At present, the new display technology can be described as "flowers competing for beauty". In addition to LCD and OLED technology on the main track, emerging display technologies such as quantum dot (QLD), mini led, micro led and laser are also developing in competition, providing more differentiated products for display terminal market, creating new application scenarios and becoming a huge variable to promote the development of the industry. In this context, which display technology is most likely to usher in explosive growth this year?

 

The development of technology competition outside the main competition

Among the many display technologies, OLED is the main track except LCD. According to the data of zhongyikang, the market share of LCD and OLED in 2020 is 65% and 28%, respectively, and the two display technologies occupy the absolute advantage. Besides the main track, the emerging display technologies such as quantum dots (qled), laser, mini led and micro LED are also developing in competition, and they are expected to become the dominant technology in the future.

 

As a quantum dot (qled) technology similar to OLED display principle, although there are many representative power manufacturers such as Samsung and TCL in the camp to increase their support, however, due to the characteristics of quantum dot materials, QLD devices can only be prepared by wet process such as ink jet printing, and the bottleneck in equipment and technology has not been broken through, Therefore, it will take time for QLD to realize industrialization.

 

As for laser display technology, with the continuous push of Hisense, Changhong, Guangfeng and other enterprises, the technology breakthrough in the industrial chain of Texas Instruments, Kia and Ricoh, as well as the participation of Samsung, LG, Sony and other mainstream TV manufacturers, the global laser display industry is full of vitality“ We are hearing more and more clearly the knock on the door in the laser era. " Zhouhoujian, chairman of Hisense Group, said the critical point of the market explosion of laser TV has arrived.

 

"However, although the laser display has the characteristics of changeable display size, low cost, easy installation and healthy eye protection, the display effect cannot be compared with the above technologies, and the laser products are subject to the display principle, and the application scenarios are not much." Liu, senior analyst at sedi consultants, told China electronic news.

 

In addition, the most competitive technology is micro led.

 

Micro LED can compete with OLED in terms of color effect, reaction speed, power consumption, or light volume, and has great potential in large panel application. These make it the next generation of new display technology with the highest voice. In the micro LED Display Research Report (2019) issued by saidI think tank, more than 140 enterprises and organizations around the world have participated in the research and development of micro LED display technology, and nearly 1500 related patents have been applied. However, micro led still has technical barriers in large-scale transfer, good rate, detection and production equipment, and cannot be imported into the consumer market in large quantities.

 

Due to various factors, except the display technology of main track, other display technologies have not been able to really usher in explosive growth. Even if related products are produced, the price is obviously high. However, this is likely to be broken by mini LEDs this year.

 

Mini LED

 

When the major display technologies "compete for beauty", mini led enters people's eyes again, becoming the most gorgeous one.

 

Recently, mini LED has become the leading role in the 2021 International Consumer Electronics Exhibition (CES). Samsung has launched high-end TV combining QLD technology and mini LED technology. LG released the first mini LED backlight TV qned TV, and TCL, Kangjia and Changhong also launched Mini LED products.

 

As the transition of micro led, the more mature technology Mini LED is expected by the industry. Since 2019, the mini LED backlight products and mini led direct display products have been delivered in batches in succession, whether they are chip manufacturers such as San'an photoelectric, Huacan photoelectric, or packaging manufacturers such as Guoxing photoelectric, Ruifeng photoelectric, Hongli Zhihui and zhaochi shares, or display manufacturers such as liad, Zhouming technology, Beijing Orient and Youda. In addition, apple, Hisense, TCL, Kangjia, Acer and other world-renowned electronic terminal enterprises have launched Mini LED backlight TV, display, VR and vehicle display terminal products and solutions.

 

"The main reasons why Mini LED is so valued by industry people are in several aspects." Hu Chunming, vice secretary general of liquid crystal branch of China Optical Optoelectronic Industry Association, analyzed in an interview with China electronic news that, first, mini LED display effect is close to OLED, but the price is lower than OLED, and low power consumption and long life span; Secondly, compared with micro led, which still has many technical bottlenecks, mini LED has already met the production conditions in terms of technology, capacity and yield; Thirdly, mini LED is not only the transition technology of micro led, but also the extension and promotion of LCD technology. The backlight of mini LED will bring new growth point for LCD.

 

Mini LED will be mass produced in scale

 

Industry insiders believe that, with the positive promotion of many manufacturers, the commercialization process of mini LED will accelerate, and 2021 will become the key "first year" of mini led.

 

A series of data also prove this.

 

According to the data of LED Institute of Hi Tech Research Institute, the market size of mini led in 2020 will reach 3.78 billion yuan, an increase of 140% year-on-year, while the market size in 2021 is expected to increase to 6.64 billion yuan; DSCC expects that the mini LED backlight TV will reach 8.9 million units in 2021; Yole data predicts that the global Mini LED display equipment is expected to increase from 3.24 million in 2019 to 80.7 million in 2023, with a CAGR of 90%.

 

"Price is an important factor affecting the acceptance of new technologies by users. The main reason for mini led to enter the universal access in 2021 is likely to be due to the decline in prices. " Although Mini led cannot be separated from OLED at the high-end product level, mini LED can reduce cost by reducing allocation and make the price of mini LED backlight TV more personal, Jibang consulting led Research Center Research Co manager Yu Chao told China electronic news. As a result, TCL released 6-series and 8 Series Mini LED TV last year, which is 20-30% lower than OLED TV.

 

According to the data of the state consultation, with the technology maturity and the improvement of the process yield, the cost of mini LED will decrease at a rate of 20% - 30% per year. Mini LED is accelerating its penetration into the mass market and eating the large OLED market. Subsequently, mini LED will cover commercial display, special display, TV, tablet computer, vehicle display and other application fields.

 

"Although Mini LED products have been sold in small scale, there are still a few bottlenecks to be solved to achieve mass production." Liu introduced that first, the chip manufacturing problem, mini LED chip mass production requirements to achieve submicron, but the current laboratory process accuracy is only 10 microns; Second, the problem of large-scale transfer requires that the rate of bad point transfer is less than one million, but at present only one in 100000, the repair cost is relatively large; Third, the problem of electrode connection is that the cost of electrode connection inversion is too high. At present, only the front mounting process can be used in China, which reduces the reliability of the product; Fourth, the driving problem is urgent to develop the fine PCB backplane manufacturing and TFT backplane driving technology; Fifth, splicing problem, the existing splicing technology can only achieve the long-distance visual seamless, smooth seamless splicing is difficult.

 

"Therefore, 2021 is not only the first year of commercialization of mini led, but also the most critical year in the process of technology development." Liu pointed out that under the guidance and promotion of the major display giants, the relevant industry chain enterprises can find solutions, accelerate the technology maturity, realize a larger scale mass production application, and thus ensure the cost reduction.