It is reported that because of the lower sales of iPhone X than market expectations, Samsung has reduced OLED The utilization of the production line. The tension in the supply of OLED panels over the past two years has also eased. According to Trendsce's WitsView data display , Apple has begun to drive the development of OLED panels. It is expected that the penetration rate of smart phone OLED panels will reach 46% by 2021. Due to the impact of OLED technology maturity and competitive costs, Mini LED may not be available in the smartphone market in the short term. Growth momentum.
WitsView pointed out that Samsung's current OLED panel supply has been dominated by iPhones and high-end Samsung smartphones, while the yield of other OLED panel makers is still relatively low. Therefore, handset manufacturers have been trying to find alternatives for various flagship models. Mini LED It is considered to be a viable option because it is comparable to OLED in terms of high color saturation, high contrast, and support for HDR.
However, the advantages of OLED are even more obvious. In addition to high color saturation, high contrast and fast response, the greatest advantage of OLED panels lies in their self-luminous and flexible characteristics, which makes mobile phone manufacturers more flexible in the thickness and appearance design of mobile phones. Prior to production, the Mini LED can be used as a transitional product. LCD When the structure is unchanged, LED chip The size will be reduced to 100 to 300 microns, and matrix Sorting places the LED in the backlight module. For example, in a 5.5-inch FHD monitor The number of LEDs used is as high as 2,000 to 10,000 LEDs. A smaller number of LEDs requires a longer optical distance, which allows the device to have a greater thickness. Although a large number of LEDs can reduce the required optical distance and improve uniformity This will make the entire device thinner, but it will lead to heat dissipation problems and make the cost higher. At present, how to achieve this balance is still a major bottleneck faced by manufacturers.
From the perspective of cost, OLED is more competitive at this stage. Take a 5.5-inch hard OLED panel as an example, the cost is about 17~18 dollars; but for the same size, the same resolution of the Mini LED backlight On the board, the cost may double to 35 to 40 US dollars. With the release of OLED supply tight news, WitsView said that in the long run, OLED smart phone panels offer relatively weak, and LTPS The drop in panel price will also bring more pressure to the Mini LED. Therefore, if the Mini LED can not reduce its cost, it will be difficult to compete with the OLED panel in the high-end smartphone market.
The cost of using a Mini LED in smartphone backlighting depends on the number of LED chips used and the efficiency of wafer transfer. As a result, many LED manufacturers try to reduce costs through different technological solutions, such as reducing the LED chips through optical adjustments. The number, or increase the transmission efficiency of the chip bonding machine to reduce the cost of bonding.
However, in the niche market with higher total profit, the cost is not a priority for the supplier. Therefore, Mini LED will have more opportunities in the niche market.
