Seoul Viosys starts mass production of rare-earth-free white micro LEDs
The South Korean chipmaker says its WICOP 3 architecture makes white light from gallium nitride alone, in chips as small as 10µm.
What to know
- Seoul Viosys says WICOP 3 removes rare-earth phosphors from white LEDs, enabling chips smaller than 100µm for the first time, versus a prior 1000µm floor.
- The company targets costs about half of conventional white LEDs and claims luminous efficacy near 100lm/W already, aiming for 200lm/W within two years; mass production is slated for Q4 2026.
- HN commenters contest whether this reduces supply-chain risk at all, since gallium (unlike the displaced rare earths) is about 99% sourced from China.
- Several commenters say the reporting doesn't explain the underlying physics — how GaN alone produces white light without the usual phosphor down-conversion — and flag apparent AI-translation errors in the source article (Viosys vs. 'Biosys').
The dispute Whether eliminating rare earths is a meaningful supply-chain win given gallium's own concentration in Chinese production, versus whether that concern is overstated since gallium is a comparatively more widespread byproduct of aluminum/zinc mining. · positions read across 12 posts and comments
Swapping rare earths for gallium doesn't solve the supply-chain problem, since gallium production is similarly concentrated in China.
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“China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production.”
Animats · Hacker News ↗
The reporting is technically unclear or garbled, and it's unexplained how GaN produces white light without phosphor conversion.
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“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?”
wiml · Hacker News ↗
The technology is a genuinely interesting leap that could enable new applications once it matures.
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“I'd like me some luminous concrete please. I like these order of magnitude changes in common technology.”
vessenes · Hacker News ↗
Seoul Viosys Developer of WICOP 3 chipSeoul Semiconductor Parent company of Seoul Viosys
How it unfolded 5 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Mastodon post amplifies the announcement as environmental good news
A Mastodon user reshares the story under a "GoodNews" framing, highlighting the environmental and cost benefits of dropping rare earths from white LED production.
“White LEDs currently need rare earth minerals, which creates environmental problems and also makes production more expensive. Now Seoul Viosys claims to have entered mass production for a white LED that is solely based on gallium nitride (GaN) alone that are far smaller and last far longer.”
— @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net -
J
# GoodNews White LEDs currently need rare earth minerals, which creates environmental problems and also makes production more expensive. Now Seoul Viosys claims to have entered mass production for a white LED that is solely based on gallium nitride (GaN) alone that are far smaller and last far longer. https://www. semiconductor-today.com/news_i…
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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IIRC/IIUC, GaN could only deal with UV or at most deep-ish blue, for both input and output, due to bandgap or whatever quantum reasons I don't understand. To create white light from light emitted by a GaN device, it needs to be downconverted into visible range by use of either phosphorous materials or a nanoparticle resembling them that are…
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Isn't GaN already the base for blue led and for all current white-ish led lighting?Here they are somehow eliminating the need for phosphors for color conversion but they didn't say how.I mean, if GaN is a problem we are already in a bad shape.
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Semiconductor Today details WICOP 3 specs and roadmap
A fuller technical writeup reports the first mass-produced chip (25µm x 10µm) outputs 0.015lm of white light at close to 100lm/W efficacy, with a target of 200lm/W within two years, and that full-scale production starts in Q4 2026 with priority given to customers who respected Seoul Viosys's IP.
“WICOP 3 generates white light from gallium nitride (GaN) alone.”
— Seoul Viosys, company claim, via Semiconductor Today article · source -
first by HN Best, 10d ago · also HN Frontpage
1 more headline
- Seoul Biosys Begins Production of Rare Earth-Free White Micro LEDs HN Frontpage · 10d ago
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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…
2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
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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…
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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.
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Commenters question whether gallium replaces one supply risk with another
HN commenters note that removing rare earths does not remove critical-mineral exposure, since gallium production is overwhelmingly concentrated in China, reigniting debate over Western manufacturing dependence on Chinese supply chains.
“China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production.”
— Animats -
> 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…
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Readers flag AI-garbled reporting and unclear mechanism
Commenters point out the source article mistranslates the company's name (Viosys, not Biosys) and that it never explains how white light is produced without the usual phosphor conversion layer, with some speculating about multi-quantum-well or nanostructure approaches.
“The article is riddled with AI errors (for example, the company's name is Viosys, not Biosys).”
— wiml -
> 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…
2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
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Seems the AI translation changed the name a bit as it is Seoul Viosys, at least according to their website
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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.
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Story surfaces on Hacker News, draws large discussion
The original Ajupress article is submitted to Hacker News and gains over 170 points and 53 comments, becoming the main venue for scrutiny of the claims.
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background
Seoul Viosys announces mass production of rare-earth-free white micro LED — Seoul Viosys says it has developed and begun mass producing WICOP 3, a chip that emits white light from gallium nitride alone without rare-earth phosphors or a package, with chips as small as 10µm.
What people are saying 1 voices from 1 site · best of 12 · verbatim
- Is the AI/optical-interconnect application genuinely significant, or hype?
- How exactly does WICOP 3 generate white light from GaN without a phosphor layer?
- Is extracting gallium outside China actually uneconomic, or just underdeveloped?
- Nov 1
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Canada's is a addon to the aluminum production line, ao it might not take a whole ton to expand that production