Micro-LED (micro light-emitting diode) is hailed as the “next-generation display technology” and is expected to be the “ultimate display technology” that will revolutionize the industry. At the Jia Geng Innovation Laboratory of the Xiamen Future Display Technology Research Institute, significant breakthroughs in key Micro-LED technologies are being made, accelerating the industry’s transformation. Recently, a high-PPI Micro-LED transparent display is set to be illuminated at the research institute.
Overcoming Challenges in Mass Transfer and Integration: Establishing the World’s First G2.5 Micro-LED Mass Transfer Demonstration Line
Compared to the mass-produced LCD and OLED technologies, Micro-LED technology offers notable advantages, including high brightness, high contrast, high reliability, and rapid response times.
Recently, reporters at the Jia Geng Innovation Laboratory observed dozens of cutting-edge devices for the display industry within clean rooms ranging from class 100 to class 10,000. Researchers, clad in anti-static workwear, closely monitored real-time technical parameters on the equipment, creating a busy yet orderly research environment.
“Micro-LED displays consist of numerous tiny LED chips, each measuring just a few micrometers to tens of micrometers,” researchers explained. Essentially, it represents a dramatic reduction of traditional LED devices by hundreds of times, greatly increasing the integration of light-emitting chips on the display module. This involves a complex process known as mass transfer technology, which is rarely used in other electronics industries.
In simple terms, this process involves efficiently and precisely transferring hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of micrometer-sized Micro-LED chips onto a drive backplane, ensuring good electrical connections. This process demands extremely high levels of efficiency, yield, and precision, which often interrelate and complicate coordination.
At the end of 2022, the Xiamen Future Display Technology Research Institute (hereinafter “the Institute”) achieved a breakthrough in the full-chain process of high-efficiency, high-yield, and high-precision laser mass transfer technology. By 2023, it established the world’s first G2.5 Micro-LED mass transfer demonstration line, achieving a chip transfer rate of up to 10,000 chips per second. The single transfer yield exceeded 99.9%, and the repaired yield exceeded 99.999%, successfully illuminating several Micro-LED displays.
Huang Kai, Vice President of the Institute, introduced that Micro-LED technology is expected not only to overcome limitations in screen size and form but also to show tremendous potential in enhancing display effects, performance, and reducing product costs and application scenarios.
Exploring Application Scenarios and Leading Industry Development: Illuminating the World’s Highest Pixel Density Screen
Since its operation, the Institute has achieved continuous breakthroughs in critical technologies. In November of last year, a 1.63-inch Micro-LED full-color display module, boasting a resolution of 403 pixels per inch—the highest resolution product using mass transfer technology in China—was successfully illuminated. This product also won the “Product Innovation Award” at the MES 2024 International Metaverse Expo.
“Ordinary LED displays commonly assemble 45 to 90 light-emitting diode chips per inch. In contrast, this new display integrates over 1,200 extremely tiny light-emitting diode chips per inch, making it the screen with the highest pixel density globally,” Huang Kai explained.
This postage-stamp-sized display is primarily used in smartwatches, with its internal drive backplane integrating 440,000 micrometer-sized light-emitting diodes. This is akin to fitting nearly 500 tiny bulbs in every square millimeter of area. When viewed up close, ordinary LED screens have a visible granular texture, whereas this display has an exceptionally high resolution with no visible granularity.
“The industry’s expectation is that once Micro-LED technology matures, it will spawn a series of products, including AR and VR, significantly altering the ecosystem of the display field,” Huang Kai said. Recently, the Institute will unveil a high-PPI Micro-LED transparent display, which is expected to be applied in more scenarios and fields, such as transparent windows and transparent notebooks.
Micro-LED has already begun to demonstrate its unique advantages in areas such as smart wearables, large-size televisions, and automotive displays. In the future, from AR to transparent displays and beyond, Micro-LED technology is expected to achieve comprehensive application. However, industry experts note that large-scale production of Micro-LED still has a long way to go. Once technical and cost bottlenecks are addressed, Micro-LED products will rapidly enter households.
Xiamen is emerging as a key hub for the new display industry, with over 2,000 enterprises in the city’s new display industry chain. “In the future, Xiamen may account for 60-70% or even more of the national production capacity in the Micro-LED display sector. Xiamen has significant opportunities to lead both nationally and globally in terms of technology and industry development.”
Established in February 2021 through a partnership between the Xiamen municipal government and Xiamen University, the Xiamen Future Display Technology Research Institute has assembled a diverse team of over 100 high-level talents led by Academician Zhang Rong. The Institute focuses on strategic needs in the new display industry, with Micro-LED display technology as its primary direction. It has built a complete Micro-LED innovation chain encompassing material epitaxy, chip manufacturing, transfer integration, and reliability assessment. By integrating new technologies like artificial intelligence, the Institute significantly shortens development cycles, reduces costs, and improves yield and efficiency. The Institute is dedicated to the development and transfer of industry common and forward-looking technologies in the new display field, aiming for “market orientation, technological breakthroughs, and integrated production lines” in collaborative innovation.
The Institute is expected to continue its focus on core technology breakthroughs and rapidly promote industrial transformation, achieving high-level technological independence and self-reliance, playing an important leading and demonstrative role in the development of China’s Micro-LED display industry, and helping the country maintain a leading position in the future display field.
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