“The concept of the Metaverse has kept the heat of VR headset products high. With the continuous development of VR technology, the underlying display technologies, LCD and OLED, are also evolving. Currently, both are doing their utmost to compete in the Metaverse.”

The mainstream position of LCD remains unshaken

From the current application situation in the VR market, most VR headsets use LCD screens.

According to IDC data, in 2021, global VR headset shipments reached 10.95 million units, with Oculus alone accounting for 80% of the market share. Currently, among the top 5 brands in global shipments, only Sony’s PlayStation VR uses an OLED screen. Major terminal manufacturers like Oculus, Pico, HTC, and Value use LCD screens in their VR products, including Oculus Quest 2, HTC Vive and focus3, DPPI Ultra integrated machine, and models like Pico Neo3 and Value index. Notably, both Oculus Quest 2 and HTC Vive, which are bestsellers, abandoned the OLED screens used in the first generation and switched to LCD.

In fact, early VR headsets mostly used ordinary LCD screens, which were gradually replaced by OLED.

LCD technology has long been mature and can achieve very high resolutions.

According to Liu Tan, deputy general manager of the Internet of Things Industry Research Center at CCID Consulting, “The response speed of ordinary LCD is only 1/100 to 1/1000 of AMOLED, which leads to uncorrectable motion blur when users wear headsets and make significant head movements.”

In practical applications, compared to ordinary LCD, OLED has a faster response speed, effectively avoiding screen motion blur. Thus, around 2016, OLED technology began to be tried in VR devices and became the preferred choice for VR device manufacturers.

However, VR products using OLED technology at that time also had fatal flaws: noticeable screen door effect.

Yang Tingting, general manager of BOE Technology Group’s VR/AR BU, stated that glass-based OLED is constrained by FMM (Fine Metal Mask) technology, making it extremely difficult to achieve ultra-small pixels, resulting in low PPI (pixels per inch) and noticeable graininess in images, affecting the immersive experience and visual clarity of VR.

Currently, OLED pixel density has not yet broken through 1000 PPI, hovering around 600. Samsung Display showcased VR OLED panels with 806 PPI and 1200 PPI in 2018, but due to a lack of large orders, mass production could not be achieved. Meanwhile, LCD pixel density has exceeded 1000 PPI. According to TCL Huaxing, the screen of Skyworth VR’s PANCAKE 1 is a TCL Huaxing 2.1-inch 1512 PPI LCD-VR screen.

“For VR to quickly reach consumers, both technology and cost must be kept in check,” said Gu Wei, founding partner of Weishi Consulting, a Metaverse industry consulting service provider, in an interview with China Electronics News. In maintaining cost advantages, LCD’s slow response speed issue is also being effectively addressed.

Since 2018, the emergence of Fast-LCD technology has tilted the balance towards LCD for manufacturers. The improved Fast-LCD technology uses new liquid crystal materials (ferroelectric liquid crystal materials) and ultra-fast driving technology to effectively increase the refresh rate to 75-90Hz, significantly improving response speed, greatly narrowing the gap with OLED, and ensuring high mass production stability and yield.

According to Zhao Siquan, a senior analyst at IDC China, “Under the condition of technological advancement, Fast-LCD display technology is outperforming OLED in the VR field due to its cost advantage. Currently, Fast-LCD, which combines performance and cost-effectiveness, has been widely used in mainstream VR headset products.”

Technological progress never stops

Today, consumer demand for near-eye displays is constantly upgrading, and both LCD and OLED technologies continue to advance. Mini LED backlight Fast-LCD and silicon-based OLED (OLEDoS) have emerged.

“While Fast-LCD has its advantages, it also has some drawbacks. For example, due to the presence of a backlight layer, it is prone to issues like light leakage,” said Geng Yi, director of the Optoelectronics Research Laboratory at CCID Consulting’s Integrated Circuit Research Institute, in an interview with China Electronics News. The combination of Fast-LCD and Mini LED not only effectively addresses the light leakage problem but also further enhances Fast-LCD’s performance in high contrast, high refresh rate, and high brightness, complemented by HDR functionality to better meet the ultra-clear and detailed image quality requirements of VR products.”

Industry forecasts suggest that in the VR field, Fast-LCD, supported by Mini LED backlight technology, will occupy a significant portion of the application market, potentially reaching over 85% market share in the future.

Meanwhile, to improve the screen door effect, OLED is also transitioning to silicon-based OLED. Silicon-based OLED innovatively combines semiconductors with OLED, using single-crystal silicon chips as the substrate for display devices. Since silicon-based OLED is deposited on small wafers of 6 inches and 8 inches, it greatly reduces the uniformity challenges faced during OLED production. Both brightness and pixel density of silicon-based OLED have significantly improved, with pixel densities reaching 3000-4000 PPI.

Currently, silicon-based OLED is rapidly becoming a favorite for near-eye display devices like VR. According to reports from South Korean media The Elec, Samsung Display and LG Display are both developing silicon-based OLED and silicon-based LED technologies. The upcoming Apple AR/MR headset, expected to launch next year, may use LG’s silicon-based OLED display technology. Consulting firm DSCC predicts that by 2027, silicon-based OLED will account for 48% of all AR/VR display shipments.

“However, the cost of silicon-based OLED is relatively high,” said Liu Yushi, a senior analyst at CINNO Research. On one hand, the cost of large-area silicon substrates is high; on the other hand, using smaller silicon wafers requires more complex optical designs, keeping costs high, thus it will mainly be used in high-end VR products.”

Liu pointed out that as technology and the market evolve, silicon-based OLED will inevitably see explosive growth while maintaining cost competitiveness.

CINNO Research statistics indicate that the global market size for AR/VR silicon-based OLED display panels was $170 million in 2021. With the development of the AR/VR industry and further penetration of silicon-based OLED technology, it is expected to reach $1.67 billion by 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 77.1% from 2021 to 2025.

Metaverse display technology will not be limited to one type

Industry insiders believe that Fast-LCD and silicon-based OLED will become two important tracks in the AR/VR headset field.

Recently, BOE responded to investors regarding its products and plans in the AR/VR and sensing fields, stating that the display solutions it provides for VR/AR/MR smart terminals include high PPI, high refresh rate Fast-LCD and ultra-high resolution, ultra-high contrast silicon-based OLED, among other representative display technologies.

Companies like OLED, Visionox’s Kunshan Dream Display, Xitai Technology, and Hefei Shiya have all entered the silicon-based OLED market, with production line investments exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Liu Honghui, a technical mentor at Microsoft’s Innovation Base, stated in an interview with China Electronics News, “In the future, with cost-performance advantages and guaranteed production capacity, Fast-LCD will become the main driver for the rapid development of the VR industry. As products evolve to higher-end markets, silicon-based OLED may still be chosen as the leading technology.”

In interviews, it was learned that from LCD, OLED to Fast-LCD, and then to silicon-based OLED, AR/VR has raised higher requirements for display technologies, and the technology route for displays is progressing step by step. Metaverse display technology is not just about VR forms but also includes AR, MR, and various different shapes of landscape, portrait, curved displays, and even holographic projections.

Gu Wei pointed out that in the future, more cutting-edge display technologies will be developed, so Metaverse display technology will not be limited to one type but should be a multi-technology parallel structure.