Apple has reportedly downsized its Micro-LED development team in Taiwan

Apple has reportedly downsized its research and development team in Longtan, northern Taiwan. The R&D lab was tasked with the development of Micro-LED display products.

As reported Monday by trade publication DigiTimes, Apple has simply realigned the personnel of its Micro-LED team and will continue to develop this upcoming display technology for wearable devices like Apple Watch and AR/VR applications.

The Cupertino giant is reportedly collaborating with its supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop applications based on silicon wafers aiming to sidestep the bottleneck that’s currently plaguing the mass transfer of LED chips.

Apple in May 2014 obtained patented technology for mass transfer of small micro-LED chips through the acquisition of US-based Micro-LED developers LuxVue Technology. However, volume production of Micro-LED panels has been held back by the slow progress in the development of appropriate mass transfer technology.

The sources added that the downsizing could indicate that Apple has shifted the R&D focus back to the United States as the initial phase of the research project being carried out at LuxVue has now been reportedly completed.

Micro-LEDs bring low power consumption, high resolutions, quick response times and high luminance. As explained, micro-LEDs consume 90 percent less power than LCD and half the power of OLEDs, making the technology a potential OLED replacement.