MicroLED Displays - Intellectual Property Landscape 2024

Methodology

3 Page Summary

Executive Summary

Context

• Trends in Global Patent Applications Per countries
• Economic Growth and R&D Spending: China vs Rest of the world
• MicroLED Industry Cumulative Spending

Global Trends

• Time Evolution of Patent Publications
• Top 40 Patent Applicant Ranking
• Evolution of patent publication by Country of Filing
• Evolution of patent publication by Headquarter location
• Geographic Coverage: Ranking by Triadic Patents
• Breakdowns by Company Type
• Top 40 Activity Since 2021
• Newcomers Since 2021 Report
• Focus on Display and Panel Makers
• Startup Companies
• OEM and consumer Electronics Companies
• R&D Organizations and Academics
• LED Companies
• Equipment Makers
• Component and Material Suppliers
• Semiconductor companies, Others

Company analysis

• Who’s Giving UP?
• Time Evolution of Patent Publications
• Patent concentration
• Megatrends and Inflexions
• Patent Portfolio Strength Index
• IP Leadership
• IP Blocking Potential
• IP Transfer and Acquisition
• Main Co-Owned IP Since 2021

IP Portfolio Profile of Leading Companies

• Samsung (KR)
• BOE (CN)
• Konka (CN)
• TCL-CSOT (CN)
• Extremely PQ (CN)
• LG (KR)
• PlayNitride (TW)
• Tianma (CN)
• Vistar / Visionox (CN)
• Meta (US)
• AUO (TW)
• Sitan Technology(CN)
• Japan Display (JP)
• Jade Bird Display (CN/HK)
• Ams Osram (DE)
• HKC (CN)
• Lumileds (US)
• Apple (US)
• Foxconn (TW)
• Top 40 summary

Technology Segmentation and Analysis

• Technology Node Segmentation
• Time Evolution by Technology Segment
• Top Company Portfolios - Technology Segmentation

Mass Transfer and Bonding / Interconnect

• Portfolio Size Versus Strength Index
• IP Leadership and Blocking Potential
• Technology Landscape

Pixel & Display Architectures

• Major Trends
• Transparent Displays, 3D
• Double Sided Display – Privacy Mode displays
• Flexible and Stretchable Displays
• Thermal Management
• Display Structures for Vertical LEDs
• Quantum Nanorod Emitting Diodes (QNED)
• MicroLED in Package (MiP) and smart Pixels
• Hybrid Displays
• Pixel Arrangements
• Optical Pixel Multiplexing
• Others

LED-on-Si Microdisplays

• Portfolio Size Vs. Strength Index
• IP Leadership and Blocking Potential
• Key Topics
• Different Paths for Monolithic RGB Displays
• Crosstalk and Beam shaping:
• Manufacturing Process Flow

Chip Structure and Manufacturing

• Portfolio Size Vs Strength Index
• IP Leadership and Blocking Potential
• Major Thrust Area: MicroLED Efficiency
• Nanoporous Structures
• Plasmon, Tunnel Junctions, V-Pits, Others
• Integrated Transistors

Light Extraction/ Shaping

• Crosstalk
• Reducing Ambient Light Reflection on Metal Cricuits
• Materials
• Narrow Angle Emission for Led-on-Si

Backplane and Display Driving

• Portfolio Size Vs. Strength Index
• IP Leadership and Blocking Potential
• Microdrivers, Smart Pixels and Related [1]
• Voltage Mismatch and IR Drop
• TFT Driving

Defect & Yield Management: Inspection, Testing and Repair

• IP Leadership
• Functional Testing - Contactless
• Functional Testing - Probes
• Test Pads and Areas on Wafer or Modules.
• Testing or Repair by the Backplane
• Testing by Transfer Head, Others

Color Generation (Native, Converted)

• Approaches for Color Displays
• IP Portfolio Strength and Leadership
• Color converters in Nanoporous Structures
• Color Conversion Materials
• Deposition and Patterning Methods
• Pixel and display Architectures Involving Color Generation

Tiling, Modular displays and Narrow Bezels

• Possible Architectures for Signal Routing
• IP Portfolio Strength and Leadership
• Architectures to Reduce Visible Seams

Sensors and Other Added Functionalities

• IP Portfolio Strength and Leadership
• Touch Sensing
• Others

Conclusions - Outlook

Yole Group Presentation

MicroLED IP on a high-level plateau after 7 years of exponential growth

Apple essentially created the microLED industry, putting it on the map in 2014 by acquiring microLED startup Luxvue.  But in February 2024, after spending a decade and $3 billion on the program, Apple canceled its smartwatch microLED project.With about $7B invested in microLED development by other players, the industry has gained sufficient momentum to continue its efforts to make microLED a credible, high-end display technology capable of competing against OLED and LCD in various applications such as automotive, AR and others. After 7 years of exponential growth, MicroLED IP activity has reached a high-level plateau since 2021. Some organizations are decreasing while others are accelerating. Chinese companies now dominate the activity, but Korea remains a strong number 2.

Display makers still dominate but startups remain a major force in microLED IP.

Samsung is now a strong leader. Leading Chinese display makers BOE and TCL CSOT are also major forces. Tianma and Vistar, the microLED-focused spin-off from OLED maker Visionox, are also rising in terms of both quality and quantity. Startup PlayNitride sustained a high level of activity through 2021-2023 and is still playing in the same league as leading display makers. For the most, Chinese companies seldom extent patent coverage outside of the country. When looking at the breadth of geographic coverage, startups like Aledia and X-Display also stand out.There are more than 370 newcomers since the 2021 edition of this report, the majority from China and Korea. Newcomers are very active and represented 20% of the new patent families published during the 2021-2023 period. After equipment makers since 2018, many material companies have joined the race over the last 3 years. Close to 20 patent families changed hands over the last 3 years, acquired by Samsung, LG and others from Intel, Ultra Display etc.

Technology is maturing, many players reaching for the final mile

There are still many patents lacking merit or originality, but overall technology is progressing on all fronts. Many of the most recent patents show increased maturity, describing “final mile” efforts and addressing issues that only organizations with well advanced developments and manufacturing efforts would face. Multi-step transfer processes with intermediate repair are becoming widespread. Laser and stamp lead in transfer, but Fluidic Self Assembly is coming back strongly. Laser bonding is on the rise. We believe however that Apple’s exit will be the end of MEMS-based transfer due to high cost. Creativity remains high: many new transfer methods are proposed by multiple players, especially from China. Chips and backplane architectures are also key to improving transfer & interconnect with designs resilient to breakage, reducing risks of shorts, improving placement accuracy etc. MicroLED in Package (“MiP”) and corresponding display architectures is a hot trend and trend along with a growing interest in microdrivers.Leveraging microLED’s unique advantages, various patents describe transparent and flexible displays. Similarly, tiling, and modular displays are on the rise. For the most however efforts for in-display sensors appear to be stalling for now.

Acer (TW), Aledia (FR), Aoshiwei Technology (CN), Apple (US), Applied Materials (US), AUO (TW), BOE (CN), CEA -French Alternatives Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (FR), CEC Panda (CN), Changelight (CN), CIOMP (Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics & Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Corning (US), Century Technology (CN), Dai Nippon Printing (JP), eLux (US), Erised Semiconductor (CN), Extremely PQ (CN), Meta (US), Foxconn (TW), Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Future Display Technology Research Institute (CN), Fuzhou University (CN), General Interface Solution (CN), Glo / Nanosys / Shoei (US-JP), Goertek (CN), Google (US), Guangdong University of Technology (CN), HC Semitek (CN), HCP Technology (CN), Himax / Prilit (TW), Hisense (CN),  HKC (CN), Huawei (CN), IASEMI (Jiangsu Institute of Advanced Semiconductors - CN), Innolux (TW), Innostar Service (TW), Institute of Semiconductors - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Intel (US), Industrial Technology Research Institute  -ITRI (TW), Japan Display (JP), JB Display (CN), Ji Hua Laboratory (CN), Jiangsu Chuandu Optoelectronic Technology (CN), Jingce (CN), KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology), Konka (CN), Kookmin University (KR), KOPTI (KR), Korea University (KR), Kyocera (JP), Lextar (TW), LG (KR), Light Chip (CN), Lightizer (KR), Lohua (CN), Lumens (KR), Lumileds (US), Mikro Mesa (TW), Nanchang University (CN), Nanjing University (CN), NationStar (CN), Nichia (JP), Nitto Denko (JP), NthDegree (US), OSRAM (DE), Ostendo (US), Peking University (CN), PlayNitride (TW), Point Engineering (KR), Porotech (UK), Raysolve (CN), Sakai Display (JP), Samsung (KR), Sanan (CN), Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (JP), Seoul National University (KR), Seoul Viosys / Semi (KR), Sharp (JP), Shenzhen MTC (CN), Shin-Etsu (JP), SIDTEK (CN), Sitan Technology (CN), SKKU-Sungkyunkwan University (KR), Sony (JP), SUSTech - Southern University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou Xinju Semiconductor (CN), TCL-CSOT (CN), Tianma (CN), Toray (JP), University of California (US), Visionox / Vistar (CN), V-Technology (JP), Vuereal (CA), WaveLord (KR), Wingtech (CN), Wuhan University (CN), X-Celeprint / XDC (US), Xiamen University (CN)….

Product objectives:

Get time evolution of patent filings and countries of patent filings.

Understand breakdown and emerging trends for each technology node:

• Chip structure and manufacturing
• Transfer, bonding and interconnects
• LED-on-Si microdisplays.
• Light extraction and shaping
• Color generation / conversion
• Pixel and display architecture
• Metrology, inspection and testing.
• Defect and yield management, repair
• Tiling, narrow bezel
• Backplane and driving
• In-display sensors

Understand which organizations are filing patents in microLED displays?

• Types of companies: display makers, consumer electronic OEMs, start-ups, research institutions..
• Geographic areas by headquarters.
• Which technology node(s) are they focusing on?
• Global IP portfolio strength and leadership + breakdown by technology nodes

Obtain a detailed analysis of key company portfolios.

• Scope of their portfolio by technology node.
• Strength, relevance.

Identify IP collaboration networks between players.

See if other companies are developing similar concepts to yours.

Key Features:

• Full excel database of 9080+ patent families and 850+ organizations with link to each document.
• Ranking of patent owners by country, company type, level of activity, total number of patent families etc.
• 1995-2023 time evolution and technology segmentation of patent filing for top 100 players.
• Technology trends for mass transfer, chip structure, display and pixel architectures, color conversion, light shaping, backplane and driving, inspection and testing, repair, driving, tiling sensors etc.
• Profile of 20 key leading patent portfolio
• IP collaborations networks between players

What's new? 

• 5000 new patent families
• 370 new organizations
• Rankings by triadic patents