The biggest advantage of miniLED Quantum Dot TV is that it takes LCD performance to a new height not possible before. MiniLED display technology can enable LCD to achieve high brightness, very high contrast, better HDR (High Dynamic Range), thinner form factor and higher power efficiency to compete directly with OLED.

QD enhancement film (QDEF) enabled LCDs to have better color purity, wider color gamut (WCG), and offer a brighter and more immersive HDR experience while maintaining power efficiency. MiniLED Quantum Dot TV combined with higher capacity and more efficient production of larger size LCDs (65-inch and higher), higher resolutions (4K, 8K) and broader price points can drive replacement demand. With top brands like Samsung and LGE joining TCL this year by adopting miniLED QD TV, 2021 is expected to be "the year of MiniLED".

Higher Adoption - by Top TV Brands
Top consumer brands Samsung and LG Electronics joined TCL in introducing miniLED-based LCD TV products combined with Quantum Dots (QDs) at CES 2021. Samsung, Vizio, TCL, Hisense, Konka and Xiaomi were already offering QDEF-based LCD TVs. QD TV set prices have reached below $1,000 enabling higher adoption, larger market share and stronger growth rates in 2020 in spite of market slowdown. The growth in the use of miniLED backlights combined with QDs will lead to higher picture quality enabling further growth driving an expansion phase in 2021.
The biggest news at CES was LG Electronics (LGE) embracing both QD and miniLED technology this year by introducing what it calls 'QNED' miniLED TVs after years of being the biggest proponent of OLED TV. (not to be confused with what the industry calls QNED. LG had its trademark application for the term rejected - editor)
The company combines Quantum NanoCell color technology with miniLED backlighting. LGE’s 2021 Quantum Dot TV line-up will include miniLED backlights in both 4K and 8K resolutions spanning sizes from 65 to 86". Samsung the top TV supplier in the world and most successful supplier of QLED TV introduced “Neo QLED” miniLED backlight-based technology to its flagship 8K and 4K models in a variety of sizes (55 to 85"), with a range of features, performance and price ($1,600 to $9,000) range.
TCL launched its ultra-slim TV third generation miniLED TV “OD zero”. By reducing the optical distance between the miniLED backlight layer and the LCD display layer (diffuser plate) to 0 mm, it created an ultrathin backlight module. (TCL Offers Cool Display Innovations at CES 2021) TCL offers a broad range of miniLED QD TV products. Its lowest price model is below <$1000 for 65-inch. Hisense launched its first 8K TV with miniLED and QD technology. More brands are expected to introduce miniLED QD products in 2021.

Bigger Share - Premium TV Market 
According to industry data, more than 90% of the TVs sold in the world market are priced at <$1,000. Also the vast majority of the products on the market are sold at <$500. Massive LCD capacities, over-investment, fierce competition and lower panel prices (during over-supply) and low set prices have commoditized the TV market with low revenue and low profitability.
The premium TV market is generally considered to be at $1500 price. Even though it captures less than 10% of the market in terms of units it has significant share in revenue terms. Profitability is also higher. OLED has secured a strong presence in the premium TV market because of high picture quality, design differentiation, perfect black and an infinite contrast ratio.
LG Electronics is the most successful brand using LG Display’s OLED TV panels. Samsung has been gaining share with super-sized screens (65 to 98"), better features and better performance (higher luminance and color volume) with QD technology. The advanced TV technology of MiniLED with QD can provide higher display performance (very high contrast & WCG) with product differentiation (thinner form factors, no bezel) gaining higher shares in the premium market. It will also help panel suppliers and TV brands with higher revenue and profitability.

Drive - TV Replacement Demand
In recent years TV replacement cycles have been increasing to 7 to 10 years. MiniLED QD TV could drive more replacement demand with more advanced technology, differentiated product and visibly higher picture performance. In the past few years, resolution shift, curved form factors,WCG and HDR have not driven strong replacement demand. Historical data has shown that the TV market went through a major growth period when LCD backlight shifted from CCFL to LED offering thinner and better displays.
MiniLED backlight has the potential to offer stronger growth in future by offering thinner form factors and higher display performance in future years. Cost is still a major challenge. The technology is still evolving and the supply chain is still developing. If cost can significantly improve in future years it could trigger faster replacement cycles although low end miniLED QD TV has reached <$1000 price.

Enable - Higher Display Performance
By the use of multi zone blinking backlights (>10,000 zones), miniLED can enable LCD to have higher brightness (>1000nits), very high contrast (>10,000:1), excellent HDR, better color rendering, ultra thin form factor, superior power efficiency and display performance close to OLED. Due to miniLED’s small size, it can enable curved form factors and narrow bezels. MiniLED with multi zone blinking backlight can achieve better HDR with >100000:1 contrast ratio and higher peak brightness.
There are new requirements for Energy Star 8.0, which measures energy consumption in a dynamic display content mode, which can help to highlight the energy efficiency of miniLED backlights. MiniLED-based TV used less efficient passive matrix driving technology in 2019. With an increased number of zones, companies are shifting to active matrix driving technology in 2020, which is more efficient and cost effective. Panel suppliers such as AUO, Innolux, BOE and CSOT are all developing active matrix-based products, which will help adoption rates.
Smaller size miniLED chips, better die bonding and more efficient production, combined with lower open cell LCD TV panel prices could enable lower cost TV. Currently the TCL 75-inch 4K miniLED QLED TV price is lower than similar size OLED products. Many brands will pursue multiple TV technology strategies with LCD, OLED, QD and miniLED-based LCD TV together.  With the right price/performance strategy MiniLED can drive better growth.

Improved - Supply & Supply Chain
Suppliers are now starting to increase capacities and investments. Major LED chip companies are increasing capital expenditure to increase capacity and installing equipment for high-speed transfer, die testing and sorting to improve manufacturing yield. The development of tools to increase throughput efficiently and handle smaller dies (<100 micron) can reduce manufacturing costs.
As miniLED technology uses a large number of small size LEDs, the process of testing and repairing is very important to reduce repair costs and improve yield. Driver IC companies are focusing on miniLED products this year. Higher miniLED capacity is expected to come in 2021. There is more collaboration among suppliers within the miniLED supply chain: substrate, LED epitaxial wafer, packaging, driver ICs, display suppliers and even consumer electronic companies.
Panel suppliers are collaborating with their LED subsidiaries: MiniLED supply chain companies such as BOE, China Star, AUO, Innolux, Epistar, Sanan, Lextar, Macroblock, ASM Pacific Technology, Nationstar, Refond, Yenrich, and many others are all working to develop better solutions. Consumer electronics companies are also joining in the collaboration and development.

Lower Cost - Still a Challenge
Cost reduction can be realized through advanced chip production and higher throughput for the transfer and assembly process and PCB and driver IC enhancements. Chip production can be improved through a reduction in chip size, improvements in uniformity and boosting luminous efficiency. Upgrading transfer and assembly efficiency and accuracy can also improve manufacturing yield. Panel suppliers are switching backlight connection backplanes to use glass with active driving solutions to reduce costs. Panel suppliers and component suppliers are expected to focus more on cost reductions in 2021 to support brands’ product introduction of miniLED-based displays to drive growth and expansion plans.
At the same time TV panel price increases in Q4 2020 and also the expected increase in 1H of 2021 can create challenges for brand manufacturers, reducing their ability to offer more attractive prices. Strong TV demand combined with higher IT demand due to work from home trends has resulted in supply constraint. Also shortages of LCD components and raw materials, including polarizers, driver ICs and glass substrate are expected to continue in the 1H 2021, impacting supply and prices. Top TV manufacturers also have aggressive plans for 2021 in expectation of sales around the Olympics and further market recovery.
Recent panel price increases have resulted in increased Capex and expansion plans from LCD panel suppliers such as BOE, ChinaStar and others. Samsung and LGD have also delayed their plan to shift away from LCD production. These factors could all help to improve supply in 2H of 2021. Currently low end MiniLED QD TV set prices are lower than similar size OLED TVs and high end TV prices are higher than similar sized OLEDs.  
The addition of QDEF film to MiniLED backlight improves performance as well as costs. According to Nanosys,  “Quantum dot has been a low cost adder for TV companies. Cost is about $15/$16 for a square meter”. Adding QD to miniLED enables higher performance especially 100% color volume, expanded range of color, peak brightness and contrast capabilities, which are very important for the premium market. This is leading to very high rate of attachment of QD with MiniLED.
Summary – MiniLED QD Growth Opportunity
Recent developments can help drive miniLED QD LCD TV to higher success.

• Adoption of miniLED QD technology by top TV brands at different size, features, performance and price levels.
• Need for higher specs and differentiated product to drive TV replacement demand
• Need for higher value products to avoid commoditization to increase revenue and profitability.
• MiniLED QD technology enables LCD with significant higher performance.
• Enables ultra thin form factor, superior power efficiency and display performance close to OLED.
• Development of cost effective volume production process with high-speed transfer, higher yield, integrated with better testing and repair
• Higher collaboration, higher investment & increased supply for MiniLED
• Higher competition and production from many suppliers can lead to price and cost reductions, helping adoption rates.
• MiniLED backlight shift can drive higher replacement demand like the shift from CCFL to LED

(SD)
Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com

It is the time of the year to look forward to industry trends in 2021. This time last year it was not known that global markets would be hit by COVID pandemic. It came when the display market had been already impacted by over-supply for many quarters, panel prices were at record low level and Korean suppliers were transitioning from LCD to OLED due to low profitability.
 The first quarter of 2020 was impacted by supply constraints due to China impact. In the second quarter demand had a negative impact due to global lockdowns. In the third quarter, demand experienced strong growth both in IT as well as TV, resulting in tight supply and panel price increases. Display panel demand is still strong in Q4 and is expected to continue in 2021. For 2020, display technology trends continued as expected with some delays in new product introductions (Display Technology – Top Trends for 2020).

MiniLED Display: Poised for growth
Top consumer brands such as Apple, Samsung and others are expected to introduce miniLED-based products in 2021 for multiple applications. MiniLED-based displays were first introduced in 2018, but trade issues in 2019, and global pandemic in 2020 have delayed suppliers’ expansion plans and product introductions. MiniLED-based LCD products are already being shipped for use in high-end monitors and TVs.

• By the use of multi zone blinking backlights (>10,000 zones), miniLED can enable LCD to have higher brightness (>1000nits), very high contrast (>10,000:1), excellent HDR, better color rendering, ultra thin form factor, superior power efficiency and display performance close to OLED.
• MiniLED with the combination of quantum dot display technology can deliver >90% of DCI-P3 color gamut.
• Suppliers are now starting to increase capacities and investments. They are installing equipment for high-speed transfer, die testing and sorting to improve manufacturing yield.
• The supply chain is evolving. There is more collaboration among suppliers within the miniLED supply chain: substrate, LED epitaxial wafer, packaging, driver ICs, display suppliers and even consumer electronic companies.

Apple is expected to introduce 12.9” miniLED-based iPad Pro product in 2021. The company is reportedly planning to release six miniLED products by the end of 2021. Samsung is planning to introduce miniLED backlight technology for its quantum dot QLED TVs in 2021. Apple’s and Samsung’s adoption of miniLED technology will have a very positive impact on the supply chain and growth potential. Success will depend on suppliers’ ability to reduce costs to drive demand.

MicroLED Display: Progressing towards commercialization
MicroLED display technology is making steady progress towards commercialization. However the technology faces several challenges, which will take more time to resolve. In the meantime, suppliers will test the market with higher priced, lower volume, value-based products.
Samsung announced a 110" 4K prefabricated microLED TV in December 2020. It is expected to ship in Q1 2021. At CES 2020 Samsung showed “The Wall” large format TV products in 292", 150", 110", 93", and 88" using larger size chips. It also showed a 75" (4K) microLED TV based on smaller size chips from PlayNitride.
Samsung also planned to commercialize a 75" microLED TV based on PlayNitride chips in 2021. Display panel suppliers, many start-up companies and component suppliers as well as top brand manufacturers are exploring solutions for microLED products including Apple. The technology is still not in volume production due to manufacturing, production, scaling and yield issues. Next generation microLED display technology is still evolving.

• MicroLED displays have a strong potential to outperform TFTLCD and OLED as they offer high contrast, fast response time, wide viewing angles, wider color gamut, very high brightness, higher readability, long lifetime, environment stability, high resolution, ultra low power consumption and options of using a flexible backplane.
• They also allow the integration of sensors and circuits, enabling thin displays with embedded sensing capabilities such as fingerprint identification and gesture control.
• More partnerships and collaborations among panel makers, set makers and microLED chip makers are required for success.

Companies are initially targeting wearables, AR/VR headsets, digital signage, public display, and automotive (HUD) applications using microLED. High-speed transfer, assembly technologies, yields and defect management all need to improve before large volume commercialization in consumer products such as smartphones or TV.

Quantum Dot Display: Entering Expansion Phase
Quantum Dot (QD) has become a true enabler of display technologies by empowering LCD, OLED and MicroLED. It has increased its market share in 2020 with lower prices, higher product availability and improved performance enabling strong growth in shipments. This technology is expected to enter an expansion phase in 2021 through high capital investments (from Samsung) and technology developments that will enhance other technologies such as LCD, OLED and MicroLED especially through QD color conversion (QDCC).
Samsung, Vizio, TCL, Hisense, Konka and Xiaomi are already offering QDEF-based LCD TVs. Samsung is the dominant supplier of QDLED TVs. The company is now offering products ranging from 43-inch to 98-inch with resolutions up to 8K at various price points. QD TV set prices has reached below $1K enabling higher adoption, larger market shares and stronger growth rates in 2020 in spite of market slow down.

QDOLED: Samsung Display plans to invest close to $11 billion in next generation displays, which will include QDOLED and QNED. QDOLED-based products are expected in 2021. However there are still many challenges. Blue emitting materials still have efficiency and lifetime issues although multiple layers of blue OLED can be used to reduce the problem. (although as we have reported, Samsung's TV division is not believed to be committed to the technology - Editor) 

QNED: Recent industry information is showing Samsung to be working on QNED technology, a QD nanorod based on GaN technology. It  is expected to follow QDOLED development. (Are Quantum Nano Emitting Diodes (QNEDs) the Next Big Thing?)

QD MicroLED: With QDCC, display makers can start with a blue MicroLED array and then patterned quantum dots can convert blue light into both red and green at the sub-pixel level. It can be made compatible with the MicroLED manufacturing process and can reduce defect rates (from the pick and place process). This type of MicroLED display is expected to come in two or three years. It may still have challenges with full color conversion.

QD-Emissive Display: Electro-emissive QD display will have similar properties to OLED (perfect black and viewing angle), but with higher color gamut and higher brightness. BOE showed a 55-inch 4K active matrix QD LED (AMQLED) based on electroluminescent quantum dot technology in November. According to the company, AMQLED displays present a variety of advantages such as self-emitting, a wide color gamut, and a long lifetime. The display feature 3840x 2160 resolution, 119% of the NTSC color gamut and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
QD technology will enter another expansion phase in 2021 with strong demand growth even though it faces many challenges and competition from other display technologies.

OLED: Evolving for next generation products
OLED display technology is continuing to advance and evolve for next generation products. Technology development, improvements in materials and advancements in inkjet printing combined with capacity expansion and higher competition will help OLED display to gain higher market share in 2021. OLED display with its superior performance and increasing share is still facing many challenges. Companies are developing technologies to resolve these issues.

Flexible OLED: The technology will continue to gain share in 2021. It has been most successful in the smartphone market, which did slow down substantially in 2020. However the market is expected to recover with positive growth in 2021. The introduction of 5G-based products needing slimmer displays to accommodate 5G enabling components will increase flexible OLED demand. Apple has shifted completely to flexible OLED for iPhone 12 products. Integration of new technology such as fingerprint under display, touch display, and other features to reduce border & increased screen to body ratio can open up new opportunities.
Samsung Display dominates the flexible OLED market but LGD and BOE are increasing production. More capacity came from companies such as Tianma, Visionox, China Star (CSOT) and others in 2020. Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone products are the leading users of flexible OLED displays. Both Samsung and Apple are focusing on LTPO technology (combination of LTPS + Oxide TFT) that enables variable refresh rates and lower power consumptions.

Foldable OLED:  Foldable OLED received a boost in 2020 with the Samsung Z-flip, a clamshell design with ultra-thin glass (higher hardness, better scratch resistance) and a more aggressive price <$1200. The success of Samsung Z-flip and Z-fold2 has increased the growth outlook in 2021 and reduced reliability concerns. Development of colorless polyimide and ultrathin glass cover lenses, touch sensors on thin film encapsulation, LTPO and other technology will enable further success.

White OLED TV: Products increased market share with strong growth and introduction of a 48-inch size display. OLED TV has secured a strong presence in the premium TV market and will increase share in 2021. LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Skyworth, TPV, Hisense, Konka and others have all joined in, using LG Display’s panels. LGD is converting LCD TV capacity to OLED and is also making additional investment in production. It has faced strong competition from Samsung QLED (QDEF-based LCD) TV with aggressive price reductions.

QD-OLED: Samsung is planning to convert its 8.5 gen a-Si LCD capacity to 100K/m QDOLED capacity. According to industry news Samsung Display is starting to ship QD-OLED TV prototypes to potential customers and expected to mass produce in Q3 2021. QDOLED could combine the best of OLED and quantum dot technology.

LCD: Reinventing itself for survival and growth
The covid pandemic in 2020 had the most impact on the LCD market. Covid started when LCD was already in extreme over-supply with slow demand and high capacity expansion. Prices were at record low levels, panel suppliers had been unprofitable for many quarters and Samsung and LG Display were transitioning form LCD to OLED due to low profitability.
The impact of Covid on Chinese fabs delayed expansion plans and reduced production. Work-from-home and education-from-home increased tablet, notebook and monitor demand to an unexpected new level helping supply/demand balance. TV demand recovered in the 2H of 2020. Positive growth in LCD demand in 2021 combined with a tighter supply side will lead to brighter outlook. History has shown that when “panel price increases lead to set price increases”, it impacts demand negatively.
Quantum dot and MiniLED technology are helping LCD to reinvent itself by improving performance and bringing it closer to OLED display. This will help LCD to survive longer and enable its continued domination in large size display for many more years. For smaller size display a-Si and LTPS are continuing to lose shares to OLED especially in smartphone market. LTPS suppliers are continuing to innovate and improve performance and starting to increase shares in the notebook and tablet market. MiniLED will empower LTPS further.
​
The display market outlook is expected to be brighter in 2021. (SD)

Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com
​

OLED display technology is continuing to advance for next generation products, a glimpse of which was seen through various presentations at the OLEDs World Summit 2020 conference from Sept 30th to Oct 2nd. Technology development, improvements in materials, advancements in inkjet printing combined with capacity expansion and higher competition will help OLED display to gain higher market share in the future.

OLED Display: Competition increasing
OLED is already leading in terms of display performance and steadily increasing market share. According to Omdia’s presentation at OLEDs Summit,
“Korean OLED makers lead the OLED capacity with 67% in 2020, but China is challenging Korea with 31% capacity in 2020 and continuous expansion. Chinese OLED makers grew substantially in 2020 with improvements in the flexible OLED yield rate and customers adoption”.
By 2022 China is expected to have nine Gen 6 flexible OLED fabs. The high cost of OLED displays has been a limitation for faster market share growth both in the smartphone and TV market. Technology advancements, capacity growth and higher competition can help to reduce costs and drive future growth.

Flexible Display: Gaining shares in the smartphone market
The smartphone market has slowed down substantially in 2020 and is expected to recover with positive growth in 2021 boosted by 5G adoption. The introduction of 5G-based products needing slimmer displays to accommodate 5G enabling components will increase flexible OLED demand. Integration of new technology such as fingerprint under display, touch display, and other features to reduce border & increased screen to body ratio can open up new opportunities.
Samsung Display dominates the flexible market but LGD and BOE are increasing production. More capacity is coming from companies such as Tianma, Visionox, China Star (CSOT) and others in 2020. According to DSSC presentation at OLEDs Summit
“OLED represented 23% of phone panels (including feature phones) in 2019 with 466 million units, increasing to 41% in 2024 with 889 million, limited primarily by price”.

LTPO: Enabling power savings
LTPO technology is a combination of LTPS + Oxide TFT technology that enables variable refresh rates and low power consumption. LTPS has high carrier mobility and high driving capability whereas Oxide TFT has low leakage. Many companies are working on this technology for next generation displays. According to an Omdia presentation

“Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone OLED are now leading the flexible OLED technology and product roadmap. Samsung Galaxy will eventually move to 4K/500+ PPI resolution and over 6.5” screen size. iPhone OLED will be moving to Touch on Thin Film Encapsulation, Driver IC COP and LTPO. Samsung called their LTPO  HOP (Hybrid oxide and polycrystalline silicon). Smartphone batteries are getting bigger and power consumption matters. Regardless of LTPO or HOP, both need more photomasks than LTPS to pattern the oxide semiconductor layer and other layers, which increases the cost by 15–20%”.
High costs will make it difficult for power saving LTPO technology to be used in lower priced 5G products.

Foldable Display: Evolving with form factors
Omdia presented that Foldable smartphone OLED is targeting at a certain market segment with over $2,000 price tag and 7”-8” sizes. The market is expected to grow to 50 million in 2024. Samsung Display is leading the technology roadmap and has revamped the new structure from panel to touch and cover lens. The keys to achieve the real and mature foldable OLED are -

• Cover Lens with Colorless Polyimide or Ultra Thin Glass,
• Touch Sensor on Thin Film Encapsulation,
• Color filter on Thin Film Encapsulation, Under Panel Camera and
• LTPO with lower power consumption”.

Royole, supplier of the first foldable displays also presented that as display sizes increase power consumption also increases and LTPO with its capability of variable refresh rates can be used to reduce power consumption. Omdia presented that for Rollable/Stretchable AMOLED in future, two critical paths are reliability and cost. Prototypes of rollable products have already been shown in the industry: including Sharp 32-inch 4K, LG 65-inch TV, Visionox 6.47-inch display and BOE 12.3-inch rollable.

OLED Microdisplay: Offering higher brightness
The VR/AR market is expected to grow in the next five years. Companies such as HTC and Oculus have developed more stand-alone, all-in-one devices for VR with lower prices. OLED displays have been gaining higher acceptance in the VR market due to its high refresh rates, higher resolutions, and higher contrast for either direct view or microdisplay architectures. AR adoption has been slow due to high prices and low consumer acceptance.
eMagin Corporation presented OLED microdisplays for AR/VR applications. The presentation identified four major challenges for AR/VR applications:

• Displays.
• Optics,
• Content and
• Price.

Displays need high resolution, high brightness, high contrast, low power and small form factor. Optics requires large field of view (FOV), no distortion, high efficiency, lightweight and small factors. Content needs games, movies, live events, etc. and graphic processing speed. Everything needs to come together for it to be a successful business.

Display brightness is critical for AR and VR devices because of ambient light, optics inefficiency and need to eliminate motion artifacts. eMagin has developed Direct Patterning (dPd) OLED microdisplay technology and high resolution backplane design. The company has demonstrated >7500 cd/m² full color OLED microdisplay and next goal is to achieve >10,000 cd/m² product and is targeting a brightness level of >28,000 cd/m² in future.

White OLED display: Facing strong competition
White OLED TV has secured a strong presence in the premium TV market. LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Skyworth, TPV, Hisense, Konka and others have all joined in using LG Display’s panels. LGD is converting LCD TV capacity to OLED and is also making additional investments.
The company will use the MMG method, combining different sizes of finished panels on one mother glass to improve efficiency and production costs. It has faced strong competition from Samsung QLED (QDEF-based LCD) TV with aggressive price reductions. According to a DSCC presentation:
“OLED only ~1% of TV units in 2019 with 3.4 million, growing to ~4% by 2024 with 12.2 million, limited by capacity, product line and high prices. OLED represented 9% of TV panel revenue in 2019 with $2.5 billion, and DSCC forecasts it to increase to 19% in 2024 with $6.4 billion”. 
DSCC presented four major issues with OLED TV:

• Cost (For a 65-inch white OLED panel cost is three times the cost of QD LCD panel)
• Holdouts (no OLED TV) by Samsung and TCL (Top 2 global TV brands)
• No immediate plan for white OLED by other panel markers
• LCD price drop (2017 to 2019) opened up price gap to OLED

According to DSCC presentation
“Samsung will convert 120,000 substrates per month of a-Si LCD capacity to 30,000 substrates per month of QD OLED capacity for the first phase of Q-1. The large capacity reduction is the result of: increase in mask steps (12 masks with QDOLED), additional space for OLED frontplane, and secondary color filter for QDCC. SDC’s G8.5 LCD capacity will eventually be converted to QD OLED for 100k/month”.

QD OLED display: Ready for production
According to the Nanosys presentation at OLEDs Summit, Blue OLED+QDCC has potential advantages (over white OLED);

• Better color
• Better viewing angle (no cavity)
• Higher luminous efficiency, so could be brighter, or have less burn-in
• Single color EL provides design flexibility and no differential aging

QD OLED needs a blue light source (high efficiency, long lifetime), design and production of heavy metal-free QDs (high blue absorption and higher conversion efficiency). Nanosys is working on design, production of heavy metal-free QDs and process scalability to enable market adoption. Also inkjet printing can enable low cost fabrication of QDCC.

QNED display: Next in line for production
DSCC presentated that Samsung is reportedly working on QNED technology in which GaN-based blue Light Emitting Nanorod LEDs will replace OLED as the blue light source. The advantages of the QNED structure over OLED include higher efficiencies, improved brightness, longer lifetimes and elimination of burnin issues that have been associated with OLEDs.

Inkjet Printing: Hoping to empower the TV application
White OLED with color filter technology has been the only successful technology up to now for large OLED displays (use by LGD). EMD Performance Materials (Merck) presented that WOLED+CF has a complex stack with >15 layers. Inkjet Printing (IJP) OLED offers several advantages including high material utilization, a simple OLED stack and excellent color without color filters in the panel.

There are still some challenges such as lifetime improvement in soluble materials for top emission (TE) architecture and achieving the REC 2020 color gamut. A top emission stack enables a higher aperture ratio for OLED panels. Merck focuses on ink formulations for the flat films solution-based deposition process, which is crucial for high performance pure color top emission stacks.

According to the presentation, their ink formulation know how for TE and high-resolution display is suitable for 4K IT monitors and 8KOLED TVs. The UDC presentation also focused on their mask-less, solvent-less, OVJP product and formation of an OVJP company to commercialize the technology. According to the company, in their OVJP patented approach they can use the same stack in OLED for conventional and OJP, enabling RGB side by side low cost TV production.

OLED Materials: More efficient Blue
UDC also presented about progress made in phosphorescent OLED display. The industry is continuing to make progress towards more efficient blue emitter materials. Cynora is still focusing on being a leading supplier for TADF deep blue in the long term (in the near term it is focusing on florescent blue and in midterm focusing on TADF green). Kyulux is working on commercialization of Hyperfluorescence technology. Monochrome yellow is already being used for PMOLED. Red and green Hyperfluorescence is close to commercialization and blue performance is improving.

At the OLED world Summit, discussions about microLED display technology were included in several presentations. Lumileds, the company that is developing InGaN and AllnGap mass transfer capable micro iLED technology also presented. The company said that iLEDs are well suited for medium and high luminance application and steady progress is being made on key enablers. It also concluded that in next 10 years both technologies would win.

OLED display technology is advancing in terms of materials, equipment, performance, capacity, investments and competition that will lead to lower cost and higher adoption rates for varieties of applications market in future. (SD)
Sweta Dash, President, Dash-Insights

Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com

Next generation microLED display technology is still evolving. A glimpse of that was seen at DisplayWeek 2020. While some suppliers showcased microLED display prototypes virtually, others in the supply chain presented about materials, process and technology innovations that will help the commercialization of products.
MicroLED provides the best features of LCD and OLED display and has the potential to outperform both technologies. It is still not in volume production due to manufacturing, production, scaling and yield issues. Technology innovations are critical in enabling cost reductions and volume productions so that microLED can compete effectively with OLED and LCD in future.

MicroLED Display: Prototypes Shown Virtually
Many suppliers including AUO, Playnitride, Tianma, ITRI, Jade Bird Display and others showcased virtual prototypes of products focusing on a variety of applications.

AUO
AUO focused on auto applications and showed its LTPS TFT driven 12.1-inch (169 PPI) microLED display with glass backplane and its latest 9.4-inch (228 PPI) flexible display with PI (Polyimide) co-developed with Playnitride. The automotive application is considered to be ideal for mid-sized microLED display because of its higher brightness, reliability, and ability to operate in very wide temperature range.

Tianma
Tianma showcased a 7.56-inch (114 PPI), >600 nits flexible and a 5.04inch (114 PPI), 600nits LTPS TFT microLED display for automotive applications. It also had 5.84" MicroLED+E-Paper display for Ebook applications.

Playnitride
Playnitride demonstrated the advantages of microLED display for transparent and auto display. It showed its 7.56inch transparent display as well as other displays co-developed with AUO and Tianma. Its transparent display has 60% transparency. According to industry sources microLED has the potential to achieve 80% maximum transparency, which is higher than OLED.

ITRI
ITRI showed a flexible foldable and transparent microLED. Its curved design makes it suitable for various types of consumer applications 

Jade Bird Display
Jade Bird Display showed a 0.31-inch monochrome 720P (5000 DPI),  a 0.22-inch 1080P (10K DPI), and a 0.13-inch VGA (6000DPI), microLED for microdisplays with Si-IC backplanes focused on AR/VR.

MicroLED Display: Technology Innovations Presented
Self-emitting microLED displays are simple in structure compared to OLED and LCDs but have a complex manufacturing process. MicroLED displays integrations can use a pick and place process where chips are transferred from epiwafers or carriers to the display backplane (LTPS or oxide on a glass or flexible PI substrate). It can also use a monolithic integration process which involves microLED arrays and backplane hybridization. Display integration, production and manufacturing process are still evolving to improve throughput and reduce yield issues. Manufacturing and yield problems can become an issue in several parts of the process such as epitaxy, chip making, mass transfer, bonding, driving technology, backplane, inspection and repair. At DisplayWeek many companies presented papers focused on improving transfer, inspections and manufacturing technology for microLED. iBeam, VueReal, InZiv and Compound Photonics presented at the Business Conference.

iBeam: GaN on Flexible Metal Technology
Instead of producing GaN LEDs on rigid 6-inch sapphire wafer at a high cost, iBeam has devised a new solution of fabricating LEDs directly on polycrystalline flexible metal foil (without transfer). Large area metal foil can replace sapphire wafers as a substrate for LEDs.
This way GaN production can scale up to Roll-to-Roll (R2R) manufacturing. This process can enable large scales monolithic integration of LEDs. In this scalable process a single-crystal-like layer is artificially created on polycrystalline or amorphous substrate (can be used also with glass or ceramic).
Their next step is to achieve milestone for low cost manufacturing process. According to the company, yield and reliability can improve greatly in their process compared to mass transfer approaches. Quantum Dot down-conversion for red and green color can also exceed DCI-P3 color gamut. The presentation said that the cost of display scales with area, not with the number of pixels, unlike other microLED approaches. So a 4K or 8K resolution cost will be same as 1K-resolution display. Also the R2R factory manufacturing cost can be lower ($100M) compared to a wafer ($1B) or LCD fab ($2B).  The company said a process where low cost GaN deposition is combined with R2R production, can lead to substantial cost reduction (>20x reduction in Epi cost). This will enable microLED displays to be more cost competitive with OLED in future. Samsung Ventures has invested in the company. For more see iBeam Gets Help to Be Disruptive from a Tech Giant.

VueReal: Micro-Solid Printing
VueReal presented information about their Micro-Solid printing technology which is said to solve limitation to yield, throughput, cost and performance. In the VueReal process MicroLEDs are printed directly from a cartridge to a display substrate selectively. This can reduce repair cost by 10 times. It has multi cartridge transfer (>100 cartridges at once) and multi color cartridge (RGB cartridge) can be used. As only one transfer is needed to populate red, green and blue, it can improve throughput by more than 3 times. It is also compatible with <5um vertical LEDs, compatible for TV, smartphone, watch, auto and other applications, as well as compatible with existing tool and with lateral, vertical and flip chips. Fully inspected cartridge can be use to identify defects, bin for performance, and protect microLEDs during printing, thus improving yields.
According to VuReal, their MicroSolid printing has competitive advantages over pick and place processes, especially for smartphone, tablet, IT, auto and TV use. Using their patented continuous pixelation solution they have demonstrated a 30K PPI LED array. The company is planning to start sales in 2021 - their solution of integrating an inspection cartridge with existing transfer tools can reduce repair cost and increase throughput. Then in 2023 the company is planning to sell their MicroSolid printer for high volume application markets such as TV, smartphone, IT and others. Their printing solution can be used for original mother glasses for those applications offering high yield and throughput. It can also be used for <10 micron microLEDs which will be critical for cost competitiveness with LCD and OLED.

InZiv: High Resolution Inspection Tools
InZiv provides high-resolution inspection tools for microLED, OLED and QLED. It helps in nano-scale optical, spectral, and structural identification and characterization of sub-features and defects in display pixels. As display resolutions are getting higher pixels are getting smaller. InZiv said current inspection equipment lacks the resolution needed to identify and analyze defects on smaller pixels especially <5 micron. So an inconsequential defect in 50-micron size becomes a critical defect in 1-micron size microLED. InZiv’s equipment offers patented nano-optical inspection technology for light emitting pixel. According to the company, early detection of pixel defects results in substantial cost savings for display manufacturers improving quality and yield.  

Compound Photonics: Advance Microdisplay Technology
Compound Photonics introduced its IntelliPix™ all in one microdisplay drive technology platform that focuses to accelerate sub 5 micron pixel microLED development for AR/MR. It features multiple video pipeline and system integration and address power optimization, latency and bandwidth use. Combined with CP’s integration capabilities for microLED array bonding, device packaging, testing, and optical engine designs this opens new possibilities in display size reduction that is required for next generation AR display. The platform will be available for demo in early 2021.

NS Nanotech: Bringing NanoLEDs to market
NS Nanotech presented a paper on submicron full color LED pixels for microLEDs at the symposium. With breakthrough in material science and performance the company has been able to develop nanoLEDS. The company demonstrated a bottom-up approach to the construction of micro-LEDs as small as 150nm in lateral dimension. Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) was used to fabricate such nanostructured LEDs from InGaN, from the blue to red regions of the spectrum, providing a single material set useful for an entire RGB display. By using their research the company has developed catalyst-free nano-column growth, disc-in-nanocolumn architecture and pure photonic band gap LEDs using monolithic RGB integration in a single process step. The product can deliver next generation performance for LED with REC 2020 color gamut, color stability, best in class efficiency and nano-micron size LEDs. With innovation and collaboration through the supply chain, the submicron full color LED pixels for microLED can bring breakthrough in product development.
Technology innovations and supply chain collaborations are really critical for next generation microLED displays to transform them from prototypes to successful commercial products with volume production that can compete effectively with OLED and LCD in future.
Sweta Dash, President, Dash-Insights
​
Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com
​

The Display Week 2020 conference was conducted virtually for the first time from August 3rd to August 7th and the online conference continues to be open until Dec 7th 2020.  With 180+ virtual exhibitors, seminars, symposiums, I-Zones and the SID/DSCC Business Conference, it gave a glimpse into the future of display in terms of market and technology.

Display Market Outlook:  Brighter for 2021
The Business Conference, organized in conjunction with DSCC, the provided display market outlook from analysts as well as executives from panel suppliers, brands, and equipment/material suppliers. According to DSCC's presentation, Covid 19 came when there was over-supply in large area and small/medium display market: panel prices were at a record low, panel suppliers had not made money for nine straight quarters and Korean suppliers are transitioning from LCD to OLED.
The impact of work-from-home and learn-from-home resulted in strong demand for tablets, notebooks and monitors. Even TV demand has recovered resulting in panel price increases. Mobile phones and auto displays are continuing to face negative demand growth rates. The global market is expected to be more display-centric after the Pandemic, leading to faster recovery. DSCC is forecasting a brighter outlook for display revenues in 2021. OLED will have higher equipment spending compared to LCD in 2020 and in future years. OLED displays will continue to gain market share from LCD. The Foldable OLED smartphone market is still developing. Demand is mostly focused on clamshell designs due to lower cost and less risk of damage. The Samsung Z flip is the most popular with robust design using ultrathin glass from Schott. High prices, ultrathin glass capacity constraints and still evolving form factors are limiting adoption rates for foldable smartphones.

OLED: Increasing Shares and Evolving Technology
OLED display with its superior performance and increasing share is still facing many challenges in terms of manufacturing complexities, yield, lifetime, efficiency of blue materials, power consumption and other issues. Display Week 2020 had many presentations from the global display industry, about technology development to resolve these issues. The smartphone market is expected to recover in 2021 boosted by 5G adoption. Flexible OLED displays are preferred for 5G products. Technology development is still needed to improve efficiency and lower power consumption.

• Cathode Patterning Material

As the smartphone market is shifting towards larger screen sizes, foldable displays and 5G, there is a greater need for lower power consumption and smaller battery size. OTI Lumionics showed how a patterned cathode in the OLED stack can enable high transparency ( for under display cameras & AR), higher brightness (mobile & automotive), low power consumption (5G & foldable), and larger size panels (foldable & QD-OLED). Their materials for cathode patterning are produced by PPG and have been qualified by multiple panel makers up to 6G lines. AMOLED modules with their products are being qualified with Tier 1 device makers and are expected to ship in 2021. The company said that their technology is enabling multiple customer applications: under display camera and face unlock, transparent display for AR, longer battery life and higher brightness for mobile, and larger size panels for foldable and QDOLED. Panel suppliers are currently pursuing different options for under-display camera and lower power consumptions. (more about this topic shortly - editor)

• Blue Material Development

High efficiency of blue OLED material is getting to be crucial to enable substantial power savings for mobile and IT products and enable high performance QD-OLED panel resulting in lower costs and higher resolution products. Companies such as UDC (Phosphorescence), Cynora (TADF), and Kyulux (Hyperfluorescence) are working towards developing the desired color, efficiency and lifetime. While there is progress it is not clear when it will be available. Current use of fluorescence material includes a deep blue color but with low efficiency. A paper from Samsung Display discussed how blue phosphorescent color purity and efficiency could be improved. 

• LTPO Technology

There were several interesting papers about LTPO by companies including Sharp and Royole. This technology is a combination of LTPS + Oxide TFT technology that enables variable refresh rates and low power consumption. LTPS has high carrier mobility and high driving capability whereas Oxide TFT has low leakage. It will enable a broad range of display applications with low standby power and high refresh rates. Apple the was first to use it in the Apple watch. Many companies are working on this technology for next generation displays. Samsung has already announced a Galaxy smartphone with variable refresh rates for 5G products resulting in lower power consumption. Samsung's Z fold 2 product has the first LTPO foldable display.

Ink Jet Printing: Starting Production
Ink Jet Printing (IJP) for advanced displays such as OLEDs has been investigated for more than 15 to 20 years. Printing technology has the advantage in terms of scalability of mother glass, and high efficiency in material utilization. It is already being used successfully for OLED thin film encapsulation (TFE) enabling flexible and foldable display. IJP for RGB OLED printing has been challenging due to material issues and manufacturing complexities. JOLED is the only supplier up to now to use IJP (Sumitomo polymer materials & Panasonic IJ printer) to commercialize 21. 6-inch,4K RGB OLED mid-size displays (currently used by Asus and Eizo as monitors). JOLED is also planning to produce 27-inch and 32-inch 4K OLED LTPS panels. It has also shown prototype of a printed 12-inch FHD flexible OLED sheet.
Increasing the substrate size of IJP can contribute to reduction in production costs. It is difficult to use LTPS TFT for larger lower cost displays. Oxide TFTs can be used for 8.5 G to 11G fab for printed OLED. RGB printing plus oxide TFTs can potentially contribute to high productivity in OLED display manufacturing. A printing method is required for RGB OLED TV panels for a top emission structure, as the Fine Metal Mask (FMM) method can’t be used. There are several advantages to printing including process simplification, investment and material cost reduction, smaller clean room space and a more environmentally friendly process. It will be also very valuable for next gen displays such as QDOLED, QNED, EL-QD and RGB OLED TV. CSOT/TCL invested $187 million in JOLED to scale up IJP technology for large size RGB IJP TV. DSCC forecasts that CSOT's RGB IJP OLED 8.5 Gen fab’s mass production will start in 2024. IJP prototype printers have been shown scaled to Gen 8 sizes by various equipment makers including TEL, Kateeva and SEMES.

QLED, QDOLED, QNED: Entering The Expansion phase
Samsung Electronics has been focusing on QLED (QDEF LCD) TV.  According to Nanosys’s presentation, the QD TV model proliferation rate is nearly double that of OLED TV resulting in more choices for consumers. QD TV set prices have reached below $1K enabling higher adoption and stronger growth rates. According to the DSCC’s Inkjet Printing presentation, Samsung Display is converting an 8.5 Gen LCD fab to QDOLED.
Samsung Display plans to invest $11 billion in next generation displays, which will include QDOLED and QNED. Samsung will convert 120K substrates/month of a-Si LCD capacity to 30K substrates/m QDOLED capacity in the first phase. Eventually Samsung Display plans 8.5 gen capacity to be converted to 100K/m QDOLED capacity. QNED is currently in the R&D phase and will progress to pilot line in 2021 if successful. According to the presentation, it is possible thatthe  QDOLED process line planned for the future may be converted to QNED where blue OLED will be replaced by Nanorod LED. Both Nanorods and QDCC (QD Color Convertor) can be deposited by IJP. Although advances are being made in EL-QD, its commercialization is beyond several years. EL-QD has advantages over OLED including high brightness, low power consumption, wider color gamut and potentially lower costs. EL-QD material performance still can be a challenge, and others include the lifetime of Cd-free EL-QD, Blue EL-QD, ink formulations and yield.

MiniLED, MIcroLED: Bringing competition to OLED in future
Mature LCD technology still continues to improve with the help of dual cell LCDs, miniLED backlights and QD technology improving contrast ratio, color gamut, luminance and HDR performance. Companies such as BOE and CSOT/TCL are focusing on dual cell LCD for TV. MiniLED backlights offer thinner backlight structure, high-density dimming zones and low halo effect for better HDR. A large number of zones can reduce the halo effect. Market for miniLED backlights is increasing for TV, automotive, monitor and notebook applications. MiniLED backlights outperform OLED in terms of brightness, image sticking, lifetime and narrow borders.
MiniLED-based LCD products have the potential to offer competition to OLED especially if cost can be reduced.
At Display Week, many companies presented papers focused on improving transfer, inspection and manufacturing technology for MicroLED. Vureal presented their printing process where MicroLEDs are printed directly from a cartridge to a display substrate selectively, and scalable to high volume production. It has multi cartridge transfer and multi color cartridges compatible for TV.  V Technology presented prototype systems and processes of laser lift off (LLO), mass transfer, electric bonding and color conversion layer. MicroLED-based displays have emerged as leading display solution to bring AR/MR glasses to the market due to their power efficiency and simple optics. Rohinni (with a joint venture with BOE) presented how to achieve high volume manufacturing. MicroLED is considered to be the next generation technology and making steady progress towards commercialization.
Display Week conference has always been the place to get a glimpse of future technology. It continues to deliver that even in a virtual setting. (SD)

Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com
 

MiniLED display technology can open up new opportunities for display application markets by offering higher specs and differentiated products. The global pandemic and slower economy have compounded the impact of slower display market demand. LCD has been facing over-investment, lower demand and low profitability. It has already pushed top suppliers such as Samsung Display and LG Display to move away from LCD production.
However, miniLED backlight technology (MiniLED-Based Displays Poised for Expanded Presence) can empower LCDs with very high contrast ratio, ultra high brightness, better HDR, thinner form factors and lower power consumption to compete directly with OLED in the high-end display application market.
​

MiniLED: For High-end TV

TV market demand has slowed down in recent years even though there has been a major shift towards larger screen sizes (55-inch and higher) and higher resolution (4K, 8K) displays. LCD TV (a-Si) has dominant share of the market but OLED TV has been gaining strong market shares in the high-end with thinner form factor, higher contrast, wider viewing angle, deeper black level, better color gamut and faster response time.  Still it faces burn-in, lifetime, image retention and limited supply issues.
LG Display is the only supplier for OLED TV panels. Samsung Display is planning to manufacture emissive QDOLED in future years. Samsung Electronics has been gaining market shares in the high-end with higher specs (8K) and more competitive priced Quantum Dot(QD)-based (LCD) TV. MiniLED with full array blinking backlight can improve LCD performance significantly. Performance can even improve further with QD technology. Suppliers are hoping that possible market recovery in 2021 and Olympic Games will require higher-specs products to revive the market.
TCL was first to introduce miniLED backlight-based Quantum Dot TVs in sizes of 65”(<$2000) and 75”(<$3000) in 2019. At CES 2020, the following products were shown.

• TCL: 75-inch 8K TV with 25,000 miniLED, >10,000 dimming zones on a glass black plane.
• LG: 8K miniLED-based LCD TV concept capable of reaching 4000 nits brightness.
• Konka: 8K miniLED-based TV with 40K miniLEDs and 10K zones.
• Vizio: 8K miniLED-based TV concept.
• BOE: 8K TV miniLED-based panel with a glass backplane, planning to launch in 2020.

According to Taiwan-based news sources, Samsung is reported to be preparing launch of miniLED TV in 2021. Multiple TV brands are also expected to introduce miniLED-based TV products by next year. MiniLED component suppliers are starting to report strong demand for miniLED packages for TV in 2H 2020. The global pandemic situation may delay some product launches to 2021.
With a high number of miniLED and dimming zones, each zone can be turned on and off selectively empowering LCD TV with high contrast ratio, better HDR performance, higher luminance, deeper black level, better power consumption, thinner backlights and longer lifetime. There are new requirements for Energy Star 8.0, which measures energy consumption in a dynamic display content mode, which can help to highlight the energy efficiency of miniLED backlights.
MiniLED-based TV used less efficient passive matrix driving technology in 2019. With an increased number of zones, companies are shifting to active matrix driving technology in 2020, which is more efficient and cost effective. Panel suppliers such as AUO, Innolux, BOE and CSOT are all developing active matrix-based products, which will help adoption rates.
Smaller size chips, better die bonding and more efficient production, combined with lower open cell LCD TV panel are enabling lower cost TV. Currently the TCL 75-inch 4K miniLED-based TV price is lower than similar OLED products. Many brands will pursue multiple TV technology strategies with LCD, OLED, QD and miniLED-based LCD TV together.  With the right price/performance strategy MiniLED can have great opportunities in the TV market in the next few years.

MiniLED: For Gaming Monitors, Notebooks and High-end Tablets

At CES 2020, a series of gaming monitor based on Quantum Dot technology were introduced with miniLED backlights and a higher number of Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) zones. That enabled products with very high contrast, deeper black level, higher color accuracy, high efficiency, higher peak brightness, and greatly improved picture quality.

• Acer and Asus: Both had a QD MiniLED 32-inch 4K G-Sync gaming monitor with 1152 dimming zones, 1400 cd/m² (nits) peak brightness, improved contrast and 90% of BT 2020 color gamut vastly improving picture quality.
• Lenovo: 27-inch 4K professional monitor with miniLED backlight (1152 zones), 1000 nit peak brightness.
• MSI: 17.3-inch mini LED based gaming notebook with 240 local dimming zones with >10K miniLED chips.

Acer, Asus, Lenovo and MSI are all expected to release their monitor and notebook products by the second half of 2020. With a miniLED backlight, an LCD can bring color contrast and display performance close to OLED. It outperforms OLED in terms of luminance and lifetime, important for gaming monitors. Generally OLED has an inverse relationship with luminance and lifetime. Companies are using pixel-shifting algorithms to reduce impact of burn-in in OLED monitor and OLED is gaining interest in high-end monitor segments with products from some suppliers.
The current price of miniLED-based gaming monitors are very high, > $3000 which can be a challenge for high adoption rates. According to published industry information, Apple is expected to introduce six products using miniLED backlight displays by the end of 2020 and 2021 including the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro. This may create a new wave of demand for miniLED-based products over the next few years.

MiniLED:  For Auto Display

Growth in electric, connected and autonomous cars will drive auto display demand. LCD is still the dominant technology in this application but interest in OLED is growing due to the higher display performance and flexibility in design. MiniLED technology offers very high contrast and brightness (sunlight readability), long lifetime, ruggedness in wide temperature range and can be used for displays with curved surfaces, offering design flexibility. However, there are difficulties in achieving qualification of OLEDs for automotive use, which shouldn't be a problem for miniLED LCDs.

• Innolux: 10.1" active matrix auto display with miniLED backlight, that can achieve 1000 cd/m² brightness, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and very high sunlight readability.
• AUO: 12.3-inch LTPS curved cluster panel 750 R curved and 1000 nits brightness.

MinLED LCD auto displays can also be used for dashboards, in-vehicle infotainment and rear view mirrors.  Suppliers are already delivering samples for design wins.


MiniLED: For VR ApplicationsMiniLED backlights with local dimming and low MPRT  can work well for high PPI VR LCDs. Active matrix miniLED backlights with LTPS backplanes can provide higher resolution and slim design, and switchable mode which are preferred for VR LCD.

• AUO: 2.9-inch LTPS display, 2304 dimming zones, pixel density 1688PPI, active matrix miniLED backlight based display for realistic VR experience with HDR

MiniLED: For SmartphonesDisplay panel suppliers have shown MiniLED backlight options with LTPS offering higher contrast, and faster response time to reduce the performance gap with OLED.

• Tianma: LTPS miniLED HDR LCD smartphone display, with local dimming (with up to 4600 partitions), >1,00,000:1 contrast ratio, >1,000nit brightness, high color gamut, (DCI-P3) and wide viewing angles.
• CSOT: 5.99inch LTPS display (1080x2160), 500nits, >1,00,000:1 contrast ratio with miniLED backlight.

However, miniLED backlight-based LTPS LCD cost is still high and the thickness can’t match flexible OLEDs. OLED has been gaining market share in the smartphone market. Capacity is increasing with flexible OLED smartphone panels coming from China, which will lead to lower prices in future. All these factors will make it very difficult for MiniLED to succeed in the smartphone market.


MiniLED – Road to SuccessDisplay suppliers such as AUO, BOE, Innolux, CSOT and Tianma have been showcasing prototypes of miniLED backlight-based LCD products in different sizes and applications since 2018. Costs, yield rates and production issues have been very challenging for higher adoption rates.
Recent developments can help drive miniLED based LCD to higher success.

• Need for higher specs and differentiated product: low demand, lower prices and low profitability requiring innovations to drive demand growth
• Top brands adopting miniLED technology: Apple adoption of miniLED could be substantial for the industry similar to how OLED in iPhone drove OLED investments, production and demand. Samsung launching a miniLED TV could drive demand higher.
• New equipment for cost effective volume production: The K&S joint development with Rohinni “Pixalux”, enables high-speed transfer with high accuracy and yield, for cost effective volume production, integrated with testing and repair to replace defective die by laser technology.
• Higher collaboration: among suppliers within the MiniLED supply chain including substrate, LED epitaxial wafer, packaging, driver ICs, display suppliers and even consumer electronic companies.
• Higher investment and capacity: Display, LED, backlight and other suppliers from Taiwan/China increasing investment and capacity.
• Higher competition and production from many suppliers: can lead to price and cost reductions, helping adoption rates.

MiniLED based LCD products can open up new opportunities for the display application market with higher specs and differentiated products in coming years. (SD)
Sweta Dash, President, Dash-Insights
Sweta Dash is the founding president of Dash-Insights, a market research and consulting company specializing in the display industry. For more information, contact sweta@dash-insights.com or visit www.dash-insights.com