The
LED industry kicked off 2017 with its first major event–the 2017 International Signs & LED Exhibition (ISLE), held from February 15
th to 18
th in Guangzhou, China. With a whopping 120,000 square meters of exhibition space, the 2017 ISLE attracted over 1,600 exhibitors and an estimated 80,000 buyers from over 100 countries and regions worldwide. This year, the main focus was on small pitch LED displays.
The 2017 ISLE in Guangzhou, China. (LEDinside)
New Trend - Small Pitch LED Displays
Ever since Taiwan’s major LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics and China’s Leyard introduced small pitch LED displays in 2009, the mainstream pixel pitch of such products has decreased by 50% from 2.5 mm to 1.2 mm. Now, new applications are even aimed at a pixel pitch of only 0.7 mm, which presents a great challenge to manufacturers.
According to LEDinside and various companies, the demand for small pitch LED displays this year has increased compared to last year. Most factories are already working at full capacity. In addition, due to a rising material costs, some LED packaging companies have been under pressure to raise prices.
The 2017 ISLE in Guangzhou, China. (LEDinside)
At the 2017 ISLE, Torrent Chin, Associate Vice President of Everlight, said the company has already received price increase notifications from LED chip manufacturers. In addition, due to limited production capacity, Everlight has started to take a selective amount of orders. If suppliers try to raise prices in the future, it is possible that Everlight will increase prices as well. It is estimated that this uptrend in prices will continue to impact the market until the first half of 2017.
Everlight has long been the leader in small-pitch packaging technology. Besides the 0808 and 0606 LEDs that have already entered mass production, this year the company has also started to take orders for its 0505 LED due to the rising trend toward small pitch LED displays. 0505 is the smallest RGB LED package product and is expected to move into the mainstream in the future.
The 2017 ISLE in Guangzhou, China. (LEDinside)
LED Driver ICs for Small Pitch LED Displays
In addition, driven by demands for small pitch LED displays, manufacturers of LED driver ICs have developed relevant solutions. For instance, Taiwan’s Macroblock introduced the latest Hawkeye Solution products that cater to diversified applications of small pitch LED displays.
From solutions to common small pitch display problems, rental use, to 24/7 operation applications (for control rooms or retail outlets), Macroblock exhibited products that are “simple, smart and superior,” aimed at enhancing display performance. With its innovative and user-friendly brightness adjustment module, users can easily adjust brightness without sacrificing grayscale and white balance. In addition, its intelligent power saving solutions can avoid unnecessary power consumption while providing 24/7 services.
Furthermore, Macroblock also launched a 48-channel LED display driver IC, MBI5353. It simplifies the routing on PCB layout, making it more applicable to small pitch LED displays. It also incorporates intelligent adaptive system and brightness adjustment module.
The 2017 ISLE in Guangzhou, China. (LEDinside)
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