Advanced displays
ADVANCED DISPLAYS FOR MAC
ADVANCED DISPLAYS TRIAL
Micro LEDs also provide high color contrast and can be used to make curved or foldable screens, similar to OLED screens. The components are 100 times smaller than those used in LED lighting products and they do not need backlight modules like traditional LEDs and LCDs, meaning the display can be much thinner. Like micro OLEDs, the micro LED project also involves some chip manufacturing technology. Apple has partnered with Taiwanese LED company Epistar to co-develop the technology. Sony Semiconductor Solutions, a longtime Apple supplier, says it has developed micro OLED display technology that can be used in AR and VR glasses, as well as for other industrial and consumer products.Ĭhina’s display national champion BOE Technology Group has teamed up with Yunnan North OLiGHTEK Opto-Electronic Technology and U.S.-based Kopin, an ultra-small display technology provider, on a joint-venture to develop micro OLED displays for wearable and AR devices.Īpple’s other display project at the Longtan campus focuses on micro LED technology, which the company hopes to eventually use in the Apple Watch, iPads, and MacBooks. It is the first time for Apple to hire manufacturing-related employees in Taiwan via public platforms.Īpple is not the only company pursuing this new line of display technology. The US tech giant on Monday posted on a Taiwanese job platform seeking applicants to work in Longtan who have expertise in operating OLED vacuum evaporation equipment, packaging and testing equipment, and measurement equipment. Anyone who signs up to work on the program must sign a strict non-disclosure agreement that forbids them from even meeting with friends or acquaintances working in the tech industry, the source added. The complex is within walking distance of TSMC’s advanced chip-packaging and testing plant, which is located in the same science park.Īpple has hired dozens of veterans from Taiwanese display maker AU Optoelectronics to work on the micro OLED project, one of the sources familiar with the situation said, as well as display experts from Japan and elsewhere. Apple registered a company at the park in 2014, and expanded it in 2020.
ADVANCED DISPLAYS TRIAL
In addition to micro OLED displays, the company is also working on micro LED technology, and has trial production lines in place for both types, Nikkei has learned.Īpple’s complex in Longtan Science Park consists of several unmarked white buildings - there is no company logo or address on the outside, and only a very faint apple symbol could be seen in the lobby, Nikkei reporters saw on a recent visit. The project is one of two being conducted at Apple’s secretive labs in Longtan District in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan. Some parts of the planned microdisplay manufacturing will use TSMC’s existing chip-production equipment and processes, sources said. “Panel players are good at making screens bigger and bigger, but when it comes to thin and light devices like AR glasses, you need a very small screen,” said a source who has direct information on the micro OLED R&D project.” Apple is partnering with TSMC to develop the technology because the chipmaker’s expertise is making things ultra-small and good, while Apple is also leveraging panel experts’ know-how on display technologies.” The displays under development are less than 1 inch in size. The micro OLED project is now at the trial production stage, sources said, and it will take several years to achieve mass production.
ADVANCED DISPLAYS FOR MAC
The Taiwanese chipmaking giant is also helping Apple build its in-house designed central processors for Mac computers. The project represents a further deepening of Apple’s relationship with TSMC, the sole supplier of iPhone processors, even as the US tech giant works to reduce its reliance on other major suppliers. Instead, these new displays are built directly onto wafers - the substrates that semiconductors are fabricated on - allowing for displays that are far thinner and smaller and use less power, making them more suitable for use in wearable AR devices, according to sources familiar with the projects. The California tech giant plans to develop micro OLED displays - a radically different type of display built directly onto chip wafers - with the ultimate goal of using the new technology in its upcoming augmented reality devices, sources briefed on the matter said.Īpple is collaborating with its longtime chip supplier TSMC because micro OLED displays are not built on glass substrates like the conventional LCD screens in smartphones and TVs, or OLED displays used in high-end smartphones. to develop ultra-advanced display technology at a secretive facility in Taiwan, Nikkei Asia learned. Apple has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
