Relatively small, electrically isolated LED tiles or PV tiles are fabricated having an anode electrode and a cathode electrode. The LED tiles contain microscopic printed LEDs that are connected in parallel by two conductive layers sandwiching the LEDs. The top conductive layer is transparent. Separately formed from the tiles is a large area backplane having a single layer or multiple layers of metal traces connected to backplane electrodes corresponding to the tile electrodes. Multiple tiles are laminated over the backplane's metal pattern to connect the tile electrodes to the backplane electrodes, such as by a conductive adhesive. The backplane metal pattern may connect the tiles in series and/or parallel, or form an addressable circuit for a display. Groups of tiles may be physically connected to each other prior to the lamination to ease handling and alignment. The backplane has power terminals electrically coupled to the metal traces for receiving power.