France doubles down on microLED pioneer with €120 million

MicroLED pioneer Aledia (Grenoble, France) has appointed Pierre Laboisse as CEO and raised €120 million in funds from existing backers, according to state-owned investor Bpifrance.

Laboisse was previously an executive vice president at AMS-Osram and replaces Giorgio Anania, who remains on the company’s board of directors.

Aledia SA (Grenoble, France) was spun off from French research institute CEA-Leti in 2011 to develop 3D microLED technology based on gallium nitride nanowires fabricated on large-area silicon wafers. The Aledia technology is currently implemented on 200 mm silicon wafers and will evolve towards 300 mm silicon wafers for high-volume production.

In 2019 Aledia began construction of a 4,000 square meter pilot fab in Echirolles near Grenoble for the production of nanowire LEDs on 200mm-diameter wafers with a project cost of €20 million.

In 2020, Aledia chose Champagnier (near Grenoble) as the location for a €50 million mass production wafer fab.

BPI said: “The challenge now is to start the production and marketing of its first products.”

The €120 million in funds comes from long-term shareholders in Aledia that include CEA Investissement, Supernova Invest, and the SPI and Ecotechnologies funds managed by Bpifrance. BPI is a state-owned public investment bank.