• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

VRSUN

Hot Virtual Reality News

HOTTEST VR NEWS OF THE DAY

  • Home

AR display

Samsung Acquires eMagin Microdisplay Maker, Citing ‘significant potential growth’ of XR Devices

May 18, 2023 From roadtovr

eMagin, the US-based developer and manufacturer of OLED microdisplays for AR/VR headsets, announced a merger agreement with Samsung Display, a subsidiary of the Korean tech giant. Samsung says it anticipates “significant potential growth” of XR devices.

The company announced in a press statement that Samsung will acquire all outstanding shares of eMagin common stock on a fully diluted basis for $2.08 per share in cash, totaling approximately $218 million.

Founded in 2001, eMagin has created head-mounted displays to showcase its OLED technology since the release of Z800, which launched in mid-2005. Since then, the company has focused on creating VR headset prototypes to further showcase its high-density OLED microdisplays while also providing its displays for integration into aircraft helmets, heads-up display systems, AR/VR headsets, thermal scopes, night vision goggles, and future weapon systems.

President & CEO of Samsung Display, Joo Sun Choi, says the acquisition comes along with expectations that XR devices will have “significant potential of growth in the future.”

“This agreement is a validation of our technical achievements to date including our proprietary direct patterning (dPd) technology, provides a significant premium for our shareholders, and represents a win for our customers and employees,” said Andrew G. Sculley, eMagin’s CEO. “By teaming with Samsung Display, we will be able to achieve the full potential of our next-generation microdisplay technology with a partner that can provide the resources and expertise we will need to scale production. Moreover, our customers will benefit from resulting improvements to our production capabilities in terms of yield, efficiency, and quality control.”

The merger will very likely allow Samsung to exclusively manufacture micro-OLED displays using eMagin’s direct patterning display (dPd) technology, which boasts higher efficiencies and brightness since its displays use RGB emitters instead of traditional displays, which typically use a white OLED with a RGB color filter.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023, whereby eMagin will continue to maintain its operations and facilities in Hopewell Junction, NY. The merger agreement has received unanimous approval from eMagin’s Board of Directors, and stockholders holding around 98% of eMagin’s total voting power have committed to voting in favor of the transaction.

Filed Under: AR display, eMagin, mico oled display, micodisplays, micoOLED, News, VR displays

Smart Contact Lens Company Mojo Vision Raises $22M, Pivots to Micro-LED Displays for XR & More

April 6, 2023 From roadtovr

Mojo Vision, a company once noted for its work on smart contact lenses, has raised $22.4 million in a new Series A investment round which it will use in a pivot to develop and commercialize micro-LED display technology for consumer, enterprise, and government applications.

The funding round is led by existing investors NEA and Khosla Ventures, with participation from other investors including Dolby Family Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Fusion Fund, Drew Perkins, Open Field Capital, and Edge.

The new Series A comes months after the company was forced to put its smart contact lenses on hold, which also included a 75% downsizing in the company’s workforce.

Prior to the pivot, the company had amassed $205 million in outside investment, with its most recent in January 2022 bringing to the company $45 million.

Its new focus is on displays for AR/VR, automotive, light field, large format displays and others that require high performance micro-LED displays. Mojo’s prototype smart contacts made use of its own in-house displays, which at the time included a monochrome display capable of over 14,000 pixels per inch (ppi).

Now the company is developing its own High Performance Quantum Dot (HPQD) technology to make a “very small, very bright, very efficient RGB pixel,” the company says in a press statement.

The company is boasting a number of advances in its proprietary technology, including dynamic displays with up to 28,000ppi, efficient blue micro-LED devices at sub-μm scale, high efficiency quantum dot ink for red and green, high brightness at 1M+ nits, and a display system that incorporates an optimized CMOS backplane, wafer-to-wafer bonding, and custom micro-lens optics.

Mojo Vision’s new CEO, Dr. Nikhil Balram, is said to bring semiconductor and display technology expertise to the company:

“The market opportunity in the display industry is big – over $100 billion. Sometimes in order to do something very big, you have to start very small. That is exactly what we are doing at Mojo,” said Balram. “We started by developing the world’s smallest, densest dynamic micro-LED display, and now we are applying that innovation to power the next generation of displays. Mojo is combining breakthrough technology, leading display and semiconductor expertise, and an advanced manufacturing process to commercialize micro-LEDs for the most demanding hardware applications.”

“This round of funding will enable us to deliver our breakthrough monolithic micro-LED technology to customers and help bring high-performance micro-LEDs to market,” concluded Balram.

Filed Under: AR display, mojo display, mojo lens, mojo vision, News, VR displays

  • Home