Taiwan-based laser micromachining subsystem and equipment manufacturer Bolite Optoelectronics announced its new automated side-wiring system, the laser-based Bolite SW-L, which can be used for the production of tiled microLED displays.
This laser-based tool offers high-precision alignment, advanced process control, and full automation with robotic handling. The minimum line with and spacing is 5 um. Bolite says that this system is highly compatible with TFT production processes. The SW-L systems are now available, and Bolite is already accepting orders.
Applied Materials Baccini Cell Systems provides advanced screen-printing solutions and systems for a wide range of applications - including for MicroLED production.
Here is an interview we conducted with Applied Materials' Director of Global Product Marketing, Daniel Hada, who details the company's solutions for MicroLED production and R&D.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about Applied Materials' Baccini systems? What kind of systems are you offering?
We provide advanced screen-printing solutions for both R&D applications and high volume manufacturing. All Baccini systems are built for sheet-to-sheet printing, either on flexible or rigid substrates. In addition to our screen-printing capabilities, we also provide customers with different drying and curing solutions, in-line inspection systems to monitor the quality of the print immediately after the print, and fully automated print lines to enable low cost, and high volume manufacturing. Utilizing Baccini’s Esatto technology which provides high accuracy and high print repeatability, we developed the Double Print technology years ago, to allow print on print capability for printing narrow lines/small features with high aspect ratios and to minimize interruptions in the printed lines.
Tianma Microelectronics held its first "2021 Micro-LED Ecosystem Alliance Conference" in Xiamen, China, during which several producers and researchers gathered to discuss microLED technologies and challenges.
During the conferences, Tianma showed several new microLED prototype display, including some new ones. The first display is a 9.38" 960x480 (222 um pixel pitch) transparent LTPS panel. Tianma's second-gen transparent panel features higher transparency (>70%), larger size and a refined TFT process compared to the company's first-gen transparent microLEDs shown in 2019.
Toray Industries announced several new materials suitable for microLED production. The materials were developed in collaboration with Toray Engineering, developer of production and inspection equipment for the microLED industry.
The new materials announced today are a laser-transfer release material, a bonding material and a substrate side-wire material (used in a tiled display architecture). The bonding material and the side-wire material are both based on Toray's RAYBRID proprietary photosensitive conductive material.
A large US-government contractor in the aerospace sector installed a curved 8K 9.7 x 2.7 meters Sony Crystal LED display, used for internal and external design briefings. The display was installed on a custom frame and base, as close to the floor as possible, which creates a portal-like effect.
This large microLED tiled display was installed by Mechdyne, which provided the design, integration and virtual reality expertise.
Many believe that MicroLED technology will emerge as the next-generation display technology, and one of the first markets for such displays is the TV market. Several companies already offer microLED TVs - which you can already buy today. Assuming you have the money and a large enough room, that is.
As is often the case with new technologies, especially in the display industry, the first few years are marked with extremely high prices and limited selection. MicroLED TVs are no exception - as of 2021, they target the very high-end premium market, with very large TVs and prices starting at around $100,000.
But let's assume you really want to buy a microLED TV and can afford it. What are your options today?
MicroLED developer PlayNitride introduced interesting new display prototypes at SID Displayweek 2021.
The first display is a 89-inch 5K (59 PPI) curved display, produced from tiled microLED panels. The display has a 32:9 aspect ratio with the microLEDs driven by PCB. The 89-inch display is build from 168 tiles, and it achieves a brightness of over 2,000 nits.
Tianma demonstrated several new microLED display prototypes at SID Displayweek 2021. First up is a 7.56" 720x480 (114 PPI) flexible MicroLED display, developed in collaboration with PlayNitride. The display is driven by an LTPS backplane and achieves a brightness of over 600 nits. The bending radius is 50 mm.
The second display is a tiled display that combines two 5.04" 480x320 (114 PPI) LTPS microLED displays. This one was develop again in collaboration with PlayNitride. The border (bezel) of the panel is less than 0.03 mm - although looking carefully at the display you can see a black line separating the two panels.
Sony introduced its next-generation microLED display technology (direct-view LED as the company calls it), the high contrast Crystal LED C-series (ZRD-C12A/C15A) and the high brightness B-series (ZRD-B12A/B15A).
The new display modules offer two pixel pitch sizes (in both series), 1.26 mm and 1.56 mm and are equipped with Sony's "X1 for Crystal LED" image quality processor, which features Sony's signal processing technology and microLED control technology. Other features include high-quality and high-resolution upscaling, Sony's Motionflow technology for smooth and artifact-free pictures without motion blur, 22 bit Super Bit Mapping, 120 fps (HFR) and HDR.