Planar Introduces EverPixel and TruMicro: What Two Proprietary MicroLED in Package Technologies Mean for Fine-Pitch LED Display Procurement
Planar's new MIP architecture eliminates the LED substrate, doubles RGB subpixels, and targets pixel pitches below 0.4mm.
By AVinBrief Editorial Desk ·
- What innovations were displayed in dvLED by Planar?
- At InfoComm 2026, Planar introduced two proprietary LED technologies: EverPixel and TruMicro. Both are built on MicroLED in Package (MIP) architecture and are designed and manufactured through a process exclusive to Planar. The company describes the combined system as the next step beyond chip-on-board (COB) LED technology.
- What does EverPixel do that conventional LED packaging does not?
- EverPixel eliminates the LED substrate and solders the chip electrode directly to the LED package, removing the gold and copper wire bonding used in traditional construction. That bonding has historically been a source of wire breakage and poor contact, resulting in reliability issues with LED video walls or need for precision repair. By doubling the number of red, green, and blue subpixels per package, EverPixel builds in redundancy intended to prevent pixel outages. The substrate-free design also allows light output from five sides of the package rather than one, which Planar says increases light efficiency and supports wide viewing angles without color distortion or dimming at oblique angles.
- How small are the MicroLED subpixels in TruMicro, and why does the size matter?
- TruMicro uses MicroLED subpixels as small as 20 micrometers (μm). Tighter subpixel spacing is achieved by controlling chip offset to within 2μm, which reduces the physical gap between red, green, and blue elements. The closer the subpixels sit together, the more uniformly the colors mix before reaching the viewer's eye, reducing color separation and color shift.
- How does MIP architecture compare to COB, the technology it claims to surpass?
- COB (chip-on-board) LED places bare LED chips directly onto a circuit board substrate, covering them with a phosphor or resin layer. The approach improved durability and surface smoothness compared to surface-mount LED, and became the benchmark for fine-pitch performance. The MIP approach packages the LED chip at an intermediate stage before board mounting, allowing substrate-free, flip-chip construction, and mass transfer soldering directly onto the packaging substrate. In Planar's implementation, the MIP structure is the carrier for the TruMicro subpixels and the EverPixel redundancy architecture.
- What pixel pitches will the new technologies support, and what products will carry them?
- The combination of smaller subpixels and tighter placement is what enables the overall MIP package to support pixel pitches below 0.4mm, which is finer than current commercial fine-pitch LED offerings. Pricing is available upon request through Planar's channel.
- What is LED binning, and why does Planar call it out as part of TruMicro?
- Binning is a manufacturing quality-control process in which individual LEDs are sorted by measured brightness and color output before assembly. LEDs that fall within tight tolerance ranges are grouped together so that adjacent pixels in a finished display receive chips with closely matched characteristics, producing consistent brightness and color across the panel surface. Planar notes that TruMicro uses binning across a large pool of units, with the pool size able to grow over time which can translate into more consistent selection as production scales.
The Take
What should integrators ask before specifying a sub-0.4mm MIP display for a real installation?
The engineering behind EverPixel and TruMicro is specific enough to take seriously: substrate elimination, 2μm chip offset control, five-sided light output, and 20μm subpixels. For integrators evaluating this technology ahead of any specification decision, three questions are worth asking. First, what are the tile-to-tile uniformity specifications at typical operating brightness, and how does seam calibration work at sub-0.4mm pitch? Second, how does the five-sided light output affect ambient light rejection in high-lux environments? Third, what does the doubled-subpixel redundancy mean practically: does the redundancy always mask the failure and under what content or ambient conditions might it still be visible?
COB earned its current position by solving the fragility and uniformity problems of surface-mount LED at fine pitches. The industry has been talking about MIP for years. The claim that this approach will supersede COB will be tested first in controlled demos, then over years of installed-base performance. Integrators who were early specifiers of COB know that the first-generation spec sheet and the third-year performance can look very different. The InfoComm debut was a starting point, not a conclusion.
Sources
- Planar Engineers Groundbreaking New MIP (MicroLED in Package) Innovation and Architecture, Planar Systems (press release)