Micro LED displays are Micro LED arrays composed of a large number of Micro LED chips, and each Micro LED chip forms a unit pixel. Since the size of Micro LED chips is less than 100 microns, which is about the same size as a pollen sheet, it is quite time-consuming and labor-intensive to accurately place these chips on the substrate to form a specific sequence. Therefore, the production cost of Micro LED displays has always remained high.
Many start-up companies that specialize in technology research and development have proposed transfer technologies of different orientations to accelerate and optimize the manufacturing process of Micro LED displays, including improving pick-and-place technology, developing fluid assembly technology, or using laser technology to transfer LED chips. For these different transfer technologies, LEDinside analyzes their advantages and disadvantages individually. Pick-and-place technology can be used for products larger than 10µm, but the transfer efficiency is relatively low, and the accuracy and stability are not high.
The fluid assembly technology used by eLux, Nitron and other companies can speed up the transfer speed, but the yield rate still needs to be improved because the chip may be damaged during the process. The laser transfer technology introduced by other Micro LED startups such as Uniqarta can technically transfer chips smaller than 1µm with high accuracy, but the equipment cost is also relatively expensive.
Micro LED display screen exhibited by X-Display/X-Celeprint at Display Week 2019
In order to ensure their leading position, major players in the industry have already formed cooperation and alliances to transfer massive amounts of technology. Apple acquired LuxVue, a Micro LED technology development company, as early as 2014, and Osram established a partnership with X-Celeprint. Micro LED start-up Rohinni has also cooperated with equipment manufacturer K&S to develop mass transfer solutions, and established a joint venture with BOE, hoping to use its chip placement technology to promote panel mass production.
Micro LED technology companies have also announced new breakthroughs one after another. Canada's VueReal recently stated that it has been able to achieve mass production and yield production of Micro LED displays through its exclusive technology, which includes an integrated process of automatic alignment and physical printing technology. Jade Bird display company JBD also demonstrated a 600 DPI dual-color Micro LED display completed with its own transfer technology.
Image source: VueReal
Faced with various manufacturing process difficulties and challenges, the R&D teams of each manufacturer continue to improve Micro LED mass transfer technology. At the Micro LEDforum to be held in July this year, LEDinside specially invited two companies, PARC and Ultra Display, to share their latest Micro LED technology solutions.
PARC uses a Micro Assembler Printer to first arrange the Micro LED chips into specific patterns and then transfer them to the final substrate. This technology enables high-speed and large-scale transfer of Micro LED chips to advance the production process. Chaoxuan Technology has launched a solution based on special laser technology that can transfer dice without damaging Micro LED chips.
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