Mini/Micro LED: The Next Generation Display Technology
Achieving higher resolution and better picture quality performance on the same size is the eternal pursuit of display technology. For more and better pixels, more compact and controllable LED chips are needed. Under this trend, Micro LED and Mini LED technologies — which have miniaturized and arrayed LED chips — emerged as the times require, and are regarded as the core solutions for next-generation display technologies.
Micro LED is Advancing Along Two Industrial Development Routes
The chip size of Micro LED is below 100 microns and is integrated into a high-density LED array. Miniaturization makes Micro LED have
- higher brightness
- higher resolution
- high color saturation
- faster display response speed
These aspects make Micro LED more suitable for AR (augmented reality) and HUD (head-up display for car) projections that require higher brightness Applications, super-large display billboards, and other special display application products, and are expected to expand to wearable/implantable devices, VR (virtual reality), optical communication/optical interconnection, medical detection and other fields.
The Micro LED display industry is advancing along the two industrial development routes of ultra-large-size displays and ultra-small-size microdisplays. Researchers explained in Nature journal that
Due to the technical difficulties of reducing the pixel chip size and pixel pitch, Micro LED can only achieve the target high resolution by increasing the screen size and widening the viewing distance.
This measure is in line with the big data center and medical care. Commercial needs such as health and security monitoring.
In the field of micro-display, there are mainly two outlets, AR and VR. Compared with VR, AR is easier to achieve mass production because it can be monochromatic, monolithic, and supported by silicon materials.
The “hotness” of the Micro LED track has attracted upstream equipment, LED chips, packaging, and panel companies to raise their money. According to the research data, the global mini/micro-LED market will reach US$4.2bn by 2024.
In 2021, National Star Optoelectronics will accelerate the construction of the Geely Industrial Park project and the second phase of the next-generation LED packaging device and chip expansion project. In the terminal field, 110-inch and 99-inch Samsung Micro LED TVs will soon enter the home, and 88-inch, 76-inch, and more sizes will also be launched. Leyard Micro LED commercial display has taken the lead in achieving full coverage of 0.4, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.9 full-pitch full-size products.
However, it should be noted that the significant advantages of Micro LED are built on complex technological processes and strict technical thresholds. Micro LED display mainly includes the process flow of epitaxial growth, drive backplane production, chip production, and batch transfer. Mass transfer is the main bottleneck of Micro LED industrialization.
At present, the industry has introduced transfer technologies such as Stamp transfer, laser transfer, self-assembly transfer, bonding, and Interpose, but overall, the maturity and yield level of transfer technology needs to be improved, requiring continuous exploration and optimization of the entire industry chain.
Mini LED Enters a Period of Rapid Growth
While Micro LED continues to optimize cost and mass production technology, Mini LED, as a transition technology from LCD to Micro LED, is expected to be the first to achieve low-cost mass production. Mini LED chip size is between Micro LED and small pitch display. It has an excellent performance in terms of energy consumption, color gamut, contrast, HDR, flexibility, and lifespan. The processing difficulty lower than that of Micro LED, and it is expected to become an LCD upgrade.
Although the market scale is still small, Mini LED is entering a high-speed development channel, and backlight products attract consumer electronics giants one after another.
- Apple launched iPad Pro equipped with a Mini LED backlight display in April 2021
- Samsung launched NEO QLED series TVs with Quantum Dot Mini LED backlight in early 2021
- TCL has launched new Mini LED-backlit TVs for three consecutive years starting in 2019
- MSI was the first to launch Mini LED-backlit laptops in 2020.
Up to now, Mini LED backlight products have covered the consumer market for TVs, monitors, notebook computers, and tablet computers.
The next three to four years will be an explosive growth period for Mini LED backlight products.
Conclusion
In the process of realizing commercial development, Mini LED backlight products still need to solve the cost and price problem and continue to upgrade their technology. Reducing the cost of Mini LED backlight modules-including the cost of LED chips and parts, and balancing the performance and cost of Mini LED backlight TVs is the key to the acceptance of Mini LED backlight TVs in the current consumer market. In addition, there are many technologies in related industries that need to be upgraded and improved. While consolidating the industrial foundation, will pave the way for Micro LEDs that are in the same line.
