What They Say
Aledia, a start-up out of the high tech R&D LETI organisation in Grenoble, France, has raised €140 million to build production facilities in the region.
What We Think
We have been reporting on Aledia for some years. The company developed a microLED technology based on nanowire concepts which the company sees as being critical to overcoming some of the yield issues from the use of standard GaN LEDs. The nanowire approach has allowed the creation of some impressive demonstration displays from this company and also from Glo.
The LEDs can be made on silicon wafers, rather than sapphire. Aledia got a ‘C ‘ round of funding in 2018 and the investors included Intel Capital. At the end of last year, the firm announced a deal with TowerJazz of Israel to develop machinery to produce its displays. The hope is to start production by 2022. The firm’s plan was to focus on blue initially, with colour conversion, and with RGB optimisation later.
The technology looks very interesting for microdisplays where the cost and size limit of the wafer is not quite such an issue. For larger displays, the company plans to integrate the CMOS driver into the pixel and has EU funding for more development of this. If this can be done, large area displays could be made without needing active substrates. However, the company would have to deal with the tricky process of singulation and distribution of the LEDs. (BR)
Aledia showed this big LED in Grenoble in 2017 – it’s a single diode, not an array. Image:Meko
