Micro-LED - Page 13

According to Digitimes Research, due to the high prices and low availability of OLED displays, China-based smartphone makers (including Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi) are planning to adopt mini LED backlit LCD panels in future smartphones as an alternative to OLED displays.

DR reports that Chinese phone makers have reached out to Taiwan-based LED makers to start making mini-LED backlighting units by June 2018. While it is true that the OLED market is currently in an over-demand situation, OLED capacity is set to increase sharply in the near future, and IHS estimates that the market will actually enter an over-supply situation in 2018.

Samsung unveiled its first Micro-LED TV at CES, aptly named "The Wall". This is a 146-inch tiled 4K display that is almost 8 times larger than a 55" TV in area. We don't have any technical details yet on this display, but according to reporters at CES you cannot see the seams of the individual tiles.

Samsung says that this display will ship in 2018 - but it did not reveal the price or expected release date. It's also not clear whether you will be able to actually customize this display with smaller and/or larger sizes.

Last month we posted on reports from Korea claiming that Samsung is accelerating its effort to develop a Micro-LED based TV as it aims to regain its premium-TV market share (following its failure to keep up with LG's OLED TVs).

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung is further ahead than we thought, and the company will launch a 150-inch Micro-LED TV at CES 2018 (January 2018).

US-based Solar-Tectic has launched a new low-temperature OLED backplane technology that could replace LTPS in future high-end mobile OLED displays and bridge the performance gap between IGZO and LTPS.

Solar-Tectic process, called LT1CS (Low temperature single crystal silicon) is a silicon based technology that creates highly oriented c-axis aligned or "textured" silicon crystals. Solar-Tectic says that the performance of LT1CS backplanes will be higher than IGZO performance. The company says that process is similar to SEL's CAAC-IGZO only based on silicon and not IGZO.

Taiwan's ITRI (or more specifically its Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories or EOSRL) aim to establish a pilot line for Micro-LED displays that will start production in Q3 2018.

According to reports, the line will be used to produce small displays for VR applications - in addition to large-area indoor signage displays. The new line will obviously have a small capacity, but EOSRL believes that Micro-LED displays may grab up a sizable part of the display market.

A report from Korea suggests that Samsung is accelerating its effort to develop a Micro-LED based TV. The company is currently focused entirely on QD-LEDs for its premium TVs but is looking for alternative technologies as it fails to increase its market share in this segment.

Samsung is said to be looking at several alternatives - one of which is to acquire Taiwan-based PlayNitride - a deal that was first reported on OLED-Info in April 2017. Samsung aims to first use micro-LED technologies for its cinema LED screens, and then apply it to home-based TVs as well.

Digitimes posted an interesting story, quoting PlayNitride's CEO that says that Micro-LED displays are easier to produce than people estimate. The company hopes to start mass producing such displays in the second half of 2017.

In PlayNitride's R&D setup, it takes about 10 seconds to transfer and place 200,000 LEDs - which means that a 5" panel will take only 10 minutes to produce. The yield rate at the company's setup is over 99%.

We are happy to announce a new Metalgrass knowledge hub, MicroLED-Info.com. Our new site will focus on Micro-LED display technology and its future market. MicroLED is quickly becoming a promising future display technology.

Many expect the first Micro-LED devices to hit the market in the very near future, with first applications in the wearable market - and also in HUDs and HMDs. MicroLED promise great performance, very high efficiency and brightness - and may indeed compete with OLEDs in the future. There are still many technical challenges ahead, but this is certainly a technology that any display expert should not ignore.

Canada-based VueReal has developed a 4K Micro-LED microdisplay (6000 PPI). The company plans to finish the verification and evaluation this year and provide samples to several interested customers by October 2017. In 2018 VueReal will start mass producing such displays for niche customers and aim to license its technology for display makers.

VueReal says that its "Continous Pixelation" Technology enables it to achieve low-power high brightness (10,000 nits) high-density displays at very high yields and at an affordable price.

Universal Display announced its financial results for Q1 2017. The company reported an excellent quarter, with revenues of $55.6 million (up 87% from Q1 2016) and net income of $10.4 million (up from $1.9 million in Q1 2016). Material sales were $46.6 million, up 92% over Q1 2016.

Universal Display believes that the OLED industry is poised to grow faster than earlier expectations in 2017, and the company raised its 2017 guidance to at least $260 million to $280 million - reflecting a year over year growth of 30% to 40%.