What They Say
Konka has announced a new smartwatch, the AphaeaWatch that uses a 2″ microdisplay with a pitch of 0.12mm (P0.12), which we calculate as giving 300 x 300 resolution (212ppi), although some seem to have calculated the resolution as 400 x 400. We suspect that they may have used the 2″ dimension as an edge size, not a diagonal.
The company also said that it had shown a P0.9 small-pitch Micro LED display, a P0.49 small-pitch Micro LED display, and a glass-based P0.375 Micro LED display were showcased. The P0.375 Micro LED display uses a glass substrate, which offers improved heat dissipation, to achieve reduced power consumption, serving as an effective solution that ensures product reliability, lightness, and heat dissipation.
In its press release, no further information on the smartwatch was given, but separately it has been reported that:
- brightness is 1500 cd/m²
- chip size is 30?m (so within our definition of a true microLED)
- chromaticity is 143% of DCI-P3
- battery life is 35 days.
The watch is said to use HMT technology from Chongqing Konka Optoelectronics Technology Research Institute ‘to realize a variety of product forms and open up more diversified use scenarios’, but at press time, we couldn’t find out what this was. Perhaps it is the LED placement technology?
At the forum, Konka and the Chongqing Bishan District Investment Platform jointly established the RMB 2 billion ($305m) Chongqing Kangxin Semiconductor Industry Equity Investment Fund, to invest in new semiconductor materials, equipment, chips, IC design, packaging, and testing.
What We Think
It had been widely expected that smartwatches would be one of the two early markets for microLED (the other is very large TVs/public displays). Part of the reason is that it is easier to make these small devices and there is a very clear marketing advantage in battery life to using this kind of technology.
We couldn’t dig out details of the HMT technology, but we reported earlier this year that the firm was using Aixtron equipment for device manufacture. (Konka Enters Micro LED Pilot Production with Aixtron Tools )(BR)
