CINNO Research reported that on the morning of Nov.22nd, 2022, Lakeside Lightning Semiconductor ultra-high resolution & brightness silicon-based micro-OLED display fab foundation laying ceremony was held in China Yixing Environment Science and Technology Industrial Park. This means that Lakeside is rapidly promoting the mass production of micro-OLED, and it also means that Wuxi has reached a new height in the development of metaverse industry.

Silicon-based micro-OLED is a kind of organic light-emitting diode display device which is actively driven by CMOS. It has many advantages such as high resolution, high integration, low power consumption, small size, and light weight. The large size and high-resolution micro-OLED, which is over 1 inch, and pancake optical module have become the mainstream configuration of the next generation of VR glasses.

Lakeside Lightning Semiconductor (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. was established in May 2022 by Kopin, Lakeside Optoelectronics, Wuxi Guolian Group, CICC LP Fund and other important shareholders. It mainly engages in the research, development, production of 1.31” ultra-high resolution and brightness micro-OLED. At present, it is the only manufacturer in the world with the capacity of mass production of 1.31” micro-OLED products. The products are mainly applied in AR/VR intelligent terminals. Lakeside Optoelectronics, one of the important shareholders of the company, is a national high-tech enterprise founded in April 2017. It has built an 8-inch automatic production line covering organic coating, TFE packaging, CF lithography and post-process.

The foundation laying fab is in China Yixing Environment Science and Technology Industrial Park, with a total investment of 5 billion RMB. It is divided into two phases, with 3 billion RMB in the first phase. The construction period of the project lasts 36 months with nearly 8ha of new construction land. Total construction area is over 120,000㎡. After completion, it will be able to produce 9 million pieces of 1.31” micro-OLED annually. The estimated annual income is more than 6 billion RMB after reaching the capacity.

The implementation of this major project will further improve the agglomeration effect of Wuxi in metaverse industry and become an important part of its efforts to build a metaverse innovation highland of the Yangtze River Delta. In January 2022, Wuxi Metaverse Innovation Alliance was established, which is the first of its kind among prefecture-level cities in China. On the same day, Wuxi Metaverse Industry Park was listed. While the scale of strategic emerging industries such as the Internet of Things and semiconductor IC continues to expand, Wuxi City is developing more possibilities around the concept of creating a “gateway to metaverse” by relying on high-quality platforms such as the National Supercomputer Wuxi Center and the National Digital Film Industry Park, etc.

The core product of this fab is also the world’s first 1.31” micro-OLED device, which achieves an effective resolution of 2560×RGB×2560 in the display area of 23.5×23.5mm. The pixel size is only 9.15μm×9.15μm. It supports 10bit RGB video format and HDR, DSC and 120Hz high refresh rate. And it’s also the largest and highest resolution of the color micro-OLED devices that have been mass-produced in the industry.

This micro display device is paired with a customized P95 Pancake optical for a 100°FOV. It can not only effectively solve the problems of screen door effect, trailing and vertigo in conventional VR display, but also make VR terminals more lightweight and easier to use. The 1.31” product has been used in the MeganeX, Panasonic’s next generation of ultra-high definition VR glasses.

At today’s ceremony, Wu Di, chairman of Lakeside Lightning Semiconductor, said that as a key component of metaverse, the strategic emerging industry, it only took 40 days from the official signing to groundbreaking. It really thanks to the full support of Wuxi and Yixing for the project. This project has been firmly implemented on the basis of full demonstration and communication of shareholders on the maturity of micro-OLED technology and the needs of VR market customers for three years. The technical team is composed of experts from Lakeside Optoelectronics and Kopin, which gave birth to silicon-based micro-OLED and Micro LED. They gather their strength to carry out scientific and technological research. During the past 3 years and 10 months, they applied for 38 core invention patents, and 4 USA invention patents have been authorized, achieving the world’s leading level. The successfully launched of this project indicating that the Lakeside Lightning Semiconductor will have a complete technical capacity for mass production. Lakeside 1.31” micro-OLED has a high technical barrier and is currently the world’s only publicly released large-size micro-OLED display device that can be mass-produced. It is expected that the first production line of this project will complete trial production at the end of December 2024 and achieve mass production at the beginning of 2025 to meet the key demand of top VR customers for high-yield 12” production line products.

Masayuki Kozuka, general manager of Panasonic VR program business unit, said the company’s VR glasses development is well underway. Panasonic will unveil it which used Lakeside micro-OLED to the world at CES 2023 in Last Vegas. The cooperation between Panasonic and Lakeside will surely enter a new stage with the smooth implementation of this 12” fab.

Based on the new production line, Lakeside will carry out the mission of “providing OLED micro displays with excellent performance and enabling customers to produce better terminal products”. And it is committed to becoming a world’s leading manufacturer of ultra-high definition and high brightness micro-OLED display.