Qiushui SemiconductorUnveils World's First 8-inch Red Micro-LED Chip

Ningbo Qiushui Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. ("QSSEMI") released the world's first mass-producible 8-inch red Micro-LED chip. Built on the company's industry-first damage-free Micro-LED technology, the product completes the first full process integration of hybrid bonding on an 8-inch quaternary AlInGaP red material system, delivering 640×480 red display in a volume of just 0.15 cubic centimeters. The breakthrough is seen as a landmark in AR glasses' transition from today's mainstream monochrome-green approach to full color — and gives the industry a practical path to volume production that could accelerate full-color AR eyewear.

Built on this chip, QSSEMI also unveiled the 013 red light engine. For the first time, AR glasses makers worldwide have a mass-producible red Micro-LED near-eye light engine to build on — a step toward commercializing full-color AI glasses.

Ningbo Qiushui Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., founded in November 2022 and headquartered in Ningbo High-Tech Zone, is a semiconductor company focused on Micro-LED micro display chips and modules‘s manufacturing. It pioneered the "Damage-free" Micro-LED chip technology route: its hybrid-bonding vertical stack architecture abandons conventional physical mesa etching entirely, eliminating emitter-material damage at the source and providing a breakthrough solution for scaled Micro-LED production and full-color integration. Its products serve AR glasses, digital automotive lighting, and micro-projection.

Founder Jiang Zhenyu began working on Micro-LED displays during his doctoral studies at The Pennsylvania State University, recognizing Micro-LED as the next revolutionary display technology as early as the 2013 launch of the first-generation Google Glass. Today QSSEMI fields a cross-disciplinary R&D team of about 30 people; core members previously worked at HiSilicon, YMTC, and Intel, with deep expertise in advanced semiconductor processes, optoelectronic materials and devices, and packaging and testing.

In May 2025, QSSEMI's damage-free Micro-LED chip passed verification. That same year the company launched its "LEYU AR" product series built on its proprietary technology, becoming the second manufacturer in China with mass-production capability for both micro display chips and modules for AR products.

In the first half of 2026, QSEMI closed its Pre-A and Series A rounds , raising nearly RMB 200 million in total. Zhaohui Capital led the financing, with participation by Tongshang Fund, Shengyu Investment, Jiayi Capital，Emerging technology，and the Ningbo Talent Development Fund. Proceeds will mainly fund QSSEMI's 8-inch hybrid-bonding volume-production line in Ningbo, scheduled to go live in October 2026. At full operation it is planned to output 1,000 eight-inch wafers a month — supply capability of more than 10 million Micro-LED chips a year.Lighting market data

Micro-LED is widely regarded as the ultimate display technology for AR glasses, offering high brightness, high contrast, and low power consumption. Yet scaled production of full-color Micro-LED has always stalled at one color: red.

Conventional Micro-LED pixelation uses physical etching to define pixels — like cutting microscopic light-emitting crystals with a crude blade. The process inflicts irreversible etch damage on the emitter material. As pixels shrink, the damaged area claims an ever-larger share of each emitter, degrading luminous efficiency, yield, leakage, and stability. Red AlInGaP is especially sensitive: etching can destroy as much as 97% of its emission efficiency. That is why the industry calls red the "full-color gap" — red Micro-LED wall-plug efficiency has long hovered around 1%.

The industry has tried neutral ion beam etching, reduced etch power, wet chemical removal of the damage layer, and ALD surface passivation. None solved the problem at its root. QSSEMI offers a fundamentally different answer.

QSSEMI's core innovation is abandoning physical mesa etching altogether and replacing physical isolation with electrical isolation. In plain terms: conventional approaches dig trenches in the emitter material to separate pixels — damaging it in the process. QSSEMI instead raises an "invisible wall" of electrical insulation between pixels, keeping current flowing vertically and isolating each pixel electrically without disturbing the physical structure.

Making this route work required combining hybrid bonding — a mature process in advanced semiconductor manufacturing — with the Micro-LED production flow. Through its hybrid-bonding vertical stack, QSSEMI has demonstrated fine-pitch interconnection between the photonic die and the driver die at 3.75-micron pixel pitch, with bonding pitch scalable to 2 microns — the same process node as the advanced hybrid-bonding technology in Huawei's recently announced "Tao (τ) Law."