Seoul Semiconductor Ends Need for Rare Earths in White LEDs

ANSAN, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 28, 2026--

For three decades, white LEDs have depended on rare earth materials such as yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) layered onto a blue LED chip (Figure 1). Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ: 092190) today announced that it has broken that dependence. It has developed and begun mass producing a chip that emits white light without rare earths. The chip can be as small as 10 micrometers (µm).

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Seoul Viosys and its parent company Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ: 046890) opened the micro LED market with WICOP. WICOP is a chip architecture that eliminates the package altogether. Doing away with the package is widely regarded in the industry as a revolution in six decades of semiconductor history. With WICOP, the two companies have already developed and mass produced ultraviolet, blue, green, red and infrared LEDs under 100 µm that are too small for the eye to see. WICOP 3 is the third generation of the technology. It now extends that capability to white light without rare earth elements (REEs).

Economic Impact

1) The White LED Market

White LEDs make up roughly $10 billion of the $15 billion global market for packaged LEDs. WICOP 3 can now replace them with a technology free of rare earths.

More significant still, WICOP 3 is the world's first white opto-semiconductor to achieve white light in a micro LED smaller than 100 µm. At that size, it is invisible to the naked eye.

WICOP 3 uses neither rare earths nor package. Rare earths are a major source of environmental pollution, and WICOP 3 contains none. It nor does contain the synthetic silicone resins, plastics and lead frames used in conventional LEDs. The result is a far more environmentally friendly product that costs about half as much to make as a conventional white LED.

2) Creating New Markets

The miniaturized transistor replaced the vacuum tube and created vast new markets in electronics. The company believes micro white opto-semiconductors can do the same. WICOP 3 generates white light from gallium nitride (GaN) alone. GaN is a natural material, and the chip contains no plastics, silicone or other synthetic organic materials. As a result, it is virtually permanent and can last for decades. In lighting, invisible micro opto-semiconductors could be embedded in wallpaper or window glass. They could light a space with no fixtures at all. This would end the inconvenience of replacing bulbs and the high cost of fixtures. The company expects this to create a new market tens of times larger than today's $10 billion white LED market.

Performance

In its first mass production, a micro LED chip measuring just 25 µm by 10 µm produced 0.015 lumens of white light. Its chromaticity falls inside the CIE standard white region (Figure 2). Luminous efficacy is already close to 100 lumens per watt (lm/W). The company aims to reach 200 lm/W within two years. A conventional 1,000 µm by 1,000 µm chip achieves 50 lumens.

Technical Significance

Until now, WICOP could make chips smaller, but white light still required a package containing rare earths. White chips therefore could not go below 1,000 µm. This held back cost reduction. White micro LEDs under 100 µm (0.1 mm) were also out of reach. Removing rare earths changes that. White light is now possible both in large chips of 1,000 µm and above and in micro LEDs below 100 µm.

The company compares this advance to 1948. That year, Bell Laboratories in the United States moved electronics from the vacuum tube to the transistor. Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys have likewise moved beyond LEDs made to be seen. They have invented chips too small to see that emit red, green, blue, infrared, ultraviolet and now white light. The shift opens a broader era for opto-semiconductors that spans AR and AI communications.

Some products marketed as “flip chip” LEDs replicate WICOP's patented technology. Seoul Semiconductor continues to protect its intellectual property worldwide.

Development Background and Evolution

Since the 2010s, more than 10 major Korean groups and over 300 Chinese companies have entered the LED market. Price competition grew ever fiercer. Founder Chung Hoon Lee, who studied physics concluded that the company needed strategic, breakthrough technology to survive and grow. It has since invested about $100 million a year in R&D and new inventions, even in years when the business was not profitable. Silicon and opto-semiconductors are both made of soft materials that are vulnerable to dust and moisture. For that reason, both have been packaged for 60 years.

1) WICOP (First Generation)

WICOP began with a simple question Lee asked one night: “Why do semiconductors have to be packaged?” After years of research, Seoul Semiconductor developed WICOP in 2018 and brought it into high volume production. It was the first chip in semiconductor history that needs no package. Silicon semiconductors evolved from vacuum tubes to transistors and then to integrated circuits holding tens or hundreds of transistors. The company was convinced that WICOP could lead a similar evolution in opto-semiconductors and make invisible micro LEDs below 100 µm possible. The company has also conducted joint R&D with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for 20 years. This work has produced devices on the 1 µm scale.

2) WICOP 2 (Second Generation)

LEDs once needed a lens to control the direction of their light. Lee questioned that too: “Why must we use a lens?” He also asked, “Why must semiconductors operate only at 3 volts when household power is 110 or 220 volts?” The answers produced WICOP 2. It directs light without a lens and operates at higher voltages, of 12 or 24 volts. Electric and hybrid vehicles run on high voltage batteries. In these vehicles, high voltage opto-semiconductors can cut power consumption by 20%. WICOP 2 is now supplied to global customers including Tesla.

3) WICOP 3 (Third Generation)

The third generation grew from the question “Why must white light require rare earths?” “We have now successfully developed WICOP 3, which produces white light, and have begun mass production,” said Lee, founder of Seoul Semiconductor.

Future Plans

Seoul Group comprises Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys. The group will start mass production of WICOP 3 in the fourth quarter. It will supply first those customers that have respected its intellectual property and relied on its products. WICOP 3 makes white light without rare earths. It is also the ultimate white light source: semipermanent even at invisible sizes of 100 µm or less. Even so, the group will hold to its “Keeping Principle” of never competing with its customers. It will instead open new application markets together with its key customers.

Seeking Supply Chain Partners

Seoul Viosys is an affiliate of Seoul Semiconductor. It uses WICOP to produce micro opto-semiconductors below 100 µm. Micro LEDs built on WICOP can now carry high volumes of AI data over distances from under 1 cm to tens of meters. Over short distances, data has long traveled through copper wire as electrons. Electrons have mass. Under the data loads of the AI era, copper links slow down, generate heat and consume sharply more power. The company instead sends data as light. Photons have no mass. It arranges 1,000 WICOP chips of about 10 µm each in a grid within 1 square millimeter or less (Figure 5). This array transmits data 10 times faster at one tenth of the power. Market research firms including Omdia forecast that this technology and AR together will create a new $60 billion market within five years. That is equal to half of today's DRAM memory market.

Lee said the company intends to use WICOP 1, 2 and 3 to help people around the world live better lives through AR glasses and AI data communications. These technologies work at invisible sizes of 10 µm or less. To that end, it is seeking trusted upstream and downstream micro LED supply chain partners in AR displays and AI transmitters to build the new $60 billion market together.

About Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul Semiconductor is a global LED company. Holding more than 15,000 patents and backed by a differentiated product portfolio, the company researches, develops, and mass-produces LED products for every application—including indoor and outdoor lighting, automotive, IT (mobile phones, computers, etc.), and ultraviolet (UV) and supplies them to customers worldwide. Its world-first products have become standards in the LED industry, and innovative products such as WICOP, a package-free LED; Acrich, an AC and high-voltage LED; nPola, more than 10 times brighter than conventional LEDs; Violeds, a cutting-edge UV sterilization technology; filament LED technology that emits light in all directions; and SunLike, a natural-spectrum LED, are leading the global market. For more information, visit the company website ( http://www.seoulsemicon.com/ ) and its social media channels (YouTube, LinkedIn).

About Seoul Viosys

Seoul Viosys has the technological capability to produce optical semiconductor chips across the full wavelength range from 200 nm to 1,400 nm, backed by 6,000 patents, and can also manufacture VCSELs (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers) and laser diodes. The company also mass-produces WICOP Pixel, the world's first chip to integrate R, G, and B for displays in a single chip. Founded in 2002, Seoul Viosys currently holds the world's No. 1 market share in UV LEDs and, in collaboration with its parent company Seoul Semiconductor, which holds 15,000 patents, has secured a technological lead in the global market. For more information, visit the company website ( www.seoulviosys.com ).

Figure 5. WICOP chip array for AI communications: 1,000 WICOP chips × 1 GHz = 1,000 GHz (source: Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Figure 4. The evolution of WICOP technology without packaging (source: Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Figure 3. Semiconductor flip chip vs. WICOP chip (source: Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Figure 2. WICOP 3 brightness by size (source: Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Figure 1. New invention: white WICOP 3 (source: Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation's fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.

Huerta's family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.

She kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking in cities across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights on behalf of her Bakersfield, California-based foundation.

Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could affect change.

Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.

This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.

From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.

Huerta said she had kept silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.

When asked during a 2026 interview with the news organization Latino USA about keeping the secret, Huerta said: “It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear. I’ll say it that way.”

Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.

Immersed in a melting pot of Mexican, Filipino, African American, Japanese and Chinese working families, Huerta learned from her mother — who owned a restaurant and hotel — about independence, compassion and activism.

Huerta was a young, energetic elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to answer another calling after growing frustrated by her students’ poor living conditions.

“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary on her life. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”

Huerta’s early work with a civil rights group in Stockton resulted in her meeting Chavez. The two wanted to focus more on the plight of farmworkers, so in 1962 they started the National Farm Workers Association, which became United Farm Workers of America a few years later. She was a key leader and negotiator for the union for years.

She was among those who joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line in what became the five-year “Delano Grape Strike.” With Chavez, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements and contracts with big growers, winning the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.

Chavez, who died in 1993, once described her as fearless, committed to the cause and tough when it came to negotiations.

She met U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts during his visit to Delano in 1968 and became a volunteer on his presidential campaign, registering Mexican Americans in California to vote. Huerta was on stage with Kennedy after he won the California primary and he publicly thanked her moments before he was shot.

The assassination devastated Huerta, but she kept organizing for farmworkers’ rights.

Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, she was seriously injured while protesting Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott during his visit to San Francisco.

Caught in a crowd, she was struck by a police officer’s baton, suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and required more than a dozen blood transfusions. She reached a settlement with the city to resolve her claims.

After a long recovery, Huerta shifted focus and hit the road to campaign for women’s rights and encourage Latinas to run for office.

She also campaigned for Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Obama and Joe Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom considered her a close friend.

Emilio Huerta, one of Dolores’ 13 children, once pointed to his mom’s courage during an interview, saying it was one of the most significant drivers of her life’s work.

“To dedicate your life to building a dream of a union for farmworkers, to take on agriculture, which to this today is still a powerhouse. ... That took a lot of guts,” he had said.

Huerta learned the art of lobbying politicians. She secured financial aid for the unemployed and disability insurance for California farmworkers. She spoke out against toxic pesticides, pushed for amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and fought federal guest worker programs.

By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.

Her work earned her many accolades. She was the first Latina to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and she’s received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities.

Schools are named in her honor in California, Texas and Colorado. Her image graces many murals, and streets bear her name, but she didn’t always win favor with more liberal activists.

In 2016 when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”

Dawson and Huerta eventually reconciled.

Guitarist Carlos Santana later oversaw a documentary based on Huerta’s life after the pair had a late-night conversation about music while in Hawaii. Santana, a Miles Davis fan, discovered Huerta was a huge fan of bebop legend Charlie Parker.

“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with The Associated Press when she was 87.

It was her work as a leader within the labor movement that reverberated through the U.S. and beyond, making her name synonymous with civil rights. In the 2025 documentary “Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta,” she recounted her decades-long journey in activism and talked about the inspiration she drew from the women’s movement during the 1970s, saying it provided validation that she too could stand on the stage with other labor leaders.

“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” she said in the film. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money because they’ll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice — and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.”

Associated Press journalist Brian Melley contributed to this report. Former AP journalist Russell Contreras also contributed reporting previously for this story.

FILE - Dolores Huerta, far right, thanks senators after the unanimous vote to designate April 10 as "Dolores Huerta Day," March 18, 2019, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte, File)

FILE - Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta looks at a mural of the late Cesar Chavez during a dedication of the Cesar Chavez Monument on the San Jose State University campus in San Jose, Calif., Sept. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, center, leads a rally in San Francisco's Mission District on Nov. 19, 1988, along with Howard Wallace, president of the San Francisco chapter of the UFW, left, and Maria Elena Chavez, 16, the daughter of Cesar Chavez, right, as part of a national boycott of what the UFW claims is the dangerous use of pesticides on table grapes. (AP Photo/Court Mast, File)

FILE - Dolores Huerta, the labor leader, civil rights activist and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, is seen at the California Democratic Party's 2025 State Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif., May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)