Figure 1 Overview of Micro LED key technologies
2 Data sourceThis study uses the Derwent Innovations Index as the search database, using keywords such as "Micro led", "wafer welding", "mass transfer", "chip welding", "bonding drive" and "full color" as the core, and combines IPC numbers to construct a comprehensive searchMode. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data used in this study, the following data cleaning work was further carried out.1) Preliminary screening: Based on the title, abstract, keywords and other information of the patent, keyword matching and logical rule screening are used to exclude patents that are obviously irrelevant to the field of Micro LED technology (for example, patents that only briefly mention relevant keywords in the background technology and whose main content involves other irrelevant fields will be eliminated).2) Manual denoising: Arrange the remaining patents after the initial screening in reverse order of relevance, randomly sample and review the top 20% of the data, and iteratively adjust the search terms to manually eliminate obviously irrelevant results (such as patents related to macro fields such as LED lighting, display panel drive circuits, etc. but not targeting Micro LED core manufacturing processes).3) Manual review: Manual review is carried out on the patent data filtered through the above steps. Different researchers independently review the same batch of patents, compare the review results, discuss and re-evaluate the disputed patents, and finally determine whether to retain them in the data set.After the above data cleaning process, finallyThe obtained patent data set contains a total of 10,779 patent documents. Retrieval time: July 28, 2025. Since there is a maximum time lag of 18 months from patent application to publication, the data for 2024 is not yet complete.3 Patent Situation Analysis3.1 Patent Application TrendsFrom the overall trend (Figure 2), from 2000 to 2014, Micro LED related technologies were in the initial stage of development, with an average annual number of patent applications worldwide of less than 20, and growth was slow. At this stage, Micro LED-related manufacturing technology is complex and the production process is not yet mature. In 2000, Jiang Hongxing and others from Kansas State University in the United States prepared Micro LEDs based on Group III nitrides. In 2001, they reported the successful preparation of a 10×10 blue Micro LED array using a passive drive method, laying a theoretical foundation for the development of Micro LED displays. In 2012, Sony released a 55-inch high-definition LED TV sample based on Micro LED. Micro LED appeared in the public eye for the first time as a commercial product.Since 2015, the annual number of related patent applications in the global Micro LED field has exceeded 100, and the growth rate is significant, and related technologies have entered a stage of rapid development. The driving factor for R&D during this period is mainly the commercial application needs of enterprises in the display field. In June 2016, Sony demonstrated Micro at both InfoComm and the German IFA exhibition. CLEDIS displays using LED elements as pixels have been highly praised by the industry for their excellent display effects, which has started a research boom in Micro LED. In addition, because Micro LED display technology spans multiple industrial fields and has a wide range of applications in micro displays and display panels, it has attracted many industry players to invest in research and development, making it gradually become one of the key technological focuses of international competition.From the perspective of key subdivided technology fields (Figure 3), the massive transfer technology layout is early and the growth is relatively stable. After reaching the peak of applications in 2020, it enters a plateau period, indicating that the technology still faces major challenges and innovation shifts from principle breakthroughs to In-depth optimization for specific process scenarios. As a key link in heterogeneous integration, bonding technology has shown significant growth. The number of applications in the early stage has been small, but has increased sharply since 2016. The number of applications will reach a peak of 152 in 2022, indicating that this technology has become a hot spot for research and development in recent years.There is an obvious linkage between assembly technology trends and bonding technology. The number of related patent applications grew relatively slowly before 2016, and then rose rapidly, reaching a high of 138 in 2023, with a prominent growth trend. The number of full-color technology patent applications continues to grow steadily, from 4 in 2000 to 98 in 2023. The continuous innovation of solutions such as quantum dot color conversion and three-color integration has promoted full-color technology to become a core breakthrough for improving display performance. Epitaxial growth, as a supporting technology in the upstream of the display industry chain, had a small number of applications in the early stage. It began to grow rapidly after 2017, reaching a peak of 177 applications in 2023. From 2022 to 2024, the annual number of applications for epitaxial growth technology continues to rank first, reflecting that the industry attaches great importance to research and development to improve the intrinsic performance of chips. In the future, as the demand for emerging displays such as AR/VR and naked-eye 3D explodes, competition for patents on bottleneck technologies such as mass transfer and full-color display will become more intense.3.2 Main technology distributionFrom the perspective of IPC distribution (Table 1), the two subdivisions with the largest number of patent applications in the global Micro LED field are H01L27/15 and H01L33/00, and the number of related patent applications has exceeded 2000 pieces. In addition, there are also certain patent layouts in the four subdivisions of H01L25/075, H01L33/62, G09F9/33, and G09G3/32, with more than 1,000 patent applications each.
Table 1 Technology distribution in the global Micro LED field (IPC top 20)
3.3 Distribution of major countries/organizationsGlobal Micro Relevant patent applications in the field of LED technology are spread across many countries/organizations, mainly including China (10,079), the United States (5,452), South Korea (2,729), the World Intellectual Property Organization (2,494), etc. (Figure 4).3.4 Main patenteesFrom the perspective of patentee types (Table 2), global MOnly one of the top 20 patentees in the field of micro LED technology is from a university, and the remaining 19 are enterprises, indicating that this technology field has a high driving force for industrial innovation. In terms of patentees and their countries, China has the largest number of patentees, with 13 in total, accounting for more than half; followed by the United States, with three patentees: Facebook Technology Co., Ltd., Apple Inc., and Intel Corporation; and then South Korea, with two patentees, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and LG Display Co., Ltd.; the remaining two are Japan Display Co., Ltd. and the Dutch company Lumileds. In terms of the number of patent applications, China's BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. (647) and TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (453) ranked the top two in the world. Although only two companies from South Korea were shortlisted, they ranked higher (third and fourth); those ranking fifth to ninth were all Chinese companies. It can be seen that China has gathered many powerful leading companies in the global Micro LED technology field, and its industry leadership effect is significant.From the perspective of technical layout (Figure 5), BOE has a large number of related patent layouts and a wide range of fields, involving semiconductor components and parts, display panels, current export devices, manufacturing methods or equipment and other subdivisions; Samsung Electronics and LG bothIt has laid out many patents in the three fields of H01L27/15, H01L25/075, and H01L33/62, focusing on the semiconductor device segment; TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics has relatively many patent applications in the fields of H01L27/15, H01L33/62, and G09F9/33, and there is a certain degree of homogeneous competition with BOE; Tianma Microelectronics except the H01L27/15 field In addition, it also has a certain patent layout in the fields of G09F9/33 and G09G3/32, focusing on the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Xianyao Display not only has many patents in the three fields of H01L27/15, H01L25/075, and H01L33/62, but also has a relatively large number of patents in the field of H01L33/58, which reflects its relative advantages in the field of light field shaping components.Figure 5 Technical layout of major patentees of Micro LED technology4 Current status of patent protection4.1 Technical themesAdopting BERTThe opic model conducted topic extraction on the patent data set in the global Micro LED technology field, and obtained a total of 35 subdivided technical fields. Further, through hierarchical clustering, six major themes were obtained: display equipment, quantum dots/full color, display applications, materials and components, chips, and display screens (Figure 6, Table 3). Among them, the field of display equipment mainly covers subdivision directions such as substrates, drivers, arrays, and panels; the field of quantum dots and full-colorization mainly involves quantum dots, conversion, vertical stacking, pixels, etc.; display applications mainly focus on Micro The practice of LED in the field of micro-display (3D printing, augmented reality, etc.); materials and components topics include gallium nitride, phosphors, diodes, modules, etc.; chip research focuses on wafers, epitaxy, substrates, welding, bonding, mass transfer, etc.; display screens mainly involve screens, structures, connections, batteries, circuits, etc.Figure 6 Hierarchical clustering diagram of Micro LED technology field
Table 3 Overview of Micro LED technology subject classification4.2 Protection TypeBy analyzing global Micro As for the protection types of patents related to the LED field, it can be found that the main types of patent applications in this field are invention patents (88.91%, including 58.55% of invention applications and 30.36% of authorized inventions); relatively few utility model patents (10.97%); very few design patent applications (only 0.12%).Looking at the technical fields of different types of patent applications (Table 4), invention patents mainly involve the innovation and improvement of preparation methods for key components such as chips, materials and components, panels, and displays; utility model patents mainly involve display applications, supporting devices or equipment, display devices, etc.Table 4 Overview of global invention and utility model patent technology innovation in the field of Micro LEDIn summaryAs mentioned above, the current innovation points of patents related to Micro LED technology mainly include the following six items.1) Chip mass transfer and manufacturing technology. By improving the array structure, optimizing the flip-chip bonding process, and starting from aspects such as magnetism, offset printing, and vacuum adsorption, we can further achieve high-efficiency, high-precision, and high-yield mass chip transfer and integration.2) Preparation of microdisplay devices. Through physical field control, interface patterning, serialized functional deposition, three-dimensional interconnection and other methods, manufacturing costs and process steps are reduced, and device functional density is improved and pixel-level high-precision control is achieved.3) Display panel, pixel circuit and driving technology. Improvements have been made in structural layer design, lead protection processing, drive architecture and precise electrical control to improve panel preparation yield, optimize panel bending ability, enhance peripheral area stability and enhance brightness linear control.4) Improved display performance. Through micro-nano optical design, matrix arrangement optimization and low-power integration, the brightness, contrast and color performance of the display are improved, while optical interference and system power consumption are reduced, and battery life is extended.5) Supporting testing equipment. Develop defect and performance testing equipment to improve the overall production yield and manufacturing efficiency of display equipment, and reduce the complexity of subsequent processes and comprehensive production costs.6) Application expansion. Leveraging the advantages of Micro LED optoelectronic performance, it deeply integrates cross-domain optical systems such as AR/VR, 3D printing, and near-eye display to improve terminal application performance and innovate system architecture.4.3 Legal statusLooking at the legal status of global Micro LED technology patents (Figure 7), invalid patents account for more than 1/5, of which the proportion of withdrawn or rejected patents is relatively high, close to 13%; the proportion of invalidations due to unpaid annual fees is 4.35%; the proportion of invalid patents due to expiration of the term is less than 1%. The proportion of valid patents is 40.87%, reflecting that a relatively high proportion of core technologies are still under protection. The proportion of patents under review reached 36.93%, indicating that technology in this field is still being updated and iterated, and innovation activity is high. There are still a small number of patents within the PCT designated period, indicating that some innovative entities are in a period of hesitation in international market layout.Figure 7 Global Micro LED technology patent legal status4.4 Value distributionAccording to the smart bud patent value evaluation system, the global Micro The patent value distribution of LED technology is analyzed. The Smart Bud patent value evaluation system is built on the basis of deeply processed patent big data, using the market method as the core evaluation method and combining it with advanced machine learning models to carry out patent value estimation. It should be noted that the current evaluation system does not include appearance design in the value evaluation scope.The patent value discussed in this section is essentially a relative value, not an absolute value. Nonetheless, the relative value calculated through unified standards can still objectively reflect the layout of high-value patents in different regions around the world to a certain extent, providing a valuable reference for research and practice in related fields.Based on the Smart Bud patent value evaluation system, the global Micro. The value distribution of LED technology patents (Figure 8) mainly presents the following characteristics: China’s low-value patent applicationsThe application volume accounts for a relatively high proportion, and there is also a certain layout in the high-value (more than 3 million US dollars) field, which mainly involves core components related to light sources, components, and display equipment, such as multi-color micro LED array light sources (CN110462833B), Semiconductor devices are manufactured by stacking layers of micro-LEDs (CN118281036A); the United States and Japan have a relatively high proportion of patents in the mid- to high-value range (above $300,000), strong technological competitiveness, and mid- to high-value patents Lee's patents cover a wide range of areas, including materials, components, displays and other aspects, such as a method for making high-efficiency micro-LED modules (US10847506B2), active matrix emitting micro-LED displays (US9343448B2), methods and devices for improving micro-LED devices (US9502595B2), etc.; South Korea's patents are mainly in the mid- to low-value range (less than US$300,000), and high-value patents are relatively lacking.5 Conclusions and Suggestions5.1Main conclusionsCurrently, global Micro LED technology is in a period of rapid development. Since 2015, the number of patent applications has increased significantly, and technology has gradually moved from the laboratory to industrialization. China has become the world's largest country in terms of patent layout, with 10,079 patent applications, far exceeding the United States (5,452) and South Korea (2,729). The technical content focuses on key links such as epitaxial structure, mass transfer, full color, and driver integration. In the IPC classification, H01L27/15 (light-emitting semiconductor components), H01L33/00 (light-emitting semiconductor devices) and other basic technology patent categories have the deepest accumulation. Innovation entities are dominated by enterprises. Leading enterprises such as BOE, TCL CSOT, and Samsung have formed extensive layouts in device design, transfer processes, display modules, etc., while universities are less involved. Only Xiamen University ranks among the top 20 in patent applications, indicating that technology research and development has a strong industrialization orientation.From the perspective of technical themes, patents are concentrated in six major areas: display equipment, quantum dots/full color, display applications, materials and components, chips and displays. Among them, the "chip" theme covers core processes such as mass transfer, welding and bonding, epitaxial growth, etc., and is still a hot and difficult point in the patent layout; "quantum dot/full color" and "display equipment" related technologies are also growing rapidly, indicating thatColor implementation and driver integration are important directions in current technological evolution.From the perspective of legal status, the patent invalidation rate in this field is relatively high (more than 20%), of which about 13% are invalid due to withdrawal or rejection, which to a certain extent reflects that there is still room for improvement in the quality and writing level of patent applications; at the same time, the proportion of patents under review reaches 36.93%, indicating that technology is still in the rapid iteration stage and innovation is active.From the perspective of value distribution, although China dominates in the number of patent applications, the proportion of high-value patents (assessed value exceeds 3 million US dollars) is relatively low, and the technology is mostly concentrated in the mid- and low-value range. In contrast, the United States and Japan have outstanding performance in the layout of mid- and high-value patents and are more technologically competitive.Based on the comprehensive patent situation, Micro LED technology is showing a trend of convergence and development, especially the increasingly close integration of optoelectronics, integrated circuits, and artificial intelligence, driving technology to develop in the direction of high precision and high integration. In addition, the application scenarios of Micro LED technology are also continuing to expand, gradually extending from high-end commercial displays to consumer electronics fields such as AR/VR, vehicle displays, and wearable devices.5.2 Development Suggestions1) Strengthen the layout of high-value patents and break through key common technologies. Focusing on bottleneck areas such as mass transfer, full colorization, and chip integration, we will strengthen basic technology research and development and original innovation, improve patent quality and core technology control, and avoid low-level repeated applications.2) Build an industry-university-research collaboration mechanism to promote technology sharing and transformation. Encourage enterprises to jointly build R&D platforms with universities and scientific research institutions, and promote the transformation of cutting-edge research results of universities (such as quantum dots, new substrates, etc.) into industry through patent cooperation, licensing, etc.3) Focus on differentiated application scenarios and give full play to domain advantages. Combining the patent advantages of leading companies such as BOE, TCL CSOT, and Tianma Microelectronics in display panels, display devices and other subdivisions, we will vigorously develop application directions such as automotive AR-HUD and medical endoscopes, and realize patent value through scene customized design.4) Track international patent trends and avoid infringement risks. Pay close attention to the technical routes and rights scope of high-value patents in the United States, Japan, etc., carry out risk warning and avoidance design, and enhance the international competition and response capabilities of enterprises.5) Promote the coordination of standards and patents and enhance the voice of the industry. Actively participate in the formulation of international standards, promote the combination of patents and technical standards, form a patent pool driven by standards, and enhance the leading role of Chinese enterprises in the global Micro LED ecosystem.
