Three international manufacturers send new signals for MicroLED development

In recent years, a number of domestic LED companies have been actively promoting the development of Micro LED technology through technology research and development, production capacity construction, capital injection and other methods. The performance of Micro LED has been rapidly improved, and the scope of applications has continued to expand from large-size displays, vehicle displays, and near-eye display applications.

At the current SID 2025 exhibition in the United States, many domestic companies went to the exhibition site to showcase the latest progress of their Micro LED technology to overseas markets, demonstrating the leading strength of China's Micro LED.

Overseas, a large number of companies are actually working hard to promote the development of Micro LED related technologies. Just recently, three international manufacturers have reported the latest financing, orders, technology progress and other developments in the Micro LED business, involving the development of Micro LED interconnection technology, Micro LED wafers, and nanowire Micro LED technology.

Avicena completed US$65 million in financing to promote Micro LED chip interconnection technology to the market

Recently, Avicena, an American developer of Micro LED-based chip optical interconnection technology, announced the completion of Series B financing, raising US$65 million (approximately RMB 469 million). Avicena will use the funds to further expand its team and advance its first product into mass production. With the completion of this round of financing, Avicena has now completed a total of US$120 million in financing.

Avicena is committed to developing LightBundle™, an ultra-low energy optical link technology based on Micro LED. This technology is based on a highly parallel optical interconnect technology created by densely arranged GaN-based Micro LEDs. It can be integrated on all high-performance CMOS integrated circuits and has high bandwidth density and energy efficiency.

Working principle of LightBundle™ (Picture source: Avicena)

Compared with traditional copper link technology solutions, LightBundle™ link technology has the advantages of low power consumption, low latency, high coverage and high bandwidth density. Therefore, LightBundle™ link technology can be applied to interconnections between high-performance computing systems (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and discrete memory chips, as well as next-generation link fields such as sensors, 5G wireless and aerospace.

In recent years, Avicena has actively promoted the development of Micro LED chip interconnection technology LightBundle™ through acquisitions and cooperation. In 2022, Avicena acquired the GaN-based Micro LED manufacturing factory and related engineering team of Nanosys, an American supplier of quantum dot luminescent materials and technology, to further enhance its R&D and production capabilities in LightBundle™ technology; in 2023, Avicena also reached a cooperation with ams OSRAM to jointly promote the mass production of LightBundle™ technology.

Recently, Avicena has further improved the level of LightBundle™ technology and launched the scalable and modular LightBundle interconnection platform, which supports transmission capabilities of more than 1Tbps/mm and can extend ultra-high-density chip-to-chip (D2D) interconnection distance to more than 10 meters at a low special energy efficiency level.

Micro LED wafer orders for compound semiconductor foundry IQE have increased

Recently, British compound semiconductor foundry IQE announced the company's 2024 performance report. In 2024, IQE will achieve performance growth, including revenue of 118 million pounds (approximately RMB 1.129 billion), a year-on-year increase of 2.4%; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA) of 8.1 million pounds, a year-on-year increase of 88.1%.

Image source: IQE

In the performance report, IQE mentioned that currently, the company has extended its cooperative relationship with an AR smart glasses design company and obtained an annual purchase order commitment based on gallium nitride Micro LED display technology.

In addition, IQE also stated that the company has launched an 8-inch GaN-on-Si (gallium nitride on silicon) Micro LED foundry service, which is equipped with an in-house wafer cleaning process and is compatible with the silicon-based CMOS process.

IQE is an independent outsourced manufacturer of epitaxial wafers based on metal organic vapor phase epitaxy, molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition. IQE's products cover GaN, GaAs and other compound semiconductor epitaxial wafers.

Facing the demand for Micro LED in the field of AR glasses, in recent years, IQE has successively provided the capability of mass production of Micro LED with MICLEDI, a fabless manufacturer of Micro LED for AR, and has reached cooperation with British Micro LED technology manufacturer Porotech.

Aledia will provide 3D nanowire Micro LED wafer samples in the second half of this year

French 3D structure GaN LED technology developer Aledia announced that it will launch its new mass-produced FlexiNOVA epitaxial wafer platform in the second half of this year and provide customers with the first batch of samples, covering both 6V and 9V models.

FlexiNOVA Micro LED wafers will be available to display manufacturers for integration into complete displays, with target applications including wearables, automotive displays, televisions and monitors. It is reported that the FlexiNOVA platform provides a high degree of flexibility in terms of chip size, shape and power consumption.

Aledia said that an important innovation of FlexiNOVA is its ability to achieve the manufacturing of ultra-small size chips, ranging in size from 15×30μm² to less than 3.5×3.5μm². These chips are manufactured on 8-inch gallium nitride silicon-based wafers, and have also demonstrated the feasibility of expanding to 12-inch wafer manufacturing. FlexiNOVA is also the first chip format to support built-in multi-voltage, reducing current density and relieving electrical stress on thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes to improve thermal management and durability in automotive and battery-powered devices.

Image source: Aledia

Aledia has been committed to the research and development of 3D structure GaN Micro LED technology, which is also called nanowire technology.

This technology creates LEDs through nanometer-level columnar three-dimensional processing on wafers. This LED product has higher luminous brightness, and full-color display can be achieved by adjusting the nanowire structure. Aledia's Micro LED products can be used in various display products.

In 2023, Aledia completed 120 million euros (approximately RMB 924 million) in financing for the mass production of its Micro LED products. In 2024, Aledia developed what is known as the world's most efficient 1.5μm Micro LED, with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of more than 32%, achieving a photoelectric conversion efficiency (WPE) of 320 milliwatts of visible light output per watt of electrical power.

Summary

Micro LED technology is constantly changing, and domestic and foreign companies are competing to develop on the Micro LED track, pushing Micro LED technology towards higher performance and wider applications. In the future, Micro LED is expected to play an important role in displays and more fields.