Yole’s reality check on MicroLEDs
Startups have raised more than US$800 million to date, including at least US$100 million in 2019 and it is estimated that Apple has spent in the range of US$1.5 to US$2 billion on the technology over the last five years, observe the analysts at Yole. Panel makers such as Samsung Display, LG Display, AUO or Innolux have also significantly increased their efforts, and novel performance or process yield breakthroughs regularly make the news.
“Without doubts, today microLEDs are progressing on all fronts,” says Yole’s principal display market & technologies analyst, Eric Virey.
Patent filings are growing exponentially and technology is progressing. The external quantum efficiency of blue and green microLED chips has more than doubled over the past 24 months. Some transfer and assembly processes are reaching performance close to what is required to enable some microLED consumer applications. Progress is also visible in the proliferation of prototypes presented over the last 18 months by close to 20 companies.
“The demos cover a broad range of display types, sizes and technologies. Native RGB or color converted displays on TFT backplanes are offered by many companies, with some examples including Playnitride, CSOT, Samsung, LG, glō, AUO, eLux, and Kyocera. Lumiode has developed native RGB or color converted displays on monolithicaly integrated LTPS”, highlights, Zine Bouhamri, technology & market analyst at Yole.
roadblocks. (source : MicroLED Displays 2019 report,
Yole Développement).
Microdisplays on CMOS backplanes have also been demonstrated by companies including Plessey, glō, Lumens, JB Display, Sharp and Ostendo. Finally, discrete microdriver ICs have been developed by X-Display. The multiple prototypes based on TFT backplanes give credit to the idea that microLED displays could leverage existing panel maker capacity, thereby simplifying and streamlining the supply chain.
“Equipment makers have taken notice and are starting to develop microLED-specific tools for assembly, bonding, inspection, testing and repair”, notes Virey.
LED makers can’t afford to ignore the technology pressure and are showing interest, with San’an planning to invest US$1.8 billion to set up a mini and microLED manufacturing base. Osram, Seoul Semiconductor, Nichia or Lumileds are also increasing their activity and Playnitride is completing its first microLED pilot line.
However significant roadblocks are still in place for key applications… For many of them, economics are pushing die size requirements below 10μm. This compounds efficiency, transfer and manufacturability challenges and despite significant improvements, small die efficiency remains low. In most cases, display efficiency based on this technology still can’t match that of OLED . Significant effort is therefore needed to further improve the internal quantum efficiency, light extraction and beam shaping of green and red microLED chips.
For microLED companies, the first few prototypes provide strong return on experience but maturing toward consumer-grade displays could require thousands more. Startups are entering the valley of death: many might fail to raise enough money to successfully go through this more capital and resource intensive phase. Support and partnership with large display makers or OEM, either as strategic investors or development partners is critical.
(source : MicroLED Displays 2019 report, Yole Développement)
“With unit sales stagnating, TV panel makers are entering what is likely to be a period of prolonged excess capacity. This translates into commoditization and shrinking profitability in an industry that is very capex-intensive”, observes Virey, which makes him think that the TV panel industry desperately needs a game-changer, and microLEDs could eventually come to the rescue, as a novelty factor.
What technologies and manufacturing strategies are deployed by individual panel makers? How can Korean and Japanese manufacturers defend against China’s ascendance? And what are the capacity constraints and the overspending risks? These are some of the questions to which Yole’s experts are answering in their report.
Yole Développement – www.yole.fr
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