With Sony's first application of Micro LED to large-scale indoor displays to achieve commercialization goals, and Apple's continuous investment in research and development, the production time of Micro LED has attracted much attention from the industry. LED industry players revealed that even though Micro LED is Massive transfer technology into mass production still has technical bottlenecks to be overcome, but trial samples will be launched in the near future, especially for the introduction of high-end large-scale indoor display applications. With the smooth increase in yield, the cost of Micro LED will be higher than existing The small pitch display is 30% cheaper.
At present, the development of Micro LED technology is quite polarized, and the industry is expected to have the opportunity to develop towards ultra-large-size displays or small-sized wearable devices. However, how to dispose Micro LED chips onto the substrate through huge amounts of transfer is still the biggest problem. In addition, Micro LED requires very high homogeneity in the front stage epitaxial wafers to reduce the subsequent selection of the crystal grain cost. However, the existing chip inspection and picking inspection technology cannot be used, and a brand-new chip picking table design must be adopted. As for the production process, The manufacturing hurdles such as PCB, line width, line spacing, and integrated drive ICs have yet to be overcome.
It is reported that Apple may start mass production of Micro LED for the next generation of smart watches by the end of 2017. However, the industry generally believes that the challenges are so great that it is expected that there will not be a chance until 2020 to see the introduction of Micro LED high-definition mobile. As for the device products, the threshold for the introduction of Micro-LEDs in smart phones is even higher, and it is expected that this will be the final product to be mass-produced.
Unlike major manufacturers such as Apple who intend to use the Micro LED in wearable devices or mobile phones, Sony took the lead in demonstrating the 110-inch indoor LED display CLEDIS (Micro Crystal Integrated Structure) using Micro LED technology. The picture quality and contrast are stunning. But the price is quite expensive.
Sony first introduced the Micro LED into large-scale indoor high-end displays, and pushed the Micro LED technology to the commercialization stage. However, the industry revealed that the large-scale displays displayed by Sony did not formally introduce huge transfer processing technology, which means that the production efficiency is still difficult Ascension, the scale of mass production may be limited.
LED industry estimates that Micro LED's material cost and manufacturing process are expected to be more simplified than the existing small-pitch display. If it is possible to overcome yield and reduce process investment in the future, Micro LED will open up a new high-end display battlefield. And the cost is only about 70% of the current P1.25 (pitch 1.25mm) specifications of the small pitch display, very cost-competitive, will challenge the dominance of the small pitch display, in the future will even face the high end of more than 65吋TV development.
Display IC driver factory accumulation believes that if small-pitch LED display screens below P1 (1mm pitch) are to be manufactured, technical and cost bottlenecks have already been encountered. Even LED display factories can produce display screens below P1, not mass products. , Accumulation optimistic about this gap is the opportunity of Micro LED
According to LEDinside's estimation, the output value of LED display screens will reach 5 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, among which, the output value of small-pitch LED display screens will be nearly 1.35 billion U.S. dollars. If Micro LED fully replaces the existing components of LCD monitors, it estimates the potential market in the future. About 30 to 40 billion U.S. dollars. Transparency Market Research estimates that the output value of small-pitch LED display screens reached US$3.1 billion in 2024, highlighting the continued growth of large-size LED display markets in the future.