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Can Mini LED compete with OLED for large size TVs

 LED research center (LEDinside) the latest “new display technology cost” report, the display industry in the past two years, the most hotly discussed technology is nothing but micro LED, this next-generation display technology so that the capital market and the upstream and downstream supply chain operators are ready to look forward to; However, from the technical side to observe, including the huge amount of transfer yield and LED uniformity, etc., all make However, from the technical side, including the huge volume shift yield and LED uniformity, the road to mass production of Micro LED seems to be difficult. Some manufacturers have temporarily shifted their development focus to Mini LED. Since the architecture of Mini LED is similar to that of existing LCD or LED displays, there is no major change in design, and commercialization is only a matter of time, so manufacturers have high hopes that it can become a transition product before the mass production of Micro LED.

  But Mini LED is bound to directly face competition from OLED, whether in cell phones or TVs and other consumer electronics, consumers have gradually decided that equipped with OLED panels are equal to high-end products, coupled with OLED in production stability, and even future production capacity are more advantageous, so the market is also continuing to observe what Mini LED should be aimed at those applications..

 The technical advantages of Mini LED and OLED

  OLED has the inherent advantages of high color saturation (over 100% NTSC), high contrast (1,000,000:1), and fast response time (microsecond level), and other self-emitting characteristics, coupled with the imaginative space for flexing, allowing manufacturers to have greater flexibility in thickness or appearance design. Mini LED is a microchip size of 100~200 microns on the current LCD display architecture, and it is filled with LEDs in the backlight module through a matrix arrangement, which also emphasizes high contrast and has a high brightness of over 1000nits. In addition, through the zoning dimming to achieve HDR is also one of the advantages of Mini LED.

  Limited by the cost and power consumption and other technical issues, Mini LED into the cell phone market is difficult

  When the number of LEDs is small, a longer optical distance is required, making the thickness of the machine increase; when the number of LEDs is large, although the optical distance required for backlighting can be shortened and the uniformity is better, it will give rise to heat dissipation problems and make the cost to increase significantly.

  To 5.5-inch rigid OLED panel, for example, the panel cost about 17 ~ 18 U.S. dollars; if the same size, the same resolution to carry Mini LED backlight, the panel cost will fall to about 35 ~ 40 U.S. dollars, close to the past OLED panel “selling price”. And with OLED production capacity is no longer tight, there is also competitive price pressure from LTPS panels, OLED smartphone panel offer is still relatively weak in the long run. Therefore, the key to Mini LED into the cell phone market or to see when its cost can be close to OLED.

 Mini LED may have a chance to compete with OLED in large size TV market

  In the case of TVs, as the printing and coloring technology of OLED is not yet mature, and the material utilization rate of the current vapor deposition method is actually only 20-30%, if full-color vapor deposition is used on TVs, they will face the problem of low production yield and material utilization, so at present, TVs are basically dominated by WOLED, that is, yellow/green with blue light-emitting layer mixed into white light, and with color filter to achieve full color. Although this architecture still has advantages in contrast and thickness, but if we look at the performance of color saturation, using Mini LED with QD film backlight, there is a chance to achieve the same level as WOLED.

  Taking the production cost of 65″ UHD as an example, the production cost falls at about 950~1000 USD; while the 65″ UHD with Mini LED backlight, using 30,000~40,000 LEDs to estimate, the production cost is about 900~1000 USD. Since power consumption is not a priority for TVs at the moment, plus the cost is not too much different compared to OLED, Mini LED may have an opportunity to take advantage of it, and recent top-tier brands like Samsung Electronics and LGE have shown or announced plans to launch large Mini LED TVs or commercial displays.

  Cost is not a priority, Mini LED dueling niche market

When cost is not a priority, the opportunity for devices to import Mini LED is much greater. From the 10.1″ car display released by Groupon at CES earlier this year, as well as the 27″ LCD monitor for gaming and the 15.6″ laptop, 2″ VR and other related devices shown by AUO recently, it can be seen that Mini LED technology has its space to play in niche markets with relatively high product unit prices.

  Because IT products inevitably need to perform paperwork, so the problem of residual images from long static screens has made OLED suffer a lot, plus in 2016 because most of Samsung Display’s OLED production capacity to smartphone panels as a priority, but also missed the first opportunity to enter the IT market. In recent years, with the expansion of the e-sports market, the output value is climbing year by year, the IT brands are eager to launch high gross profit and added value e-sports products; moreover, recently, PC monitors have HDR standards, Mini LED powerful zoning dimming function has the opportunity to play HDR to the fullest, therefore, high-end IT products will be a few Mini LED has the opportunity to compete with Therefore, high-end IT products will be one of the few markets where Mini LED has the opportunity to compete with OLED on the same starting line.

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