Just about QLED and OLED Who is the fierce competition in the future of television? At the beginning of this year, MicroLED has frequently appeared in public view. Apple's rumors that Apple has joined the development and manufacturing of Micro LED once appeared to make it appear that the future display The direction of the war changed again.
Apple was exposed 'secret' R & D
Recently, sources pointed out that Apple is designing and manufacturing its own display screen at a research and development and manufacturing facility in California. The display is a Micro LED screen. Hundreds of engineers are working on this project, and this technology may be used first. Apple Watch.
As soon as the news flowed out, it immediately caused a panel Display industry The vibration. Samsung monitor The company, LG Display, Japan Display Corporation, Sharp's share price fell in response.
Apple previously acquired R & D Micro LED display Panel technology, LuxVue Technologies. In the past ten years, Apple has applied for 11 patents related to Micro LED. LuxVue applied for 23 patents. This means that Apple has a total of 34 patents for MicroLED. .
Kim Jong-chan, head of the Display Panel Department of the Korea Intellectual Property Office, publicly stated that Apple’s application to the Korean government for these patents is because South Korea has two giant display panels, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, and two Korean companies may Will use Micro in the device LED display.
In fact, after the acquisition was completed, Apple aimed at the Micro LED. However, due to the difficulties in implementing this technology, the plan was put on hold.
At present, Apple has not publicly responded to this message.
Is considered the ultimate LED
Micro LEDs are considered to be the ultimate LED in the industry. Like OLEDs, they are all composed of light emitting diodes. Both are 'self-illuminating'. They can provide the same contrast and color performance as OLEDs. They are also as light and thin.
Due to the difference in materials, Micro LED may have better performance than OLED in terms of brightness, response speed, contrast ratio and color saturation. In terms of display density, Micro LED can further break through. Theoretically, If the Micro LED is used on the iPhone 8, the display density can reach 1500ppi or more.
In actual use, OLEDs must reduce white screens and high-brightness display to achieve power saving effects. Micro LEDs can be used in terms of power consumption. LCD 90% lower, 50% lower than OLED.
Giants have stepped in
In fact, at this year's CES show, Samsung introduced the world's first MicroLED TV 'The Wall', a 146-inch modular TV with MicroLED technology, with amazing clarity and no size, resolution or shape limits.
Last month, Samsung denied that it would return to the OLED large-screen field. This means that Samsung will continue to focus on QLEDs and Micro LEDs in the future.
At the same time, the sources pointed out that LG Electronics executives visited the TV business unit in Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province on February 21, and pointed out that it is necessary to prepare a larger Micro LED than Samsung Electronics’s The Wall TV before September of this year. For TV, LG plans to use LG Innotek's Micro LED.
The domestic panel giant BOE has joined the research and development of Micro LED. On March 15th, BOE stated on the investor interaction platform that the company has already started the technical research of Micro LED and made some progress.
Mass production is still difficult
For a long time, Apple has not been able to control its own 'fate' on the screen.
At present, in the field of small and medium sized OLED screens, Samsung is the absolute leader, while in the field of large-size OLED screens, LG is the top spot.
It is reported that the yield of OLED screens provided by Samsung to Apple's mobile phones is only 60%, which directly affects the processing and manufacturing of Apple's mobile phones, ultimately constraining shipments. At the same time, on price control, Apple is also on the screen segment. In offense, this makes Apple 'disheartened'.
However, even if Apple itself wants to use the Micro LED to achieve a curve overtaking, it will not be easy to surpass the current oligarchs in the panel display industry and realize its own screen. This may be difficult to achieve in the short term.
The essence of MicroLED is the miniature array of LEDs, which directly determines its extremely high technical difficulty.
Panel display industry technicians pointed out to reporters that Micro LED components should be smaller than 100 microns. The difficulty in production lies in how to transfer and paste millions of tiny LED components into a single panel, thereby improving the yield of large-size panels.
The placement accuracy of these tiny LED components is between 1. 5μm, and monolithic RGB is achieved on the same wafer material at a very small panel size. LED chip Requires higher process technology and materials, and ultra-high density packaging technology.
According to research firm TrendForce's LED inside analysis, the cost of MicroLED TVs is higher than that of conventional LCDs. OLED TV To be much higher, the current cost of LCDs and OLEDs has been able to be acceptable to consumers, but Micro LED TVs are difficult to do so.
At present, Samsung, which has exhibited the world's first Micro LED TV, has not announced the specific time for the launch of the Micro LED.
