Liquid crystal display technology continues to advance, from the most commonly heard LCD, LED, and OLED to the currently hottest display technologies Micro LED, Mini LED, and Micro OLED. Have you ever thought about trying to understand them, only to feel confused?
Today, I will introduce the differences between these display technologies, hoping everyone will no longer feel confused. You are also welcome to join the industry chain group chat to discuss together.
1. LCD
LCD stands for “Liquid Crystal Display”. Currently, the market mainly uses “Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display” (TFT-LCD) technology, which consists of two glass substrates sandwiching a layer of liquid crystal. The upper glass substrate is a color filter, while the lower glass is embedded with transistors. When an electric current passes through, the electric field changes, causing the liquid crystal molecules’ original rotational arrangement to twist, thereby altering the rotation amplitude of the light passing through and illuminating the color filter in different proportions, resulting in different colors.
TFT-LCD technology is most commonly used in LCD panels.
TFT process.gif
Currently, LCD technology is quite mature and is used in general computer and television screens, with low costs, making it a foundational technology for consumer products.
2. LED
LED stands for “Light Emitting Diode”. It converts electrical energy into light energy. When a voltage is applied across the two terminals of a semiconductor, electrons combine with holes, releasing the remaining energy in the form of visible light. Depending on the materials used, the photon energy will produce light of different wavelengths. Direct-view LEDs are commonly used in outdoor television walls or traffic lights, while LED chips are currently the mainstream products for television and screen backlighting and lighting.
3. OLED
LED and OLED have similar driving concepts, but they use completely different materials. OLED stands for “Organic Light Emitting Diode”. Its basic structure is a layer of organic material light-emitting layer made on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) glass, covered by a layer of low work function metal electrode. Driven by external voltage, holes from the anode and electrons from the cathode combine in the light-emitting layer, generating energy and emitting light. Due to different material properties, the primary colors R, G, and B are produced to form basic colors.
OLED technology
The biggest difference between OLED and LCD is self-emission. LCD requires an LED backlight and filter, while OLED can emit light by itself.
Although OLED displays vibrant images, have low power consumption, and can be curved, the organic materials can oxidize, leading to a relatively short lifespan and color burn-in issues. Additionally, they are expensive and technically complex, currently mostly suitable for small screens, such as mobile phone displays.
A typical OLED device structure
4. Mini LED
Mini LED and Micro LED differ primarily in the size of the LED chips. However, conceptually, there is also some difference. Mini LED is formally named “Sub-Millimeter Light Emitting Diode”, whereas Micro LED refers to “Micro Light Emitting Diode”, with the crystal size generally distinguished at 100 micrometers, or about 0.1 millimeters.
Micro LED technology no longer requires a filter and liquid crystal layer.
Mini LED is seen as a transitional phase to Micro LED, an improved version based on traditional LED backlighting, used as a backlight source for LCD panels. Micro LED is the next generation display technology that miniaturizes and matrices LED backlighting, aiming to individually drive inorganic self-emission (self-emission), extending product lifespan and even outperforming OLED in performance, viewed by the industry as the next generation display technology.
Image source TCL
Currently, Mini LED technology is mainly used in “multi-zone backlight displays” and “large RGB small pitch displays”. The “multi-zone backlight control” feature in Mini LED technology can achieve partitioned dimming, enhancing the high contrast and high resolution of the image, achieving HDR effects similar to OLED displays. Another technology involves using Mini LED chips to create large screens with pixel pitches below 1.0 mm, improving the resolution of LED displays and creating new mainstream specifications for display screens.
5. Micro LED
As for Micro LED, it will bring new technological breakthroughs, not limited to backlighting. Since Micro LED chips have reached a level that is difficult for the naked eye to distinguish, they can directly assemble the R, G, and B chips into a pixel point, embodying the concept of “one pixel”, eliminating the need for filters and liquid crystal layers. This technological characteristic, being completely different from the light-emitting structure of traditional LCD screens, will bring a new revolution to the LCD industry.
Mass transfer aims to place the chips intact onto the circuit matrix, which is very difficult in practice.
In addition to potentially creating a new landscape for the LCD industry, the future application scope of Micro LED is broad, including AR/VR devices, automotive screens, and high-resolution wearable products. However, Micro LED technology faces many challenges that need to be resolved, from early-stage epitaxy technology bottlenecks, mass transfer yield issues, packaging and testing problems, to subsequent detection and repair, all of which pose significant challenges affecting whether Micro LED can be mass-produced.
6. Micro OLED
The biggest feature of Micro OLED is that unlike traditional TVs or high-end phones with LCD or OLED screens built on glass substrates, it is directly mounted on wafers.
Micro OLED uses single crystal silicon wafers as the backplane, enabling displays to be lighter, thinner, consume less power, and have high luminous efficiency, making it particularly suitable for AR and VR wearable devices.
Arpara’s 5K Micro OLED VR headset
Source: Technology News, Aibang Pictures
Since 2021, the application of Mini LED has been growing rapidly. The Mini LED industry chain includes chips, packaging, modules, displays, and final products such as tablets, laptops, cars, TVs, game consoles, and VR; equipment includes die bonders, dispensing machines, AOI, cleaning equipment, etc. For this reason, Aibang has established a Mini LED full industry chain WeChat group, and you are welcome to scan the QR code to join.
Recommended Reading:
Introduction to Micro LED chip mass transfer technology
The Mini LED wind blows into laptop displays
2022 Review of 19 Mini LED direct display industry chain listed companies
Event Recommendation:Mini LED Industry Chain Summit Forum and Exhibition (April 20, Kunshan)
Including but not limited to the listed topics, everyone is welcome to recommend themselves
|
Serial Number |
Topic |
Invited Companies |
|
1 |
Development and Trends of Mini LED Technology |
TCL Huaxing |
|
2 |
Introduction and Challenges of Mini LED Packaging COB Technology |
Leiman Optoelectronics/Xida Electronics/Hongli Zhihui, etc. |
|
3 |
Glass-based AM Mini LED Applications and Solutions |
BOE |
|
4 |
Material Selection for Mini LED Backlight Packaging Substrate |
Woge Optoelectronics, Cui Wenjian, Marketing Director |
|
5 |
Production Process and Applications of Mini LED Phosphor Films |
Hilde Materials |
|
6 |
Applications of Mini LED Backlight Displays in Automotive |
Haiwei Technology, Wang Yanggang, Deputy General Manager |
|
7 |
Application of Quantum Dot Materials in Mini LED |
Nano Crystal Technology |
|
8 |
Application of Fully Automatic High-Efficiency High-Precision Dispensing Machines in Mini LED |
Foster Wan, Qiu Jianjun, General Manager |
|
9 |
Market and Application of Mini LED Backlight FPC Flexible Circuit Boards |
Hongxin Electronics |
|
10 |
Requirements for Soldering Materials in Mini LED |
Weibang Materials |
|
11 |
Detailed Application of Inks in Mini LED |
Sun Chemical/Seiko Chemical/Toyota Advanced, etc. |
|
12 |
Solutions for Mini LED Precision Printing |
Huan Cheng Xin Precision/Kai Ge Precision, etc. |
|
13 |
The Key Role of Sorting Machine Equipment in Mini LED Mass Production |
Huaten Semiconductor/Sot Technology/Huit Technology, etc. |
|
14 |
Challenges of Mini LED Repair Equipment for Manufacturers |
Micro Group Semiconductor/Mengtuo Intelligent, etc. |
|
15 |
Application of Plasma Equipment in Mini LED Processes |
Shengding Precision |
|
16 |
Mini-LED Optical Film Technology Solutions |
Suda Weige/BenQ Materials |
|
17 |
Trends in the Application of Mini LED Screen Panels in High-End Laptops |
Thunderobot/Acer/Mech Warrior |
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