3Q18 Micro LED Next-Generation Display Technology Market Report- Transfer, Drive, Backplane and Applications
Membership: Micro LED Next Generation Display Industry Member Report
Micro LED key technologies will correspond to different application products: Among all the technologies of Micro LED, the most critical ones are mass transfer, drive and backplane. Because mass transfer technologies in the semiconductor factory, panel factory, LED epitaxy factory, packaging factory and startup company are emerging technologies, longer time is needed to achieve commercialization. Because the backplane properties required by different applications will change according to backplane specifications, the suitable method may also show various results due to different design of active matrix and passive matrix.
Micro LED transfer patent development trend: Basically, all technologies start with patent layout. Thus, by observing patent layout, we can see the development focus and key of manufacturers. In addition, transfer technology includes transfer and repair technologies, and non-transfer technology includes patents such as LED epitaxy, full color, backplane and drive. Therefore, transfer technology focuses on more patents, which also means manufacturers’ more attention. To develop Micro LED, the bottleneck of transfer technology needs to be overcome first.
Micro LED backplane application trend: The maximum of line width and line space from large to small is as follows: PCB > FPC > Glass > Si CMOS. Thus, owing to the difference of backplanes, the size of display changes. For example, in terms of large-size digital display and TV, because the display size is big, the pixel pitch is larger. There are PCB and glass for them to choose. For middle-size automotive display, glass and FPC are applied instead of PCB. For small-size cell phone and watch, glass and FPC, which are suitable for middle- and small-size display demand, are mainly applied. The backplane display demand of micro-display for AR/VR devices will be below 30 µm. Thus, Si CMOS will be mainly applied. Besides, with the demand of transparent eyeglasses, optical FPC will be needed.
Micro LED drive application trend: The drive solution of Micro LED can be divided into passive matrix and active matrix. Yet, the drive method of Micro LED product will change according to different applications. With the increase of resolution and panel size, passive matrix hasn’t been able to satisfy the demand. The general passive matrix is applied to small-size panel. In terms of middle- and large-size applications, active matrix is required in order to reach low voltage and low power consumption.
