Substrateless MicroLED displays for the future: technology, applications and industry synergies

Although Micro LED display technology has been facing various development bottlenecks such as high cost and difficulty in application implementation, the LED industry is still actively promoting its development. In recent years, Micro LED technology has made significant progress in applications such as large-size displays, AR/VR, and smart watches.

Especially in the field of large-size displays, Micro LED is promoting the application expansion of LED display technology. Take LED display company Ledman Optoelectronics as an example. It has been promoting the large-scale application of Micro LED displays. It was the first to release Micro LED home giant screen products in China, and continues to overcome the price barriers of ultra-large Micro LED giant screens, gradually promoting the penetration of Micro LED display products into the consumer market.

At the recently held 2026 TrendForce New Display Industry Symposium (DTS 2026), Tu Menglong, Senior Director of Ledman Optoelectronics Technology R&D Center, gave an in-depth analysis of the latest changes in Micro LED display technology, sharing how Ledman Optoelectronics is based on substrate-less Micro LED, and through mass transfer and comprehensive layout on the glass-based packaging route, will open up the large-scale application of Micro LED in the future.

Tu Menglong, Senior Director of Ledman Optoelectronics Technology R&D Center

Substrate-less technology has become the focus of Micro LED’s future development

From the chip level, LED miniaturization has become one of the most effective ways for Micro LED to reduce costs and improve performance recognized by the industry. When the chip size moves below 2*4mil, or even to the Micro LED scale of 1*2mil, LED chips must use a substrate-less Micro LED architecture to continue miniaturization.

The so-called substrate-less Micro LED refers to thinning and arraying chips through semiconductor processes, stripping off traditional substrate materials such as sapphire, and preparing electrodes directly on the gallium nitride epitaxial layer. The area of this chip is only 1/10 of the traditional solution, and the light-emitting area accounts for less than 1% of the screen, which can bring more significant performance and cost breakthroughs to the display.

The substrate-less structural characteristics determine that the Micro LED chip manufacturing process must be upgraded. Especially in the chip transfer process, mass transfer technology needs to be used to replace the traditional swing arm or pinprick transfer.

In his speech, Tu Menglong shared a complete set of substrateless Micro LED mass transfer process: First, the epitaxial wafer with the substrate (COW) and the temporary carrier (COC) coated with release material are temporarily thermally bonded; then laser lift-off (LLO) technology is used to thermally decompose the GaN to separate the epitaxial layer and the sapphire substrate; after surface cleaning and defect detection (AOI/PL), the RGB three-color chips are selectively arranged on the transfer carrier through mass transfer equipment.

Finally, laser welding technology is used to bond the chip to the target glass substrate, and repair processes such as decrystallization and reseeding are performed to finally complete the packaging protection.

Ledman Optoelectronics has been conducting intensive testing in this field for many years, and the maturity of its substrate-less Micro LED technology route has reached 60% to 70%.

Tu Menglong believes that the high-precision mass transfer process and the miniaturization of chip size are the key foundations for greatly optimizing costs and realizing the leapfrog development of Micro LED in the future. Substrate-less Micro LED technology is crucial to opening up all links in the entire Micro LED display industry chain. It will help continue to reduce the cost of Micro LED display technology and open up more application markets.

From process breakthroughs to product implementation, glass-based solutions open a new chapter in trillion-level applications

After completing the underlying chip manufacturing process, how to transform these cutting-edge technologies into products that are affordable for users and have good experience has become another focus of Ledman Optoelectronics.

Tu Menglong pointed out that the maturity of the process must be accompanied by a clear application path, and Lehman currently plans three core technology directions: Micro-level MiP, PM glass-based COG and AM glass-based COG, aiming to push Micro LED from the professional market to the broader commercial and consumer markets.

As an important choice during the technology transition period, MiP devices bear the mission of running through the industry chain at the current stage. It uses a substrate-less Micro LED process and forms discrete devices through mass transfer and laser bonding. The advantage is that it can reduce the sensitivity to the uniformity of incoming materials and support display application manufacturers in subsequent COB packaging.

Tu Menglong admitted that although MiP currently faces challenges such as complex bin separation and high cost, MiP's high contrast and excellent display effects have made it stand out in some high-end application scenarios.

Ledman has released the first P0.9 COB product using Micro-level MiP in the second half of 2024. It is actively improving the display effect through hybrid Bin packaging and algorithms, striving to find the best balance between cost and image quality.

However, in the long run, glass-based technology is regarded as the final solution for Micro led landing due to its simpler path and lower cost. According to

Tu Menglong's analysis, the TGV glass substrate has a very high flatness, and the overall height difference is less than 4μm, which can greatly improve the welding reliability of substrate-free chips with a thickness generally less than 10μm. In addition, the heat dissipation efficiency of the glass substrate has been improved by 30%, and the line width and line spacing can reach 12μm, which can support higher density pixel arrangement. Due to the advantage of material cost, the production cost is expected to be reduced by 30% compared with traditional PCB.

Lehman Optoelectronics has successfully validated the feasibility of this route by releasing the world's first 220-inch 4K PM glass-based product in October 2023.

For the trillion-grade home market, which pursues the ultimate experience, the AM glass-based drive solution is Lehman's strategic card. AM active matrix drive based on TFT glass substrate can achieve pixel-level accurate current control, which not only completely eliminates image flicker, but also further reduces power consumption by 20%, and effectively eliminates long bright strips, caterpillars and other failures.

In January 2026, Ledman Optoelectronics released a new generation of home giant curtain wall products equipped with AM glass-based technology. The 135-inch 4K glass-based giant screen Yuexiang version is priced at 169,999 yuan, and the 163-inch Yuexiang version is priced at 189,999 yuan. With the characteristics of 4K display, ultra-high brightness, wide color gamut, and low power consumption, the product price has further dropped, once again lowering the entry threshold for Micro LED home giant screens. These products integrate multiple home experiences such as TV walls, art walls, and landscape walls, truly realizing the vision of bringing the world into the living room.

Summary

Ledman Optoelectronics has solved the problem of how to make Micro LED through the breakthrough of the bottom substrate-free process; and through the application of differentiated technologies such as glass-based and MiP, it has answered the question of how to implement Micro LED. Facing the multiple challenges that still exist in Micro LED display technology, Ledman will continue to focus on the national strategy of new displays in the future, coordinate the strength of the entire industry chain, and jointly open up the infinite future of ultra-high-definition displays.