In the first half of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the world as well as the technology industry with various interruptions occurred in the supply chain. In April, LEDinside covered how Micro LED technology could still have a chance to grow despite the COVID-19 impacts on the industry. And now, we would like to share the breakthroughs of Micro LED unveiled during the first half of the year proving that developments of the technology have not stopped by the pandemic. Micro LED Wafer and Chip Improvements Researchers have been working on...

LG Electronics has added the category of Micro LED to its Business Solution website with its Micro LED display product available for inquiry. The Micro LED TV, named LSAB009 by the company, is a 163-inch 4K screen with a pixel pitch of 0.9mm based on COB technology. (Image: LG) The Micro LED TV of LG delivers a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and typical brightness of 600 nits. The peak contrast ratio achieves 100,000:1 and the max ratio 50,000:1. LG has yet announced the release date of the product but some source said it would start shipping i...

Samsung is reportedly preparing the launch of Mini LED backlit TVs in 2021 and the increasing demands of Mini LED chips will be supplied by Taiwan and China companies, reported TechNews, a Taiwan-based online media. (Image: Samsung) By quitting the production of LCD display, the Korean giant plans to boost its high end TV products shipment based on diverse display technologies, aiming to exit the low price competition. Apart from the scheduled “The Wall” TV launch in the market of North America and Europe, Samsung might also release new TV...

Mini LED backlight display, featuring high brightness, contrast, reliability as well as longer lifetime, is regarded as a great competitor to OLED display, which is the current dominant display technology for high end consuming electronics. But higher production cost is still a pain point for Mini LED backlight display. From the viewpoint of the supply chain, driver ICs that control the local dimming zones of Mini LED backlight display could actually be a critical component to help reducing production cost. The increased production cost of Mini LED comes from the ...

ALLOS Semiconductors announced its collaboration with Prof. Ohkawa and his team at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for realizing high efficiency nitride-based red LEDs on large diameter silicon substrates. The collaboration will focus on solving fundamental issues like the large lattice mismatch and the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) which limit the adoption of red nitride-based LEDs for practical industry usage. In particular, for the emerging field of Micro LED displays there is a strong demand to enable red LEDs on ...

One critical issue of Micro LEDs is that their luminous efficiency decrease as their dimension shrink, leading to increasing problems in inspection and repair. Technology developers thus try to improve Micro LED efficiency at the phase of epitaxy wafer production. A group of researchers from UCSB, including Nobel winner Shuji Nakamura, recently published a paper describing the method of fabricating high performance InGaN Micro LED with epitaxial tunnel junctions (TJs Micro LEDs). Published in Optics Express, the paper, titled “Size-independent Low...

Researchers of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have been working on improve efficiency of red Micro LEDs and they recently announced the achievement of manufacturing stable red Micro LED based on InGaN. (Image: KAUST) A major challenge facing the development of Micro LEDs is to integrate red, green and blue light into a single LED chip. Current RGB LEDs are made by combining two kinds of materials with InGaP red LEDs and InGaN blue and green LEDs. "Creating RGB displays requires the mass transfer...

A research team led by Shin-Tson Wu, Professor from the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, USA, conducted a comprehensive analysis on the current display technologies: LCD, OLED, Mini LED and Micro LED. The researchers analyze the performance of self-emitting Mini LED, Micro LED and OLED display, as well as Mini LED backlit LCD, evaluating the power consumption and ambient contrast ratio of each display in depth and systematically compared the dynamic range, motion picture response time, color gamut, and adaptabili...

TrendForce’s latest LED Industry Demand and Supply Data Base finds that, by 2024, the global Mini/Micro LED market is projected to reach US$4.2 billion in revenue. The positive outlook of the Mini/Micro LED industry has attracted many investors. Since 2019, total investments in Mini/Micro LED-related projects in China have reached RMB 39.1 billion, with more than 14 newly added projects, according to TrendForce’s investigations. This massive influx of capital is expected to accelerate the overall pace of Mini/Micro LED commercialization. ...

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada reported that they have created a new method to transfer and bond Micro LEDs onto flexible substrate. The approach is called “paste-and-cut” by the researchers and can selectively transfer GaN Micro LED from sapphire substrate onto flexible platforms. The results were published at Nano Energy in July, 2020. The research team unveiled their achievement of using the novel “paste-and-cut” approach to transfer and bound GaN Micro LEDs onto flexible substrate with demonstrated effectiveness. T...

Instrument Systems of the Konica Minolta Group introduces a camera-based measurement solution for Micro LED wafer testing that generates 2-dimensional, pixel-resolved optical analyses within given cycle times. The LumiTop 4000 has a resolution of 12 MP and can detect the smallest of defects and inhomogeneities on the wafer. Thanks to a 100 mm macro lens, the camera enables fast parallel inline analysis of all Micro LEDs on a wafer at a single test station. Micro LEDs are renowned for being an exacting new display technology. According to the latest definition of L...

Samsung plans to debut its Micro LED TV, The Wall, in the second half of 2020. However, TheElec, a Korea electronics industry media, reported that Samsung might not be able to follow its schedule as it has yet begun production necessary component by now. Samsung revealed its Micro LED TV lineup at CES 2020, among which, the 75-inch, 88-inch, 93-inch and 110-inch TVs were anticipated to launch in the market of Europe, North America and the Middle East in 2020. (Image: Samsung) TheElec quoted information from its sources that, at the moment in July,...

A research team from South Korea developed a new method to power medical implants using active photonic wireless system incorporating Micro LED that can be attached on skin and a photovoltaic device that integrated with medical implant. Medical implants such as pacemakers help to monitor and regulate physical condition of people to support efficient medical treatment. These devices usually need a constant source of energy to operate, resulting in issues of power supply. Batteries and wired power also create limitation for applications. For example, when battery power gets exhau...

Epistar and Lextar, the two LED companies in Taiwan said that they are forming a new holding company via share conversion with the aim to strengthen Micro LED and Mini LED display technology and business. The new holding company is now named ENNOSTAR, revealed Epistar in its announcement following the agreement of both companies. The share conversion ratios of two companies are set at one share of Epistar for 0.5 ordinary share of ENNOSTAR, and one share of Lextar for 0.275 ordinary share. An extra ordinary shareholders meeting and the promoter’...

US-based LED video display supplier Daktronics announced that it has provided 80 LED display units to a Jordan media service company Seagulls for their city-wide project in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Of the 80 LED displays provided for this project, 50 featured 2 square meters and 30 featured 8 square meters of digital space. All 80 units employed 3.9 mm line spacing for up-close viewing distances. These units are installed across the city of Amman to share digital advertising messages to passersby. The installation took place between 2019 and 2020. (Imag...

GaN-on-Si epiwafer expert ALLOS Semiconductor announced that its high power electronics and RF business have been sold to AZUR SPACE, a provider of III-V epitaxy for solar cells. AZUR SPACE will use the acquired technology to expand its III-V epi business into the booming market for GaN-on-Si high power electronics and RF epiwafers. ALLOS Semiconductors will continue its optoelectronics business with the focus on the emerging Micro LED display market. (200 mm GaN-on-Si epiwafer example for HPE application; image: ALLOS) Si...

Mini LED and Micro LED, the novel display technologies based on LED, have lit up the industry which long suffered from low price competition. As worldwide companies and research institutes pouring resources into technology development in the past years and building up partnerships to formulate new ecosystem, several Micro and Mini LED achievements were revealed. Display products using Mini LED backlight are launched and Micro LED prototypes also continue to achieve breakthroughs.

Micro LED Forum is going online this year to keep worldwide industry experts updated with the latest developments and market trend of the innovative display technologies Micro LED and Mini LED. Despite that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to suspension and cancellation of many major global business fairs and events, the progresses within the industry and the market never stopped. At the moment of difficulty, LEDinside of TrendForce still integrated the latest technology developments and will share the critical information with the industry online without time and ge...

For LED industry players in Taiwan who have been facing stiff competition from China’s supply chain and South Korea’s monopoly on OLED technologies, creating new business opportunities in Mini LED and Micro LED could be a solution. However, Chinese companies are also rushing into the Mini LED and Micro LED markets with recognition of the growth potential there. At the moment when Micro LED has yet to reach technological maturity, and Mini LED sets to enter a phase of explosive market growth. What are the roles of Chinese companies in the L...

Many major trade fairs and exhibitions for 2020 have been postponed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, worldwide companies operating in different industries have delayed unveiling their new technologies. However, Micro LED technology developers may have a chance to achieve technological breakthroughs during this time of crisis because of opportunities that lie within this field of innovative display solutions. The first half of 2020 also saw noteworthy activities and events related to the R&D of Micro LED. (Image: AUO) The COVID-19 ...

The LED industry is gaining increasing attention from the market as the largest consumer electronics company is said to launch several products using Mini LED backlight display technology. LED industry players are looking forward to increasing demand created by the innovative display technology and hope to get away from the dark time of oversupply and low-price competition. Nevertheless, LED companies can hardly work on their own to create Mini LED and Micro LED miracles. These miniaturized LEDs are only a hundredth or even thousandth of a conventional LED an...

Mini LED and Micro LED, the novel display technologies based on LED, have lit up the industry which long suffered from low price competition. As worldwide companies and research institutes pouring resources into technology development in the past years and building up partnerships to formulate new ecosystem, several Micro and Mini LED achievements were revealed. Display products using Mini LED backlight are launched and Micro LED prototypes also continue to achieve breakthroughs. (Image: Pixabay) Apple’s rumor of launching Mini LED backlight techn...

iBeam Materials, the leader in enabling large-area monolithic Micro LED displays using GaNoX technology (including GaN-on-metal and GaN-on-Glass), announced that the company will be presenting its technology updates at two key industry conferences in the coming weeks. These conferences will be held entirely online and our presentations will be readily accessible by viewers unable to travel. These talks will discuss the advent of paper-thin, ultra-flexible Micro LED displays using iBeam’s unique GaNoX technology that will eliminate the traditional restrict...

According to the latest report by LEDinside, the research division of TrendForce, “2020 Global Automotive LED Product Trend and Regional Market Analysis,” automotive LED market demand steadily increase by advanced technologies, such as intelligent headlamp, central tunnel taillights, HDR automotive display, ambient light, etc. TrendForce analyze automotive LED market development by five directions, including automotive lighting and display product trend, automotive lamp player revenue and development strategies, LED player revenue performance and pro...

Korea researchers announced that they have developed a GaN Micro LED that can be folded and cut by scissors. The team demonstrate a method of creating a deformable LED based on remote heteroepitaxy of GaN. The research, titled “Remote heteroepitaxy of GaN microrod heterostructures for deformable light-emitting diodes and wafer recycle,” was published in Science Advances on June 3, 2020. The research was jointly conducted by professor from Sejong University and the University of Texas. The team manufactured Micro LEDs on a graphene-coated wafer ...

Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar and Lextar are going to form a new holding company, aiming to intensify its growing momentum in next-gen display technologies Mini LED and Micro LED. LEDinside noticed that Apple, who is reportedly launching Mini LED-based products, could be a nudge that lead to the alliance of Epistar and Lextar. Rumors of Apple to release several Mini LED backlight technology adopted products including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 14.1-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2020 and 2021 have been going on since last year. Epistar, the Taiwan com...

Two Taiwan-based LED companies, Epistar and Lextar, announced yesterday (June 18) that they will jointly set up a new holding company via share conversion. Through the collaboration, the two companies aim to integrate their resource and focus on their expertise to speed Mini LED and Micro LED technology development. For the new holding company, Epistar and Lextar will swap one share for 0.5 and 0.275 shares respectively. The share swap is scheduled to be completed on October 20, 2020. Once the new holding company is listed upon the share swap date, both Epistar a...

Micro LED technology supplier PlayNitride said that it aims to reduce production cost of Micro LED chip by 95% in five years to meet the requirement of mass production and is continue to raise funding. Charles Li, CEO of PlayNitride, noted that the two major keys of Micro LEDs are to make them small and cheap, which is the current challenge for commercialization. In order to achieve the goal, it is critical to connect the supply chain from wafer manufacture, chip process, transfer technology, display module, backplane driver and system tuning. Most of the processes ...

French research institute CEA-Leti announced that its researchers have broken the throughput world record of 5.1 Gbps in visible light communications (VLC) using a single GaN blue Micro LED. Their data transmission rate of 7.7 Gbps achieved with a 10 µm Micro LED marks another step toward commercialization and widespread use of LiFi communication. (Image: CEA-Leti) VLC, or LiFi (light fidelity), is an emerging wireless communication system that offers an alternative or a complementary technology to radio frequency (RF) systems such as WiFi and...

LED video display company announces the financial results of its fiscal 4Q20 and 2020 ending May 2. 2020. Daktronics reported fiscal year 2020 net sales of US$608.9 million, operating loss of US$0.2 million and net income of US$0.5 million. This compares to net sales of $569.7 million, operating loss of US$4.7 million, and net loss of US$1.0 million for fiscal 2019. Fiscal 2020 orders were US$620.8 million compared to US$608.9 million for fiscal 2019. For fiscal 4Q20, Daktronics registered net sales of US$126.1 million, operating loss of US$3.5 million, and...