Recently, there have been new developments in the Micro/Mini LED acquisition sector: K&S has officially acquired equipment manufacturer Gaoke Jingjie, and Lumens has acquired GaN material supplier Soft-Epi.

K&S officially acquires Advanced Jet Automation

Recently, Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. announced the official acquisition of Advanced Jet Automation Co., Ltd. (AJA or Advanced Jet), including its subsidiary Samurai Spirit Inc.'s material business and assets owned by Yifu Co., Ltd.

据悉，邑富股份位于中国台湾，是一家高精度微点胶设备和解决方案开发商和制造商。此次收购成功扩大了K&S现有的半导体、电子组装和先进显示器产品群组，包括支持背光和直显Mini/Micro LED。

K&S introduces dispensing technology capable of supporting high-volume production of high-precision advanced backlight products, complementing K&S's existing advanced display equipment. Beyond advanced displays, the dispensing equipment market also includes opportunities in semiconductor and electronic component packaging, which can be integrated with K&S's general semiconductor, automotive, LED, and memory end markets. By 2026, the potential market size for dispensing equipment is expected to reach $2.6 billion; at that time, K&S's total potential market size will expand by over 40% to $8.6 billion.

Upon completion of the acquisition, AJA will officially become a business unit of K&S, leveraging K&S's global sales channels, flexible operational capabilities, and advanced R&D competitiveness to expand the company's overall market share and competitiveness.

Lumens acquires Soft-Epi

Recently, Korean media reported that South Korean LED manufacturer Lumens has become the largest shareholder of GaN material supplier Soft-Epi, completing vertical integration upstream in the LED industry and strengthening its deployment of Micro LED business.

It is reported that in early 2013, Lumens made its first equity investment in Soft-Epi. With the share increase in December last year, Lumens now holds 42.04% of Soft-Epi's shares, becoming the company's largest shareholder.

In recent years, both companies have been advancing research related to Micro LED. According to available data, Soft-Epi was established in 2012 and uses MOCVD equipment for GaN-based epitaxial growth.

In May 2022, Soft-Epi successfully developed red GaN epitaxial wafers with advantages such as tunable wide bandgap, high mechanical stability, and short hole diffusion length, which are compatible with InGaN blue and green LEDs, facilitating full-color display for Micro LED. In June of the same year, Soft-Epi announced that mass production shipments of red GaN epitaxial wafers for Micro LED had begun.

Early this year, stacked Micro LED micro-display developer Sundiode announced that it has achieved the growth of a monolithic full InGaN RGB LED structure on a single sapphire wafer in collaboration with Soft-Epi.

Lumens was founded in 2004; its LED products are applicable to displays, lighting, backlighting, automotive, UV LED, and other fields. In 2017, Lumens began developing large-scale Micro LED displays and launched its first Micro LED product at the CES 2018 trade show.

In 2020, Lumens exhibited a 0.57-inch Micro LED display and a 139-inch 4K Micro LED display with a pixel pitch of P0.8mm.

Earlier this year, Lumens developed the Monolithic Micro LED RGB epitaxial wafer, composed of stacked RGB three-color light epitaxial wafers, improving the utilization rate and production efficiency of Micro LEDs.

After completing the acquisition of Soft-Epi by Lumens, we believe that Lumens will gradually master Soft-Epi's core epitaxial wafer technology, further accelerating its development pace in the Micro LED field.

Source: LEDinside