The MicroLED-Info newsletter (December 21, 2021)

Belgium-based microLED microdisplay developer MICLEDI announced that it has demonstrated the industry’s first microLED arrays-for-AR built on a 300mm CMOS manufacturing platform.

MICLEDI says that its 300mm production platform offers "unparalleled manufacturing precision, performance and cost-efficiency". The company will demonstrate its prototype units at CES 2022 next month.

Visionox reveals that the company's MicroLED pilot line, which is the first full-process line built in China, is now capable of producing displays, from driver backplane, through transfer process to full module production. The LED chips themselves are produced by a third party.

Last year Visionox has established a subsidiary called Chenxian Optoelectronics to handle its MicroLED project. Visionox's strategy for the next five years is to focus on OLED and MicroLED displays (the company does not produce LCD displays, so this strategy is not a surprise).

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.

This is a sponsored post by Applied Materials

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.

According to reports from Taiwan, PlayNitride is planning to IPO in 2022. PlayNitride started to sample micro-LED at the end of 2017, and in 2018 PlayNitride demonstrated its first Micro-LED prototypes. PlayNitride has a pilot production facility at Hsinchu Science Park. In 2020 PlayNitride started constructing a second production line that will start mass producing in H2 2021.

The company is also showcasing new microLED displays at Opto Taiwan 2021, which started today. The most interesting display is a 1.58" 256x256 Passive Matrix display. The company collaborated with Solomon Systech to develop the IC for this display.PlayNitride says that this display could be commercialization in 2022. PlayNitride have demonstrated PM-MicroLED displays before, together with RiTDisplay.