CES 2025 Read and watch our complete CES coverage here Updated less than 34 minutes ago Table of Contents “Making microLED displays is extremely difficult, extremely expensive, and has low yield.” That’s how Digital Trends’ Caleb Denison put it when he explained why we probably won’t see a consumer-level microLED television in 2025.
“For a 42-inch TV, you need 25 million microLEDs,” Jenks said. This panel needs to be assembled like any other display, complete with a transistor, and tens of millions of connections need to be laser-welded together down to micron-level accuracy. MicroLED displays are tested once assembled, and should there be dead pixels or other problems, the value has already been added in and the resulting cost of potentially scrapping the panel is very high.
Smartkem’s manufacturing process enables the microLEDs to be connected and tested prior to completion, increasing the yield. The process is the result of 15 years of research into organic transistors and an $80 million investment. Jenks pointed to the Oura Ring on his finger and talked about how he’d like a smart ring to have a tiny display to send emojis to loved ones or show other small snippets of information. “I’d like it to have a little display,” he said. “But it’s got to be flexible, robust, and very low power. I think the only way you can do that is with these little microLEDs.”