisplay engines.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• The advantages of OLED and MicroLED microdisplays
• The microdisplays that are available on the market today
• Information on all companies involved in this market
• Future technologies and roadmaps

The report package also provides:

• A list of all OLED microdisplays on the market
• A list of all OLED and MicroLED microdisplays makers
• Microdisplays spreadsheet
• Over 25 datasheets, presentations
• Free updates for a year

This microdisplays market report provides a great introduction to MicroLED and OLED microdisplays, and covers everything you need to know about the current status of the market and industry. This is a great guide if you're considering to adopt OLED microdisplays in your product, if you're looking to learn more about next-generation micro-LEDs and if you want to understand this industry better.

MicroLED Industry Association member XPANCEO announced a partnership with Jade Bird Display (JBD) to develop integrated microLED displays for XPANCEO's smart contact lens platform.

It turns out the two companies have been working already on two different approaches. The first one (shown in the image above) uses a project and hologram combination, projecting an image at a distance so the eye can focus on it. XPANCEO already tested this approach with JBD's microLED projector, as an external device to the contact lens, and now the two companies are aiming to integrate the microLED projector unto the lens.