In recent years, MicroLED technology has become a new hot spot in the field of display technology. Under the push of top manufacturers such as Apple, Sony and Samsung, the industry has even called out that MicroLED will be called "LCD" and "OLED" in the future and become the mainstream voice in the market. . Although the current development of the technology, this statement is more like a madman's proverb, but in the age of technology and the ever-changing technology era, no one can miss any choice.
I believe everyone has noticed that in the past two years, Micro LED, which is regarded as the mainstream of next-generation panel technology, has not only attracted international manufacturers such as Apple, Sony, Facebook, and LG Display, but also Taiwanese manufacturers are competing for layout, such as wafers. Optoelectronics, Yuchuang Optoelectronics, Hon Hai, Innolux and other large factories.
Of course, in the face of the micro-LED new market, mainland Chinese manufacturers also showed positive enthusiasm. As far as upstream chip manufacturers are concerned, Sanan Optoelectronics, Huacan Optoelectronics, Ganzhao Optoelectronics and other mainland chip giants are in the midst of an intensive layout.
According to LED industry insiders, MicroLED has obvious advantages over OLED because MicroLED has wider color gamut, higher brightness, lower power consumption, longer service life, stronger durability and better Environmental stability. Considering the characteristics of MicroLED, future wearable devices and indoor displays will be the first areas to be cut. If MicroLED display is used in these two fields in the future, it will consume nearly 50% of the global LED chip capacity.
Indeed, with the gradual fermentation of the MicroLED market, LED chip end expansion has returned to normal track. In the first quarter of 2018, the overall supply and demand of the LED chip industry is relatively balanced. It is expected that the supply and demand of the chip industry in the whole 2018 will be relative to 2017. There has been a significant increase.
Domestic LED chip leading company Sanan Optoelectronics believes that MicroLED is the key development direction in the future, and revealed that it has long-term technical reserves in the field of MicroLED and Mini-LED. On February 5, 2018, Sanan Optoelectronics signed a Prepayment Agreement with Samsung Electronics.
As a well-known LED chip manufacturer in China, Ganzhao Optoelectronics is actively developing towards MiniLED/MicroLED. It is understood that for the new application of LED Display, Ganzhao Optoelectronics has newly established the "Future Display Research Institute" and cooperated with downstream partners to develop new Mini-LED and Micro-LED products.
It is worth noting that with regard to Micro LEDs, dry photo-electricity is more of a chip end and a transfer end. According to Huo Dongming, director of the market of Ganzhao Optoelectronics, “Guangzhao Optoelectronics has made technical reserves on the chip side, but more is discussed with the downstream of the industry chain and the manufacturers of display screens (including the manufacturers who are doing the transfer), because it is the industrial chain. The problems that need to be faced together, especially the problem of massive transfer."
Referring to the huge amount of transfer, I have to say that this is a big "pain point" that MicroLED is trying to overcome in the process. As we all know, the wafer transfer yield of Micro LED needs to reach 99.9% or more, only to reach the mass production and shipping standard. The head of the Swiss semiconductor equipment manufacturer Evatec also stressed that for the Micro LED process, the semiconductor equipment level is required to be high enough to achieve zero defects. In terms of Micro LED technology, brightness is not the most important requirement. The main goal is to achieve zero defects and improve production yield.
The chairman of Everlight Electronics also proposed that "the bottleneck of mass production of Micro LED is mainly stuck in precision mechanical equipment, not the problem of LED. Although some manufacturers have already made Micro LED applications, the cost is absolutely high now. It is expected that the equipment will gradually gradually become available within 5 years. mature."
In summary, how to improve the wafer transfer yield has become the biggest challenge in the development of Micro LED.
Based on this problem, for the commercialization of MicroLED, the industry has basically held a relatively consistent view that the prospect is worth looking forward to, but the road to commercialization is still far away. According to Huo Dongming, director of the market for dry photoelectricity, "the exploration period of MicroLED will last for a long time, but once the huge transfer is solved, the industrialization will accelerate. Personally, it takes 3-5 years for MicroLED to mature commercialization. â€
It is precisely because this dilemma is difficult to break in the short term, although Taiwanese manufacturers have successively invested in the development of MicroLED, but there is still no mass production of related products. Therefore, in the case that the number of Micro LED transfer, yield and die size are not up to commercial level, Taiwan LED Factory decided to promote the so-called "Micro LED" (ie, Mini LED).
Not only Taiwanese manufacturers, but also mainland LED chip manufacturers, the Mini LED is a transitional product of Micro LED. In other words, LED manufacturers hope to achieve breakthroughs in the Mini LED, ready to cut into the Micro LED.
As the second largest LED chip manufacturer in the domestic market, Huacan Optoelectronics has done research on MicroLED very early. Wang Jiangbo, vice president of Huacan Optoelectronics, said in July 2017 that Huacan Optoelectronics has cooperated with famous manufacturers to develop the Micro-LED project and achieved initial results.
In 2018, Huacan Optoelectronics has increased its investment in MicroLED. On February 22, Huacan Optoelectronics signed the “Huacan Optoelectronics Advanced Semiconductor and Device Project Investment Framework Agreement†in the Yiwu Information Optoelectronics High-tech Industrial Park to invest in the construction of advanced semiconductor and device projects. Among them, the project content includes MicroLED.
In fact, Huacan Optoelectronics also encountered micro-LED technology problems. According to the relevant person in charge of Huacan Optoelectronics, "We define the MicroLED, which is an LED product that cannot be processed and processed by existing equipment, but the MiniLED can be processed by existing equipment. At present, Huacan Optoelectronics uses the Mini Blu-ray chip for backlight application. More mature chip products have been introduced on the Mini-RGB chip of the display application, with a few hundred KK shipments."
All in all, Micro LED is entering the public eye and has become a focus of attention in the industry. As for whether MicroLED can set off the next generation of display technology revolution, in addition to looking at technical indicators, it depends on market choices. In other words, in terms of MicroLED, in addition to the advancement of major manufacturers, it is necessary to look at the advantages of future products compared with existing display products in terms of cost and application fields. Otherwise, the technology is more advanced. If the market does not pay the bill, the ending can only be smashed.
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