NANO EX, a micro and mini LED inspection equipment company, is attracting investment and expanding their operation.
NANO EX announced on the 15th that they have received investments worth KRW 5.5 billion from C&CI Partners and others. The company revealed plans to use this investment to build a mass production line for micro LED inspection probes in the Gosaek Industrial Complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do. Their goal is to complete the production line in May, which will have the production capacity to churn out 600 probe cards per month.
Probe cards made by NANO EX are used to measure micro LED chip performance. These probe cards are able to inspect whether the micro LED is operating normally by checking the voltage change, wavelength, and intensity of light when a current is applied.
Micro LEDs are light emitting diodes (LED) with a size of 100 micrometers (1 μm = 1 millionths) or less. Since they are so small, inspecting these chip units have been difficult. Traditionally these micro LED chips would be collected and made into modules or panels, in order to check for abnormalities. However, this method was problematic and ineffective because when a defective product is found, the LED chip must be removed from the module and replaced with a functioning chip, which resulted in decreased productivity and increased costs.
The NANO EX probe consists of 5-10 μm sized pins that directly come in contact with, and inspect each micro LED. It was emphasized that each pin has a separate spring structure to solve issues regarding non-contact that can occur when micro LED heights are different.
NANO EX CEO Young-sung Park said, "We conducting performance evaluations with potential domestic and foreign customers," and "By securing mass production lines, we will promote the commercialization of micro LED probe cards."
By Staff Reporter Geon-ho Kwon (wingh1@etnews.com)