After taking over traditional liquid crystal (LCD) and OLED, Micro LED is regarded as a new generation of display technology that may subvert the industry. After Sony launched its new Micro LED in June 2016, this news that was refreshing to the industry caused an upsurge of discussion on Micro LED in the market. It also covered up the previous noise about whether OLED will replace LCD, and the market's attention to Micro LED has once again come under the spotlight.
Why is Micro LED expected to become a new generation of display technology?
Micro LED Display is a new generation of display technology. Its structure is a miniaturized LED array, which means the LED structure design is thinned, miniaturized and arrayed, so that its volume is about 1% of the size of current mainstream LEDs. Each pixel can be addressed and driven to emit light independently, reducing the distance between pixel points from the original millimeter level to the micron level.
Inheriting the characteristics of LED, the advantages of Micro LED include low power consumption, high brightness, ultra-high resolution and color saturation, fast response speed, ultra-power saving, long life, high efficiency, etc. Its power consumption is about 10% of LCD and 50% of OLED. Compared with OLED, which is also a self-luminous display, the brightness is 30 times higher, and the resolution can reach 1500PPI (pixel density), which is equivalent to 5 times the 300PPI of the OLED panel used in Apple Watch. In addition, better material stability and no image imprinting are also one of the advantages.
Apple and Sony are taking the lead in planning, targeting two extreme size applications
In the field of Micro LED that has not been fully developed, Apple and Sony have already taken the lead in planting flags, but the application of Micro LED by the two companies is at different levels of consumer electronics.
Apple specializes in small-size applications of Micro LED and has taken a fancy to LuxVue Technology, a Micro LED display technology company. It acquired LuxVue in May 2014 and obtained a number of Micro LED patented technologies. It wants to speed up the layout of related technology patents. At that time, Apple's acquisition aroused market attention, believing that Apple was expected to use a new generation of Micro LED technology on Apple Watch and iPhone. However, because it did not want to rely too much on panel manufacturers, it turned to LuxVue to acquire technology dominance in the Micro LED field.
Previously, "Science and Technology News" reported that LuxVue had applied for a patent for micro-device stabilization technology in November 2015. The patented technology includes a special stabilization layer that can stably carry micro-device arrays on the substrate, such as miniaturized LED devices, micro-chips, etc., ensuring that they can maintain a stable state during the transfer process. This was also a bottleneck encountered by the industry in the development of Micro LED. The exposure of this patent shows that LuxVue has crossed the most critical transfer technology threshold of Micro LED.
As for Sony, it is focusing on Micro LED large screens. Sony, which released related products earlier than Apple, launched "Crystal LED Display" as early as 2012 at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), firing the first shot at the application of Micro LED consumer electronics. In June this year, it launched a new splicing display screen "CLEDIS (Crystal LED Integrated)". "Structure", with the characteristics of ultra-high brightness, seamless splicing and almost unlimited display size, allows CLEDIS to be unaffected by ambient light when displayed outdoors, bringing a very good visual effect. Sony has even more confidently declared that it will achieve the mass production goal of CLEDIS in 2017.
Each factory is vying to cross the technical threshold and obtain patented technology to stay ahead of other manufacturers
In this battle to win in the Micro LED field, many major manufacturers in Taiwan have also invested in technology research and development, including semiconductor start-up PlayNitride, Taiwan Industrial Research Institute, AUO, Innolux, and Epistar. Other major international manufacturers that are also competing in Micro LED include Sony, Samsung, LG, Nichia, Sharp, etc., while mLED, a company spun out of the University of Strathclyde in the UK, Texas Tech University in the United States, Leti, the French Atomic Energy Agency's Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory, and X-celeprint, a spin-off from the University of Illinois, are also actively developing Micro LED technology.
Among them, Nitron, founded in 2014, cooperates with Taiwan Industrial Research Institute to develop related technologies and has previously published PixeLED patented display technology; LuxVue and X-celeprint are ahead of other manufacturers in transfer process technology, and X-celeprint has obtained the exclusive license for Micro-Transfer-Printing (μTP) technology; Strickland University focuses on micro LED head-mounted displays. displays (HMD) related applications; the French Leti Laboratory has recently entered the market from smart lighting and is expected to focus on Micro LED in heads-up displays (HUD) and head-mounted displays in the next 2 to 3 years. The ultimate goal is to enter the large-size display application market within 10 years.
From the above-mentioned relevant units that have invested in technology research and development, we can see the rough prototype of future Micro LED application development, such as smart wearable devices, smart phones, virtual reality devices and display screens.
ANNA