Production equipment - Page 6

German-based GaN-on-Si developer ALLOS has applied its technology to large 300 mm epiwafers. ALLOS says that scaling up to 300 mm wafers enables higher production efficiencies and thus lower costs. ALLOS estimates that the higher area utilization alone accounts for a cost advantage of 40% compared to standard LED wafers. Standard 300 mm silicon line tools also offer higher production uniformity and yield.

ALLOS demonstrated the 300 mm scale-up using a reactor made by Veeco who announced selling the first 300 mm GaN reactor to a leading-edge semiconductor fab just some month ago and also showed 300 mm wafer data at CES. ALLOS reports a wavelength uniformity of consistently below 1 nm and "all other production requirements like bow of

Israel-based display characterization and inspection equipment maker InZiv has recently announced the shipment of a high-resolution pixel characterization tool to an undisclosed Tier-1 consumer electronics company.

InZiv's tool offers MicroLED defect detection on the wafer and pixel level with unprecedented sub-micron resolutions. Measuring luminescence, spectral wavelengths and 3D structure at the highest resolutions, the equipment enables the identification and the source of defects, accelerating product time to market.

High-precision 3D sensing developer CyberOptics Corporation announced that it has received a $1.2 million order for its SQ3000 Multi-Function systems for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) and Coordinate Measurements (CMM), to be used in the scale-up of micro-LED technologies.

CyberOptics says it expects more micro-LED equipment orders later in 2020. In August 2019 the company announced a $1.3 million order for a system SQ3000 system.

USA-based eLux was established in 2016 as a spin-off from Sharp Labs of America, to commercialize a unique MicroLED production technology. The company was in stealth mode for a few years, and is now finally discussing its technology and business. We talked to the company's president and CEO Jong-Jan Lee, who explains the company's technology, status and plans.

eLux's technology is based on a unique approach that moves microLEDs from wafer to the target substrate without the need of a pick-and-place process. The so-called fluidic process uses microLEDs dispersed in liquid and wells built onto the substrate. The microLED dispersion is spread over the substrate and the LEDs simply fall into place - a sort of self-assembly process, which can be seen in the video above.

In December 2019, China-based display maker Konka launched its tiled large micro-LED displays, under the APHAEA brand. The company demonstrated two such displays - a 118" 4K one that costs $240,000 and a 236" 8K one that costs $1.25 million.

Konka is gearing up to produce its own MicroLED and miniLED chips, and has ordered several Aixtron production systems, specifically the AIX G5+ C and AIX 2800G4-TM MOCVD systems. Konka will use these CVD reactors to produces GaN-based and AsP-based microLEDs and miniLEDs.

China-based display producer China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT, owned by TCL) announced a joint-venture with Xiamen Sanan Integrated Circuit (Sanan-IC, owned by San'an Optoelectronics) to develop micro LED materials and production processes and equipment.

The two companies will invest a total of 300 million Yuan (around $43 million USD) in the new venture, with CSoT holding 55%.

In January 2019 Aixtron and PlayNitride signed a joint-collaboration agreement to accelerate Micro-LED development and PlayNitride ordered an AIX G5+ C MOCVD system. Aixtron announced that the AIX G5+ C system is now fully qualified for production - and Playnitride placed a follow-up order for a second such system.

Aixtron says that the G5+ C is an advanced advanced production tool that offers market leading wavelength uniformity to meet the tightened Micro LED market specifications in a batch reactor high-throughput environment. The system allows for the lowest defect and particle level in the industry due to an effective in-situ cleaning technology and the cassette-to-cassette handler which is essential for high yields. The G5+ C MOCVD was also recently ordered by Plessey for its own GaN-on-Silicon Micro-LED development and production.

Switzerland-based deposition equipment maker Evatec has secured a 2nd order for automated thin-film production tools from microLED developer PlayNitride. The equipment will enable PlayNitride's microLED production ramp-up.

Evatec says that PlayNitride first ordered its cassette-to-cassete production tool in 2017.

iBeam Materials announced that it has received an investment from Samsung Ventures. iBeam developed a technology that can be used to produce LED chips on large-area flexible foils.

iBeam Materials, founded in 2011 in the US, is still at an early stage but this technology could enable the production of micro-LED devices directly on large-area flexible substrates without the use of a transfer (pick-and-place) process.

High-precision 3D sensing developer CyberOptics Corporation announced that it has received a $1.3 million order for its Multi-Reflection Suppression (MRS)-enabled SQ3000 Multi-Function systems for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) and Coordinate Measurements (CMM).

CyberOptics says that the systems, which will ship in Q2 2020, will be used for the scale-up of Micro LED device production.