TrendForce has just published its latest research report titled “2021 Mini/Micro LED Self-Emissive Display Trends and Analysis on Suppliers’ Strategies”. According to the report, self-emissive Mini/Micro LED displays have become the new technology development target of the companies involved in the display and LED industries since Samsung first unveiled a modular Micro LED display called “The Wall”. The display-related applications for the Mini and Micro LED technologies are very diverse, with products encompassing HMDs, wearable devices, automotive displays, IT displays, TVs, spliced video walls, etc.

 

Currently, there are still several technological bottlenecks that need to be overcome in the development of Micro LED products. Most companies that are participating in the Micro LED supply chain have yet to progress beyond R&D and the setup of a production line. To determine whether a Micro LED product is ready for commercialization, we not only have to look at the latest technological advances but also analyze to see if the yield rate of the whole fabrication process is high enough to obtain the optimal production cost and thereby enable commercialization. Technology, product quality, production cost, and market demand will all have to converge at the sweet spot in order for Micro LED to have a chance to become the next mainstream display technology.

 

TrendForce in its research has found that Micro LED made headway into large-sized displays earlier than it did for other display applications. Hence large-sized Micro LED displays are more mature than small- and medium-sized Micro LED displays in terms of technology and cost. Also, South Korean electronics brands are keen on using Micro LED to build TVs that can offer the best performance. TrendForce forecasts that the global market value of Micro LED chips for TV displays will reach US$3.4 billion in 2025. As for the market for large-sized self-emissive Mini LED displays, it is being driven by the reduction in pixel pitch for large-sized indoor LED displays and the gradual rise in the demand for HD video walls from commercial venues such as conference halls, retail stores, etc. TrendForce forecasts that the global market value of Mini LED chips for (self-emissive) display applications will reach US$480 million in 2025.

 

 

According to the analysis of TrendForce, a meticulous manufacturing process is required for Micro LED, and the specification and precision is relatively rigorous for the raw materials, consumables, production equipment, testing instruments, and auxiliary jigs used in the process. New Micro LED display currently faces technical bottlenecks such as epitaxy, chips, transfer, full colorization, power drive, backplane, as well as inspection and repair technology. The current bottlenecks of Micro LED epitaxial technology include wavelength uniformity, control on defects and suspended particles, and an effective utilization of epitaxial wafer dimension, whereas bottlenecks of Micro LED chips lie on the low luminous efficacy for red light, the reduction of luminous efficacy due to electric leakage, production of the structural weakening process, and the protection on the insulating layer of chips. The bottleneck of mass transfer technology comes from the fact that products with different specifications prompt for varied mass transfer technology, and there are differentiation in equipment precision, process yield rate, process capacity, as well as the cost of equipment and process for each mass transfer technology, whereas the rapid inspection and repair of transferred Micro LED chips is also the key to the cost of processes.

 

In terms of backplane and driver, silicon substrate is suited for small and high resolution displays, though an adoption on full color displays would impose technological and cost challenges right now. Although glass substrates are the forte of panel manufacturers, there is a big difference between the constant current drivers of Micro LED and the drivers of TFT, thus Micro IC is a critical component for constant current. The commercialization of PCB is relatively fast, and previous passive driver solutions may be used, where large displays can be created by splicing multiple substrates. However, due to the trace width/spacing limitations of PCB and the demanding flatness specification for solder joints, large display designs with a dot pitch of below P0.4 will create a prominent challenge for PCB manufacturers.

 

 

The analysis of TrendForce indicates that the current development of large self-emitting Mini/Micro LED display products faces relatively large technological challenges in mass transfer, inspection, and repair technology, which although are overcome by many suppliers using the splicing method, it creates an exorbitant production cost nonetheless. South Korean suppliers had started the relevant arrangement in advance, and Mini/Micro LED self-emitting displays are mainly offered by Taiwanese and Chinese suppliers in the current phase. Owing to the higher degree of technology in Micro LED, the product will be primarily offered by Taiwanese suppliers, who excel better in technological level and the stability in mass production, in the future.

 

 

TrendForce had implemented an analysis on the tendency and supplier strategies on self-emitting Mini/Micro LED displays in April 2021. Please call or email us if you require further information on the particular topic, thank you.