June 4 | Official WeChat account of CoreSight Electronics released news: At the 16th China IC Innovation Summit Forum, He Jun, General Manager of CoreSight Electronics, delivered a keynote speech on silicon-based microdisplay technology and showcased Tianmu 80, the firm’s self-developed 0.13-inch silicon-based LCoS microdisplay chip.
Image of Tianmu 80 credited to CoreSight Electronics
LCoS stands for Liquid Crystal on Silicon, a technology widely deployed in near-eye displays, miniature projection and optical communications. Thanks to its ultra-high pixel density, the new chip effectively mitigates the screen-door effect prevalent in AR hardware. Fabricated with CMOS processes fine-tuned exclusively for LCoS devices, the component supports dynamically configurable parameters via digital driving.
Per CoreSight’s disclosure, the Tianmu 80 features a diagonal size of 0.13 inches, a native resolution of 640×480 and uniform 4.0μm×4.0μm pixel pitch, making it the world’s smallest commercially available LCoS chip to date.
Engineers achieved high aperture ratio circuit layout within the compact 4-micron pixel footprint; meanwhile, the chip allows real-time dynamic tuning of frame rate, grayscale depth and power consumption.
CoreSight is advancing two core product lines in parallel:
- High-performance AR display chips built around LCoS architecture. Its next-gen roadmap targets a 0.25-inch die with 2.5μm pixel size and 1500×1500 resolution.
- Micro LED-based backplane chips for lightweight interactive AI glasses. These products have been shipped to more than 20 clients, with in-house R&D ongoing for monolithic full-color implementation.
Beyond near-eye display applications, CoreSight’s LCoS chips serve as core components for Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS) in optical communication, enabling domestic substitution of imported phase modulation solutions for the 1550nm telecom band. As stated by He Jun at the summit, optical communication currently represents the largest-volume end market for the company’s LCoS shipments.
In a separate development in May this year, CoreSight Semiconductor, CoreSight Electronics’ parent firm, secured over RMB 150 million in Series B+ financing.
Proceeds from the fundraising will be allocated across three priorities: scaling up R&D investment and engineering teams to boost customized development and product delivery capacity; expanding production lines to lift mass-production yield and supply reliability; and funding forward-looking R&D into next-generation silicon-based microdisplay technologies to consolidate long-term technological advantages.
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