> WICOP 3 generates white light from gallium nitride (GaN) alone.
Gallium might be a problem.
"China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production.
The remaining primary low-purity
gallium producers outside of China included Japan and Russia. Germany, Hungary, and Kazakhstan ceased primary
production in 2016, 2015, and 2013, respectively.
Ukraine most likely ceased primary production in 2022.
Several new gallium production projects were announced including those in Australia, Canada, Greece, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Korea."[1]
The price of gallium has increased by a factor of 10 in the last 10 years.
It's doubled since last year.[2] A huge new demand for gallium is going to be a problem.
> Is it just uneconomic to extract it in other countries?
Yes mostly. The West outsourced this market due to heavy environmental and financial costs of extracting it. It’s sort of the same story as for a lot of the rare earth elements.
This is why I laugh every time somebody seriously suggests there's going to be a war with China because the West would collapse without Chinese exports. It's just not going to happen.
The problem with outsourcing all your manufacturing so you can mildly increase profits and destroy any organized labor is that whoever you outsourced it to holds you hostage.
Any talk of this is just propaganda to sell weapons and increase the "defense" budget.
So gallium is a byproduct of bauxite mining but requires some sophistication. China produces 60% of the world's aluminum. India is the second largest producer but doesn't have the infrastructure to extract gallium. That will probably change. But it is a sophisticated process so you need an entire supply chain for that too. China has that. India does not (currently).
But India would avoid the geopolitical issues of being dependent on China or Russia.
Hilariously not any organized labor, just the local group. The largest organized labor group in the history of the world is alive and well, and is headquartered in Beijing.
This was basically just a case of kicking the can down the road really hard. The can is still there, waiting for you, and you are now completely dependent on it (oh and it has nuclear weapons).
Independent labor unions are illegal in China. Are you referring to the ACFTU? That is about as much a labor union as is the 'peoples' republic of china is run by the people. The ACFTU is primarily concerned with industrial output matching state targets and not particularly concerned with worker welfare.
> This is why I laugh every time somebody seriously suggests there's going to be a war with China because the West would collapse without Chinese exports. It's just not going to happen.
This is almost the exact same argument that was used to justify economic cooperation with Russia, they’d never start a war in Europe because their economy would collapse!
In hindsight everything is obvious, but it was a close call and there were many moments history could have taken a different route. Sanctions were painful for russia, but so was cutting ties of a lot of industry towards russia in east germany for instance. A bit more cooperation (and maybe less US started wars as a guidance) and all would be quite different.
Thing is, it wasn't hindsight. The US had been warning Europe about the dangers of dependency on Russian energy since at least 2016 through 2-3 administrations (see my other comment for the citations).
That would be a lot more compelling if we didn’t already know how that story ended. I also think framing this as US-EU competition rather than the EU running its economic engine on cheap Russian fuel is misleading.
The EU kept at it with plans to expand until the war started for the second time and “someone” took it upon themselves to violently sever that link.
Neither the US, nor EU nor russia is a monolithic block. So I try to avoid black and white framing in general. But especially the US warningbefore 2014, when at the same time with surplus fracking gas, not many considered serious. Besides, while everyone was buying from the Saudis and co. So why not russia?
Now at latest by 2014 that should have changed indeed. But even then different approaches would have been possible then cutting all ties and hope this will work out better.
This is ahistorical, at least from the POV of US administrations.
I'm no fan of Donald Trump but this was one of his rare Ws. At a NATO summit in 2018, he warned Europe about the dangers of dependency on Russian energy and basically bullied Germany into building an LNG plant, something that was critical to Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine 4 years later [1].
Biden as Vice President to Obama warned Europe of the same thing in 2016 [2] regarding Nord Stream 2.
So American administrations have consistently and repeatedly warned Europe about the dangers over 6+ years. So how can anyone argue that "[Russia would] never start a war in Europe" when the US said basically that?
What does the color look like? Producing light that falls within the white region of the CIE diagram is one thing… if it’s too yellow or too blue it could be an issue. Maybe that’s something that can be worked out over time.
Ooh, cool. I'd like me some luminous concrete please. I like these order of magnitude changes in common technology -- in this case, way smaller minimum size and more efficient per square nanometer -- the use cases language is a good reminder that the innovation part ("Look! This is cool!") often (usually?) precedes the most compelling use cases.
I imagine this is like 20 years away from hitting consumer design, but I bet it'll be used for some cool stuff.
> Seoul Biosys plans to broaden its technology applications to augmented reality (AR) displays and optical communication for artificial intelligence (AI) data transmission. They are also developing a method to transmit data using densely arranged micro LEDs around 10µm in size.
Can someone who is an expert on the topic comment about if the statement regarding AI is true and if so then by how much (and how big/small of a problem it is), or if the Company is suggesting it out of pure hype of AI mania.
> Market research firm Omdia projects that the micro LED display market revenue will grow from $10.54 million this year to approximately $6.8 billion by 2032, particularly in applications for smart glasses and ultra-small displays.
> The WICOP technology involves directly mounting LED chips onto substrates without separate wires or packaging. Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Biosys have been developing ultraviolet (UV), blue, green, red, and infrared (IR) micro LEDs based on this technology, and have now expanded its application to include white light.
Fascinating results nonetheless even discounting AI use. Having half the price is insane, also 10.54 million seems incredibly small and 6.8 Billion is a little insane. Kinda wild to see such massive growth expected in such short amount of time.
> > optical communication for artificial intelligence (AI) data transmission.
> if the Company is suggesting it out of pure hype of AI mania.
IMHO, this is pretty transparently r&d for better? data transmission attached to the trend of the day that does a lot of data transmission. Where better is higher bandwidth, lower cost, etc.
AI is the current trendy thing, but better data transmission will always have applications.
I remember attending a "pitch night," at a local incubator, about nine or ten years ago, when crypto was the new hotness.
One of the pitches was for a fairly good nonprofit service. I thought it was a good idea. Sort of a "help people that help people" thing. I can dig that.
At the very end of the pitch, the last thing the young lady said, was "And we're looking at implementing blockchain technology in our service."
I don't remember exactly what the service was, but it clearly had no applications for distributed-key tech.
I think it probably cost her the backing. No one was fooled. I think someone told her that she had to mention blockchain, somewhere.
Yikes. We've changed the URL from https://www.ajupress.com/view/20261028171670308 (and banned that site). I replaced it with the article that Google returns for the title, which looks like it might be the original source, or at least closer to it.
Fwiw korean doesnt have a ‘V’ sound/character at all, and the V/B switch is quite common on Korean words that come from English. For example, “video” in Korean gets written with ㅂ at the start, and sounds more like “bideo”. And the same character is used in the Korean/Hangul version of their written company name.
> WICOP 3 generates white light from gallium nitride (GaN) alone.
Gallium might be a problem. "China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production. The remaining primary low-purity gallium producers outside of China included Japan and Russia. Germany, Hungary, and Kazakhstan ceased primary production in 2016, 2015, and 2013, respectively. Ukraine most likely ceased primary production in 2022. Several new gallium production projects were announced including those in Australia, Canada, Greece, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Korea."[1]
The price of gallium has increased by a factor of 10 in the last 10 years. It's doubled since last year.[2] A huge new demand for gallium is going to be a problem.
[1] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-gallium.pd...
[2] https://strategicmetalsinvest.com/gallium-prices/
Is it just uneconomic to extract it in other countries? It seems to be a byproduct of aluminum and zinc mining, and those mines are very widespread.
> Is it just uneconomic to extract it in other countries?
Yes mostly. The West outsourced this market due to heavy environmental and financial costs of extracting it. It’s sort of the same story as for a lot of the rare earth elements.
Canada's is a addon to the aluminum production line, ao it might not take a whole ton to expand that production
Rio Tinto is already on it in Quebec. The pilot plant is planned to ramp up production in 2027.
https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/releases/2026/rio-tinto-adv...
This is why I laugh every time somebody seriously suggests there's going to be a war with China because the West would collapse without Chinese exports. It's just not going to happen.
The problem with outsourcing all your manufacturing so you can mildly increase profits and destroy any organized labor is that whoever you outsourced it to holds you hostage.
Any talk of this is just propaganda to sell weapons and increase the "defense" budget.
So gallium is a byproduct of bauxite mining but requires some sophistication. China produces 60% of the world's aluminum. India is the second largest producer but doesn't have the infrastructure to extract gallium. That will probably change. But it is a sophisticated process so you need an entire supply chain for that too. China has that. India does not (currently).
But India would avoid the geopolitical issues of being dependent on China or Russia.
> and destroy any organized labor
Hilariously not any organized labor, just the local group. The largest organized labor group in the history of the world is alive and well, and is headquartered in Beijing.
This was basically just a case of kicking the can down the road really hard. The can is still there, waiting for you, and you are now completely dependent on it (oh and it has nuclear weapons).
Independent labor unions are illegal in China. Are you referring to the ACFTU? That is about as much a labor union as is the 'peoples' republic of china is run by the people. The ACFTU is primarily concerned with industrial output matching state targets and not particularly concerned with worker welfare.
PRC
> This is why I laugh every time somebody seriously suggests there's going to be a war with China because the West would collapse without Chinese exports. It's just not going to happen.
This is almost the exact same argument that was used to justify economic cooperation with Russia, they’d never start a war in Europe because their economy would collapse!
Ooos.
In hindsight everything is obvious, but it was a close call and there were many moments history could have taken a different route. Sanctions were painful for russia, but so was cutting ties of a lot of industry towards russia in east germany for instance. A bit more cooperation (and maybe less US started wars as a guidance) and all would be quite different.
Thing is, it wasn't hindsight. The US had been warning Europe about the dangers of dependency on Russian energy since at least 2016 through 2-3 administrations (see my other comment for the citations).
Yes and europe was warning the US not to engage with Iraq and now Iran in the way the US did.
Also we read the warning as "don't buy from them, rather buy from us".
And it was extensivly debated in general.
That would be a lot more compelling if we didn’t already know how that story ended. I also think framing this as US-EU competition rather than the EU running its economic engine on cheap Russian fuel is misleading.
The EU kept at it with plans to expand until the war started for the second time and “someone” took it upon themselves to violently sever that link.
Neither the US, nor EU nor russia is a monolithic block. So I try to avoid black and white framing in general. But especially the US warningbefore 2014, when at the same time with surplus fracking gas, not many considered serious. Besides, while everyone was buying from the Saudis and co. So why not russia?
Now at latest by 2014 that should have changed indeed. But even then different approaches would have been possible then cutting all ties and hope this will work out better.
This is ahistorical, at least from the POV of US administrations.
I'm no fan of Donald Trump but this was one of his rare Ws. At a NATO summit in 2018, he warned Europe about the dangers of dependency on Russian energy and basically bullied Germany into building an LNG plant, something that was critical to Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine 4 years later [1].
Biden as Vice President to Obama warned Europe of the same thing in 2016 [2] regarding Nord Stream 2.
So American administrations have consistently and repeatedly warned Europe about the dangers over 6+ years. So how can anyone argue that "[Russia would] never start a war in Europe" when the US said basically that?
[1]: https://archive.ph/4K5BP
[2]: https://www.dw.com/en/biden-warns-europe-against-dependency-...
What does the color look like? Producing light that falls within the white region of the CIE diagram is one thing… if it’s too yellow or too blue it could be an issue. Maybe that’s something that can be worked out over time.
Indeed. Would love to see a spectrograph
Even if it's perfectly centered on a nice blackbody point, if the spectral distribution is spiky, it will still look bad in real-world usage
Not sure why this is downvoted. It's simple color theory, and the whole reason the CRI measure exists.
Ooh, cool. I'd like me some luminous concrete please. I like these order of magnitude changes in common technology -- in this case, way smaller minimum size and more efficient per square nanometer -- the use cases language is a good reminder that the innovation part ("Look! This is cool!") often (usually?) precedes the most compelling use cases.
I imagine this is like 20 years away from hitting consumer design, but I bet it'll be used for some cool stuff.
I wonder if we'll ever see nanotech xenon arc lamps.
> Seoul Biosys plans to broaden its technology applications to augmented reality (AR) displays and optical communication for artificial intelligence (AI) data transmission. They are also developing a method to transmit data using densely arranged micro LEDs around 10µm in size.
Can someone who is an expert on the topic comment about if the statement regarding AI is true and if so then by how much (and how big/small of a problem it is), or if the Company is suggesting it out of pure hype of AI mania.
> Market research firm Omdia projects that the micro LED display market revenue will grow from $10.54 million this year to approximately $6.8 billion by 2032, particularly in applications for smart glasses and ultra-small displays.
> The WICOP technology involves directly mounting LED chips onto substrates without separate wires or packaging. Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Biosys have been developing ultraviolet (UV), blue, green, red, and infrared (IR) micro LEDs based on this technology, and have now expanded its application to include white light.
Fascinating results nonetheless even discounting AI use. Having half the price is insane, also 10.54 million seems incredibly small and 6.8 Billion is a little insane. Kinda wild to see such massive growth expected in such short amount of time.
> > optical communication for artificial intelligence (AI) data transmission.
> if the Company is suggesting it out of pure hype of AI mania.
IMHO, this is pretty transparently r&d for better? data transmission attached to the trend of the day that does a lot of data transmission. Where better is higher bandwidth, lower cost, etc.
AI is the current trendy thing, but better data transmission will always have applications.
I remember attending a "pitch night," at a local incubator, about nine or ten years ago, when crypto was the new hotness.
One of the pitches was for a fairly good nonprofit service. I thought it was a good idea. Sort of a "help people that help people" thing. I can dig that.
At the very end of the pitch, the last thing the young lady said, was "And we're looking at implementing blockchain technology in our service."
I don't remember exactly what the service was, but it clearly had no applications for distributed-key tech.
I think it probably cost her the backing. No one was fooled. I think someone told her that she had to mention blockchain, somewhere.
Seems like pretty good for TV backlighting?
The article is riddled with AI errors (for example, the company's name is Viosys, not Biosys).
Looks like the innovation here is the multi-wavelength LED, some kind of multiple-quantum-well thing maybe?
Yikes. We've changed the URL from https://www.ajupress.com/view/20261028171670308 (and banned that site). I replaced it with the article that Google returns for the title, which looks like it might be the original source, or at least closer to it.
Fwiw korean doesnt have a ‘V’ sound/character at all, and the V/B switch is quite common on Korean words that come from English. For example, “video” in Korean gets written with ㅂ at the start, and sounds more like “bideo”. And the same character is used in the Korean/Hangul version of their written company name.
Seems the AI translation changed the name a bit as it is Seoul Viosys, at least according to their website https://www.seoulviosys.com/en