By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Mar 7 -- Seven Chinese companies ranked among the global top 15 in Micro-LED patent applications according to the White Paper on 2023 Micro-LED Industry Technology released recently.

The seven Chinese companies are: BOE (2nd), TCL CSOT (4th), INNOLUX (7th), Huawei (8th), TIANMA Microelectronics (9th), AUO (10th), and Konka Optoelectronics (12th).

This white paper was jointly produced by China’s National Third-generation Semiconductor Technology Innovation Center (Suzhou), Jiangsu 3rd-Generation Semiconductor Research Institute and PatSnap.

The full list of the top 15 applicants:

1. Samsung (South Korea)

2. BOE (Chinese mainland)

3. LG (South Korea）

4. TCL CSOT (Chinese mainland)

5. Apple (USA)

6. META/Facebook (USA)

7. INNOLUX (Taiwan region)

8. Huawei (Chinese mainland)

9. TIANMA Microelectronics (Chinese mainland)

10. AUO (Taiwan region)

11. Japan Display (Japan)

12. Konka Optoelectronics (Chinese mainland)

13. LUMILEDS (The Netherlands)

14. Seoul Viosys (South Korea)

15. Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (Japan)

As of June 2022, Micro-LED global patents totaled over 40,000. The R&D of Micro-LED technology has become more active since 2017, undergoing explosive growth currently.

Meanwhile, Micro-LED technology R&D and innovations are mainly concentrated in the US, South Korea and China. Display panels and photoelectric companies in the three countries contributed most of the innovations.

The key technical challenges in Micro-LED industrialization include epitaxy & chip structure, mass transfer, full color display and display driver, according to the JW Insights report.