Micro-LED TV – Better But…
The concept of Micro-LED TVs is an exciting one, using ultra-small LEDs as emitting devices, especially as LED technology has been in large scale mass production for many years and production techniques are standardized and mature. That said, moving from LEDs that are currently being used for TV backlights, which are about 1mm (1,000 um) to Mini-LEDs, ~200um, and then to Micro-LEDs (~2um to 20um) carries some production issues that complicate the transition. LEDs in standard LCD TVs are used as a backlight, which generates the light that is controlled by the liquid crystal (the LC in LCD), which then passes the light to a color filter which creates the individual color dots that make up an LCD display. In a 4K TV there are 24.883m of these colored dots, all of which need to be illuminated by the LED backlight.
Since there are typically a few hundred LEDs in such backlights, designers came up with a way to dim groups of LEDs to reduce the light leakage across those dots that are supposed to be turned off, although leakage does occur causing what are called halos and other artifacts that reduce contrast. In order to compensate designers continue to reduce the size of backlight LEDs and add more, to give more precise control over what areas are light and dark at any given moments, with Mini-LEDs and extension of this process, using thousands of LEDs that can be controlled in small groups or individually. Taking the backlight concept further however means that LEDs must continue to shrink, allowing more LEDs to be packed behind LCD displays, and at a point that becomes some burdensome that display engineers decided to use the LEDs themselves as the light source, rather than liquid crystal, and Micro-LED displays became a concept.
Such displays are targeted to contain the 24m individual Micro-LEDs indicated above, which is the reason for their even smaller size, but there are many current constraints limiting the production of such displays, particularly the large number of very small LEDs that need to be moved from a die to a substrate and the necessity to test and replace any of these very small LEDS before finishing the display. Currently, most Micro—LED displays are large, which allows for the LEDs to be a bit larger and less densely packed, and gives designers the ability to create Micro-LED modules that can be connected together to form such large displays. In most cases these modules are based on PCB boards which make them bulky and relatively expensive, but Samsung is trying to reduce at least one cost point issue by moving from PCB backplanes to TFT (Thin-film transistor) based substrates, which are similar to those used in LCD displays currently. In fact Samsung is working toward using LTPS (Low-temperature Polysilicon) backplane technology, similar to that used in most smartphones.
By shifting away from expensive PCB boards and ‘returning’ to what would be standard LCD production techniques, Samsung (005930.KS) is hoping to further reduce the cost of its Micro-LED TV line starting with an 89” model and moving the technology up to 101” and 114” models, with the 89” model expected to be released sometime this year. That said, the cost is still expected to be over $75,000, making it more of a one-of-a-kind item than a residential consumer product, but shifting to LTPS will certainly help to move the technology closer to a price that is commercially viable. Au Optronics (2409.TT) is expected to produce the first LTPS TFT glass substrate iteration, although Samsung itself will likely become its own supplier if there is a necessity for volume production in the future and the Micro-LED chip itself is produced by PlayNitride (see above) for the TFT models, while Sanan (600703.CH) produces the Micro-LED chips for the PCB based models. There is still a long way to go before Micro-LED can find its way into the competitive display market, but with each step that becomes a bit closer to reality. Time brings all things to pass – Aeschylus.
Since there are typically a few hundred LEDs in such backlights, designers came up with a way to dim groups of LEDs to reduce the light leakage across those dots that are supposed to be turned off, although leakage does occur causing what are called halos and other artifacts that reduce contrast. In order to compensate designers continue to reduce the size of backlight LEDs and add more, to give more precise control over what areas are light and dark at any given moments, with Mini-LEDs and extension of this process, using thousands of LEDs that can be controlled in small groups or individually. Taking the backlight concept further however means that LEDs must continue to shrink, allowing more LEDs to be packed behind LCD displays, and at a point that becomes some burdensome that display engineers decided to use the LEDs themselves as the light source, rather than liquid crystal, and Micro-LED displays became a concept.
Such displays are targeted to contain the 24m individual Micro-LEDs indicated above, which is the reason for their even smaller size, but there are many current constraints limiting the production of such displays, particularly the large number of very small LEDs that need to be moved from a die to a substrate and the necessity to test and replace any of these very small LEDS before finishing the display. Currently, most Micro—LED displays are large, which allows for the LEDs to be a bit larger and less densely packed, and gives designers the ability to create Micro-LED modules that can be connected together to form such large displays. In most cases these modules are based on PCB boards which make them bulky and relatively expensive, but Samsung is trying to reduce at least one cost point issue by moving from PCB backplanes to TFT (Thin-film transistor) based substrates, which are similar to those used in LCD displays currently. In fact Samsung is working toward using LTPS (Low-temperature Polysilicon) backplane technology, similar to that used in most smartphones.
By shifting away from expensive PCB boards and ‘returning’ to what would be standard LCD production techniques, Samsung (005930.KS) is hoping to further reduce the cost of its Micro-LED TV line starting with an 89” model and moving the technology up to 101” and 114” models, with the 89” model expected to be released sometime this year. That said, the cost is still expected to be over $75,000, making it more of a one-of-a-kind item than a residential consumer product, but shifting to LTPS will certainly help to move the technology closer to a price that is commercially viable. Au Optronics (2409.TT) is expected to produce the first LTPS TFT glass substrate iteration, although Samsung itself will likely become its own supplier if there is a necessity for volume production in the future and the Micro-LED chip itself is produced by PlayNitride (see above) for the TFT models, while Sanan (600703.CH) produces the Micro-LED chips for the PCB based models. There is still a long way to go before Micro-LED can find its way into the competitive display market, but with each step that becomes a bit closer to reality. Time brings all things to pass – Aeschylus.
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