Micro LED Is Difficult to Commercialize, and Mini LED Is Highly Expected

Since 2016, the topic of micro LED has attracted the attention of participants in all aspects of the global industry. Various applications and various technical routes are developing in full swing. Some people regard micro LED as a star technology to flip the display pattern, while others regard it as a topic hype to resist the rise of OLED. Even before the time point of commercialization, it is difficult to reach a conclusion. However, it is certain that micro LED has caught the attention of the industry and opened a new and imaginative technical route when OLED capital investment.

However, in the industry, micro led currently faces most problems. As we all know, the technology of massive transfer still needs to be broken through, and the commercialization process is still uncertain. Most manufacturers in Taiwan choose Mini LED as the starting point. Next year, they will see the application of mini led in large-size display and backlight. After the backlight market has been eroded by mainland manufacturers, the Taiwan LED army is also optimistic that mini LED will bring new growth opportunities, including Jingdian, Lunda, rongchuang, Hongqi, etc. to seize business opportunities by using mobile phones, TV and large-size display billboards respectively.

Mini LED is between traditional LED and micro led, so for existing manufacturers, many existing processes and equipment can be used continuously. In particular, by combining Mini LED technology with soft substrate to achieve the form of high curved backlight, it will have the opportunity to take the lead in many applications such as mobile phone, TV, car panel, E-sports laptop and so on. Some people in the industry believe that the mini led with a size of about 100 microns does not need to overcome the technical threshold of massive transfer, and mass production is feasible. It can be used as large-size display screen, TV and mobile phone backlight, especially smart phones.

At present, the layout of large factories is only to win in micro led

Recently, the LED driven IC factory has accumulated new products and reported good news. The mini LED will first enter the market with the backlight module driven IC next year. It is expected to start mass production and shipment in the second half of next year. As for the micro led, it is also expected to come out in 2019 and focus on the large display screen at present. Jiji said that mini LED products are expected to enter the market with backlight module driver IC in the second half of next year. According to the company's analysis, since the mini LED can greatly improve HDR (dynamic development) compared with the current LCD screen, the future screen can even display in sections, making the product more functional.

The legal person said that the accumulation is now gradually reducing the basic LED driven IC market falling into the Red Sea market and starting to expand the niche driven IC market. Not only the gross profit margin is high, but also the entry threshold is high, and it is difficult for competitors to enter in a short time. Next year, the car and mini LED driven IC will start to inject revenue, and the gross profit margin will be expected to maintain a stable 30% level, and there is even room for improvement, Profits will also have the opportunity to increase significantly.

The industry is optimistic about Mini led. In order to effectively solve the problem of reducing the overall LED production capacity to the sea, Jingdian pointed out that with the improvement of LED luminous efficiency, the demand and output value of LED backlight are saturated or declining. Taking the 5-inch mobile phone panel as an example, the number of led backlights is about 20 25 at present. If Mini LED is used in the future, the demand of a mobile phone is about 9000.

Li Bingjie, chairman of Jingdian, previously said that although the price of blue LED is under pressure next year, he is optimistic about the digestion effect of mini LED backlight on production capacity. Since Mini LED will mainly use high-level Lei wafer production capacity, once it begins to penetrate, it will effectively solve the doubt of overcapacity; As an independent chip supplier, in order to sprint the mini LED backlight, Li Bingjie has met Peng Shuanglang, chairman of Youda, and reserved foreshadowing for the cooperation between Jingdian and panel factory.

In addition, a number of LED manufacturers have targeted emerging battlefields and will rush to attack high-level niche markets in 2018. Through the cooperation of the panel factory of the group, Lunda and rongchuang have also successively invested in the development and design of mini led. In the first quarter of 2018, they will have the opportunity to see the launch of new TV models with mini LED backlight design. In 2017, Yiguang gradually reduced the proportion of LED lighting and backlight applications, intended to cut into mini led supply opportunities, and may also cooperate with panel manufacturers to supply relevant LED backlight applications. Guanglei has developed Mini LED applications. In the future, the display application will operate in the mode of self-made high-end products and outsourced production of medium-end products. It is expected that it will have the opportunity to contribute revenue in 2018. Peng Shuanglang, chairman of Youda, said that Youda has invested in the research and development of miniled for some time. The company is discussing with customers and suppliers how to apply miniled technology.

Apple downsizing micro led team? Fear of affecting micro LED application time history

With the continuous opening of production capacity of major factories, mini LED will also face price pressure. To this end, crystal power is also prepared. Next year, it will expand its production without increasing machines. By removing bottlenecks and shortening epitaxial cycle time, it is expected to increase its production capacity by 15% by the middle of next year. The faster the development of mini led, the smaller the production pressure of crystal power will be.

However, in the heat of the market, the downsizing of Apple's Micro led research and development team triggered industry discussion, which may affect the time course of a large number of micro LED applications. From Apple's actions, it is not difficult to see the technical challenges faced by micro LEDs, especially in small and medium-sized applications.

In fact, in addition to breaking through the technical bottleneck, the commercialization of micro led must also break through a high wall, that is, it must be able to compete with existing products in terms of cost.

For the research and development of micro LED panel, the spokesman of liad once said that at present, liad is also conducting research and pre research on mini led and micro led, and believes that these two products will not have an impact on the enterprise's market. Although international companies have invested and launched samples, lyad said that the current industry is unable to carry out mass production, let alone deliver orders, so it will not have any impact on lyad for the time being.

It is indisputable that the development of technology is the ladder of human progress. In the face of the rapid development of high technology, large international factories are keeping up with the pace of the times. At present, all manufacturers regard Mini LED as the outpost of micro led and have made efforts in all aspects. In the future, the demand of China's LED industry will continue to grow. The huge market undoubtedly injects a booster into the development of LED display industry. It is worth noting that the epitaxial production capacity consumed by mini LED is the high-order epitaxial production capacity of LED factories. Calculated by 5000 MOCVD in the world, the high-order production capacity is only 500, and the production capacity of mini LED is only 200. Therefore, if the mini LED backlight can improve the permeability, it will double the growth the next year, just like when the LED entered the backlight market at the beginning of that year. As for who can get business opportunities in this outpost? The future is bound to be very lively.

At present, the mini led design scheme is divided into full-color RGB mixed light or white light. The former can achieve 100% NTSC high color gamut display, while the White Mini led through blue LED and phosphor can achieve 80-90% NTSC display effect. As the wind vane of the industry, Guangzhou International Lighting exhibition shows the trend of industrial development in the future. Through the exhibition, it is not difficult for us to see the change trend of the whole industrial pattern, which also points out the development direction for lighting enterprises and pursues market demand. From June 9 to 12, 2018, Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as Gile) will be grandly held again in Guangzhou China Import and export commodities trading exhibition hall. It is expected that terminal products will appear at the exhibition in 2018.