September 2017

Digitimes posted an interesting research note, in which they state that micro-LED displays may find it hard to compete with LCD and OLED displays as the market is approaching saturation.

Micro-LEDs have several advantages over other displays - high brightness, quick response time and the ability to create flexible and transparent displays (this is also true for OLEDs). However a major advantage for Micro LEDs is that the aperture ratio is only 10%, which means that there is a lot of empty space in a micro-LED display.

The Taiwan-based Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL, part of Taiwan's ITRI) is developing 60-100 inch indoor micro-LED displays.

EOSRL is collaborating on this research with driver IC designer Macroblock. EOSRL is using LED chips that are 70-80 micrometers in size. EOSRL expects trial production to begin by Q4 2017, with mass production coming in 2018.

Taiwan-based Micro-LED developer Mikro Mesa's chariman, Chen Li-yi, estimates that it will be difficult for micro-LEDs to compete with OLED displays in the small/medium display market - but the opportunity for large area displays is more promising.

According to Chen, 55" micro-LED panels will be competitive in cost with LCDs, and if companies manage to achieve yields of over 80%, a 55-inch micro-LED will be cheaper by around 30% from an equivalent high-end LCD.

Swedish-American GaN nanowire based micro LEDs developer glō ordered an AIX G5+ MOCVD platform from Aixtron to support the company's strategic expansion. The tool will be delivered with a 8x150 mm configuration by the end of 2017.

glō is commercializing micro-LED products based in its proprietary defect-free GaN nanowires technology. glō says that its technology enable the growth of mLEDs while maintaining the reliability of an inorganic material system.

PlayNitride's CEO, Charles Li, says that Micro-LED displays are not as challenging as originally expected, and the company now aims to start trial production of Micro-LED displays in the second half of 2017. The company has mass transfer and placement yield rates of over 99% in its lab.

In PlayNitride's R&D setup, it takes about 10 seconds to transfer and place 200,000 LEDs - which means that a 5" panel will take only 10 minutes to produce. However the cost for a single smartphone panel could reach about $300 - much higher than the cost of even the highest-end flexible OLED. Possible applications where Micro-LED displays could succeed commercially at this stage include smartwatches, VR / AR, automotive and transparent displays.

Japan-based Yano Research Institute estimates that following Sony's launch of its CLEDIS display, the Micro-LED market will finally emerge this year. Yano sees the micro-LED market growing from $7 million in 2017 through $14 million in 2018 and $224 million by 2020.

The fast growth will continue, and the micro-LED market wil reach $4.5 billion by 2025 - that's a total growth of over 65,000% from 2017 to 2025.

Taiwan-based PCB developer Unimicron has started to develop specific PCBs for Micro-LED displays, with aims to start mass producing such PCBs in 2019. According to LEDsInside, Unimicron will start a small batch production in 2018.

Unimicron is collaborating with Epistar's and ITRI's micro-LED display alliance, hoping that this will speed up the commercialization of its technology. LedsInside also reports that other Taiwan-based PCB makers aim to also start developing specific solutions for Micro-LED displays.