In 2024, LED display industry has showed positive signs with the first introduction of LED virtual production technology at Chinese Spring Festival Gala, the debut of the world’s first acoustically transparent LED cinema screen, and the first entry of Olympic event broadcast in Chinese cinema. This, to some extent, reflects the thriving trend of LED display in emerging markets, despite the overall lackluster global economy. Truth be told, what is the actual market situation?

LED Display Sector Expected to Embrace a Brilliant Future

On the demand side, according to TrendForce, while China’s domestic demand recovery has fallen short of expectations, overseas market demand still shows an upward trend, particularly in regions like Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where LED display industry is still in its early stage. Against this backdrop, the overall demand for LED display has been on the rise over the past two years.

On the application side, the potential of emerging applications such as LED virtual production, LED cinema screen, and LED All-in-One display is highly recognized. Although growth has slowed down in 2023, these markets are still greeted by high market enthusiasm, and have seen market size gradually expand.

TrendForce predicts that shipment of LED All-in-One display will exceed 6,000 units in 2024, compared to about 4,000 units in the past two years.

With respect to LED cinema, TrendForce estimates that the global installed base of LED cinema screen will reach 160 units this year. Given that the total market size of global high-end LED cinema screen is 30,000 units, while the current penetration rate is only about 0.5%, there is still significant room for the development of LED display technology in this market. Moreover, cinemas are becoming more proactive in adopting LED screens.

In China, approximately 40 LED cinema halls were opened as of July 2024, among which 19 halls were newly added in 2024.

As to LED virtual production, the total number of LED virtual production studios in China has reached 41 to date, with 10 new studios added this year.

Currently, China has attached more importance to the development of both LED virtual production and LED cinema screen industries by launching related supporting policies, which further boosts the confidence of the industry chain and signals a promising market outlook.

On the supply side, LED display manufacturers continue to leverage innovative technologies to drive growth in emerging markets, deploying diversified packaging technologies for various application scenarios. Among them, COB (Chip on Board) display has enjoyed rapid growth and MiP (Mini/Micro LED in Package) LED display seen increasing demand in recent years, which enable LED display to open up more application markets.

Overall, TrendForce remains sanguine about the prospect for LED display industry. It estimates that the demands for LED display in both Chinese and international markets are projected to trend upward, fueled by fine pitch and Mini LED displays. According to TrendForce’s 2024 Global LED Video Wall Market Analysis Report, the market size of LED video wall is expected to grow to USD 10.7 billion in 2027.

A More Innovative Supporting Industrial Chain Being in Demand

LED display has expanded its footprint from professional display to commercial display and consumer display fields, and now it starts integrating cross-disciplinary technologies and becomes a non-negligible part of our daily life in diversified and creative forms, which undoubtedly ushers in a brand-new era of LED display. For LED manufacturers, opening up the market is just the first step, and the next step is to fully tap this vast potential.

Taking the market adoption rate of Mini/Micro LED products and the penetration rate of COB (Chip on Board) and MiP (Mini/Micro LED in Package) technologies into consideration, however, LED display in emerging application fields is in its relatively nascent state. In face of the global urgent demand for energy conservation and the ever-increasing consumer expectation for display performance, LED manufacturers have to cross some hurdles.

In recent years, countries across the world have launched relevant energy efficiency standards for different technologies and products. For instance, the first Chinese mandatory national energy efficiency standard for LED display, Minimum Allowable Values of Energy Efficiency and Energy Efficiency Grades for Displays (GB21520-2023), was officially implemented on June 1, 2024, under which LED display will become more energy-saving. It specifies the energy efficiency grades for LED All-in-One display, divided into three grades: 3.0 (Grade 1), 2.2 (Grade 2), and 1.5 (Grade 3). In light of this standard, LED manufacturers are required to develop truly low-temperature, energy-efficient displays based on highly efficient technology and reliable quality.

Speaking of the applications, virtual production, cinema screen, and All-in-One display demand high image quality, color precision and smoothness, HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging, high refresh rate, and high grayscale performance, which translate into continuously shrinking pixel pitch for LED display. However, in the course of seeking higher performance, LED display still faces varied challenges in reference to power consumption, display quality, and cost reduction, specifically including increased power consumption and temperature, low grayscale effect under low current condition, coupling at high grayscale, discontinuous grayscale, maintaining color depth at high refresh rate, and how to arrange IC as pixel density increases.

It’s plain to see that while high-performance products are sought after, the innovation need of the supporting industry chain for LED display is rising as well, and LED driver IC, an indispensable part of LED display, presents a key in addressing these challenges.

Take power consumption, for example: for a P0.9 COB 4K display, driver IC can account for up to 72% of total power consumption, and highly-integrated, common-cathode driver IC is considered as a perfect fit, which has proven to be energy-efficient and able to achieve low-temperature, energy-saving screens. It’s learned that common-cathode structure can reduce power consumption by 13% compared to traditional common-anode structure.

Although highly-integrated, common-cathode structure has not yet been the mainstream solution, it is deemed to be an inevitable trend in this field. From Xm-Plus’ highly-integrated, common-cathode LED driver ICs, we can find that its outstanding features have been exemplified by a series of real cases.

Xm-Plus Keeps Pushing the Limit to Empower the Innovation of LED Display Industry

According to LEDinside, Xm-Plus has rolled out several highly integrated, common-cathode driver IC series based on its green common-cathode technology and patented low grayscale calibration technology in recent years, including XM10486G, XM10480G, and XM11202G. They are characterized by the company’s exclusive accurate calibration scale, excelling in grayscale effect, low grayscale calibration, and energy efficiency.

XM10480G has been adopted by renowned LED display manufacturers such as Unilumin, QSTECH, HCP and Showho LED. For instance, XM10480G was integrated in HCP Mini COB P0.9 LED display, supporting 40 scanning, 7680Hz refresh rate, 16-bit color depth and 1000nits brightness.

As a good match for virtual production, XM10486G has been included in the product list of Brompton, a UK-based leading provider of LED video processor for virtual production. Brompton has partnered with numerous well-known display manufacturers such as Sony, Unilumin, Absen, Aoto and AUO, to name just a few.

Notably, Xm-Plus has upgraded its driver ICs built on the existing technologies and performance with the debut of XM11206G in July this year, which boasts high bit depth, high contrast ratio, and low power consumption.

In terms of display effect, the highly-integrated XM11206G can achieve 18-bit high color depth, support low grayscale effect at high refresh rate (with a 16-fold improvement in refresh rate at low grayscale, addressing flicker issues visible to the human eyes), and allows customizable scanning lines to simplify display panel design. It also supports front-end high frame rate input (23Hz to 480Hz), with a visual refresh rate of up to 15,360Hz, making it suitable for high-frame-rate scenarios like 3D displays.

Regarding power consumption, XM11206G adopts an energy-saving architecture, cutting static power consumption at black-screen mode by 20% compared to its predecessor IC Power/Pixel, making it an ideal solution for fine-pitch LED display and low-temperature screen.

From a cost perspective, as an advanced version of XM11202G, XM11206G reduces the number of ICs needed by increasing scanning, helping customers lower system costs. Currently, XM11206G has already gained in-house validation by major manufacturers and is incrementally being integrated into terminal projects.

The comprehensive upgrades of Xm-Plus’ highly-integrated, common-cathode driver ICs not only marks a timely response to LED display industry’s new needs, but also reflects the company’s ongoing breakthroughs in exploring new display frontiers.

In addition to upgrading existing products, Xm-Plus has also set sights on developing more innovative products that align with the industry trend, like XM11204G designed for four-chip virtual pixel applications. This driver IC supports three power inputs and independent current adjustment for four channels, allowing backend manufacturers to improve display effect while reducing overall cost.

Virtual pixel technology has been put into the limelight since last year, but it is still immature in both technology and the development of supporting industry chain, leading to lackluster display performance. Further improvement requires the collaboration across the whole industry chain and other fields like supporting software algorithms. Still, its potential is widely and highly anticipated.

Xm-Plus points out that 8K UHD applications are driving LED display industry toward ultra-fine-pitch display field, but <P0.7 display faces cost and production yield challenges. In this context, virtual pixel technology will be a good option. With the shrinking of pixel pitch and the optimization of virtual pixel algorithms by system manufacturers, the overall image quality will see substantial improvement.

Looking ahead to the future, Xm-Plus, rooted in LED display industry, plans to actively collaborate with its partners in LED display industry chain to tackle technical and cost-related issues in the MLED era, jointly promoting the innovation and the renewal of LED display industry.

(Photo credit: Xm-Plus)

SK Hynix announced today that it has commenced mass production of the world’s first 12-layer HBM3E product with 36GB of capacity, the largest for any HBM currently available, according to the company.

SK Hynix stated that it plans to deliver these mass-produced units to customers by year-end, marking another technological milestone just six months after shipping its 8-layer HBM3E product in March.

The company also emphasized that it remains the only firm globally to have developed and supplied the entire HBM lineup, from HBM1 to HBM3E, since debuting the world’s first HBM in 2013.

The 12-layer HBM3E meets the highest global standards in speed, capacity, and stability—all critical for AI memory, SK Hynix said. The memory’s operational speed has been increased to 9.6 Gbps. When paired with a single GPU running four HBM3E units, AI models like ‘Llama 3 70B’ can process 70 billion parameters 35 times per second.

SK Hynix has boosted capacity by 50% by stacking 12 layers of 3GB DRAM chips at the same thickness as the previous 8-layer product. To achieve this, each chip was made 40% thinner and stacked using TSV technology.

By employing its advanced MR-MUF process, SK Hynix claims to have resolved structural challenges posed by stacking thinner chips. This allows for 10% better heat dissipation and enhanced stability and reliability through improved warpage control.

“SK hynix has once again broken through technological limits demonstrating our industry leadership in AI memory,” said Justin Kim, President (Head of AI Infra) at SK hynix. “We will continue our position as the No.1 global AI memory provider as we steadily prepare next-generation memory products to overcome the challenges of the AI era.”

(Photo credit: SK Hynix)

Driven by the massive demand for AI chips, advanced packaging is in short supply, and the development of three major advanced packaging technologies CoWoS, SoIC, and FOPLP is booming. In addition, two major billion-dollar projects in China have made recent progress, further advancing the region’s advanced packaging and testing industry.

According to estimates from TrendForce, revenue from 2.5D packaging services offered by foundries is expected to grow by over 120% annually by 2025. Although this segment will account for less than 5% of overall foundry revenue, its importance is steadily increasing.

HT-Tech and Tong Fu Advance Billion-Dollar Advanced Packaging Projects

On September 22, the second phase of the HT-Tech Nanjing Integrated Circuit Advanced Packaging and Testing Industrial Base project broke ground in the Pukou District of Nanjing.

The first phase of this project began production in July 2020, achieving a production value of 2.9 billion yuan in 2023. HT-Tech Group has decided to invest another 10 billion yuan to launch the second phase, aiming to build 200,000 square meters of factories and supporting facilities, introduce high-end production equipment, and create an internationally advanced integrated circuit packaging and testing production line. The products will be widely used in memory, RF, computing power, AI, and other fields.

In addition, two sub-projects of Tongfu’s advanced packaging base have also made progress. Construction of the Tongfu Tongda Advanced Packaging Base project has officially begun, and on the same day, the first piece of equipment for the second phase of Tongfu Tongke’s Memory project was installed.

The total investment in the Tongfu Tongda Advanced Packaging Base project is 7.5 billion yuan, covering 217 acres. The project is expected to be fully operational by April 2029, focusing on communications, memory, computing power, and other application areas, with a particular emphasis on multi-layer stacking, flip-chip, wafer-level, and panel-level packaging, all key products supported by national policy.

The second phase of the Tongfu Tongke Memory project adds 8,000 square meters of cleanroom space, and once operational, will provide 150,000 wafers per month. Additionally, 160 million yuan will be invested in equipment, primarily critical for the mass production of high-end products such as embedded FCCSP and uPOP, better meeting the domestic demand for high-end memory products in mobile phones, solid-state drives, servers, and more.

Progress in Advanced Packaging by TSMC, Amkor, and ASE

After purchasing the fourth factory of Innolux in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) in mid-August, TSMC has swiftly begun construction, aiming to have the first phase of the new factory and equipment ready before the Chinese New Year in 2025. TSMC has integrated the new facility into its CoWoS production plan, striving to double total capacity by 2025.

TSMC expects CoWoS capacity to continue expanding rapidly through 2026, with an annual compound growth rate of over 50% from 2022 to 2026.

In terms of expanding CoWoS capacity, TSMC is also strengthening its cooperation with OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test). It is reported that TSMC has outsourced the critical CoW process in the front-end and the WoS process in the back-end to SPIL (a subsidiary of ASE Technology Holding) and Amkor.

At Amkor, the company has reportedly completed investments to expand the 2.5D advanced packaging capacity at its K5 factory in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea, tripling its capacity compared to the second quarter of last year.

At ASE, plans are underway for the Central Taiwan Science Park’s main plant and its second factory. Additionally, ASE’s wholly-owned subsidiary SPIL recently repurchased the Tanzi Factory. Furthermore, existing factories, such as the one in Zhongshan, are being reallocated. Once the cleanrooms are complete, equipment installation will begin, increasing capacity by at least 20%.
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(Photo credit: TSMC)

Earlier in August, Foxconn announced the plan to expand its overseas investments, with the total amounting to roughly USD 840 million. Now the expansion plan seems to be more materialized, as the Taiwanese tech giant is reportedly evaluating an investment of around USD 1 billion to set up a smartphone display module assembly unit in Tamil Nadu, India, according to a report by The Economic Times, cited by Taiwanese media the Economic Daily News.

The blueprint, if it comes to fruition, would mark Foxconn’s first panel module assembly plant in India, which targets to supply Apple for its iPhone production, The Economic Times notes. Sources cited by the report note that Foxconn aims to have the facility “up and running as soon as possible,” though there has yet to be any specific timeline.

India has emerged as a crucial destination for tech giants seeking to diversify their supply chains away from China amid rising geopolitical tensions with the West. A previous report by BBC reveals that Google is set to manufacture Pixel smartphones at an existing Foxconn facility in India, which is also located in Tamil Nadu.

The new panel assembly business, therefore, is seen as a strategic move to streamline related processes for Foxconn.

In terms of the scale of the assembly unit, The Economic Times suggests that Foxconn has secured approximately 500,000 square feet at the ESR Oragadam Industrial & Logistics Park, adjacent to its smartphone assembly facility near Chennai in southern India.

It is worth noting that according to The Economic Times, Foxconn’s facility is expected to allow other contract manufacturers, such as Pegatron or Tata Electronics, to use the components locally produced, instead of importing pre-assembled modules from China.

Foxconn did not respond to The Economic Times’ request for comment on the 24^th.

An industry consultant cited by the report noted that having a manufacturer assemble panel modules in India matters a lot for the country, as India currently relies heavily on imports for its panel demand, which would further increase the total cost and supply chain complexity.

According to the report, around 60% to 65% of panel module imports come from China, followed by South Korea, which accounts for 20% to 25% of the imports.

In India, the largest smartphone panel module assemblers are TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology and India’s TXD. CSOT has been assembling panel modules for Samsung and Xiaomi, while TXD supplies Vivo and Oppo, the report says.

Read more

• [News] Apple Reportedly Doubles iPhone Production in India, while Foxconn Holds 67% Share
• [News] Foxconn Expands Investment in the U.S., Mexico, India, and Europe, Approaching USD 840 Million

(Photo credit: Foxconn)

While South Korean memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix saw their sales in China double in the first half of this year, the country as a whole seems to heavily rely on China for essential semiconductor raw materials as well, with silicon, germanium, gallium and indium seeing the largest increase, according to a report by the Korea Eximbank Overseas Economic Research Institute on September 24 cited by Business Korea.

Despite the efforts to diversify supply chains, the report highlights the growing reliance of South Korea on China for critical semiconductor raw materials. For instance, the importance of silicon, a vital component in silicon wafer production, has been increasing, as the country’s reliance on China for the ingredient rose from 68.8% to 75.4% in 2022, the report states.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s reliance on rare earths, which are used in semiconductor abrasives, is also said to be on the rise, the report notes. The reliance on tungsten, crucial for semiconductor metal wiring, experienced a slight increase as well.

It is worth noting that since August of last year, the Chinese government has imposed export restrictions on critical minerals, including germanium and gallium, as a counteract to U.S. export sanctions. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China produces 98% of the world’s gallium and 60% of germanium.

Even before the sanction, there is a significant rise in South Korea’s dependence on China for these critical minerals. Business Korea notes that the country’s dependence on germanium, which is frequently used in next-gen compound semiconductors, surged by 17.4 percentage points to 74.3% in 2022.

In addition, reliance on gallium and indium increased by 20.5 percentage points to 46.7%, according to the report.

Under the scenario of China’s export restrictions on key minerals, which were implemented in August and December of last year, the local production by major Chinese companies has not significantly declined, the report notes.

For instance, Samsung’ NAND flash facility in Xi’an, China, has increased its share for the company’s total NAND capacity during the past few years, from 29% in 2021 to 37% in 2023, with expectations to reach 40% this year, according to the report.

Read more

• [News] China’s Gallium and Germanium Export Restrictions Risk Chip Production Shortages
• [News] Chip War Escalates: China to Enforce State Ownership of All Rare Earth Materials in October

(Photo credit: Samsung)