TETOS announced on the 2nd that they developed side wiring equipment (sputter) for micro light emitting diode (LED) displays with greatly improved production speed. This equipment forms circuits on the side of the substrate in the process of connecting the glass substrate on both sides.
Micro LED display is a panel that uses a micrometer(㎛) unit sized micro light emitting diode (LED) as a pixel. Tens of millions of LEDs are used to make one TV panel. For efficient production, modules are made and then connected like tiles to complete a large display.
Therefore, an important task in manufacturing micro-LED displays is ‘Connection between modules’, and TETOS’ equipment implements the side wiring and allows for each module to communicate signals by being connected vertically and horizontally.
The micro-LED displays are made in the same way printed circuit boards (PCB) or glass substrates are made. The glass substrates have the advantage of having no visible gaps between the substrates.
TETOS developed a 3D sputtering equipment in 2020. It sets up a glass substrate that has undergone ion beam surface treatment, and three layers, the seed layer, conductive layer, and protective layer, are deposited in the vacuum chamber. The vacuum environment only needs to be established once. Plasma-based equipment undergoes deposition three times for each metal coating. The vacuum state needs to be made a total of nine times.
TETOS added complete automation on top of this. They automated the entire process for 3D sputters. The original equipment underwent pre-processing, such as attaching the substrate fixing device, before inserting the glass substrate into the vacuum chamber. On the other hand, the new equipment automatically goes through the pre-processing process in the vacuum environment which is then immediately put into the chamber. The production speed has become six times faster because the process of releasing the vacuum to insert the substrate has been omitted.
TETOS announced that they will supply the new equipment to BOE in September. The price of the equipment is 3 billion KRW per unit. BOE is planning on using the TETOS equipment to manufacture micro-LED displays for smartwatches and virtual reality (VR) devices.
TETOS plans to accelerate its entry into the overseas market through exporting to BOE because micro-LEDs are showing signs of being commercialized, starting with premium TVs and expanding to wearable devices.
CEO Woo Young An of TETOS said, "When the Micro LED market expands, more than 1000 units of sputter equipment will be needed. We will push ahead with our overseas market strategy based on our technology."
Reporter Yoon-Seob Song (sys@etnews.com)