Though the big brands have been focusing on Micro LED and pushing its development, currently most of the technologies of Micro LED have stayed inside the laboratories and still need further preparation before entering the mass production process. Mini LED, on the other hand, is ready to be applied and to be produced in volume, according to many LED manufactures.

It is estimated by LEDinside that the market value of Mini LED products is expected to reach US$689 million by 2022, and products adopted Mini LED backlight might appear in the market in the second half of 2018. Roger Chu, the Research Director of LEDinside, said that Mini LED backlight application in direct type TVs and gaming monitors might be seen in the market soon.

Mini LEDs can be applied in direct type backlight TVs for better performance and contrast for 4K and 8K TVs. Gaming monitors also address the features of high resolution, high contrast and high saturation which could be achieved by Mini LED backlight. As these products target the market which weighs performance more than price, Mini LED backlight technology could take advantage.

The chip size of Mini LED is about 100-200μm, which makes it possible for producers to reduce the cost of materials and most of the LED makers could employ their current capacity to produce Mini LEDs without preparing new equipment.

Many LED chip makers have reported their progress of Mini LEDs. Lextar, Epistar and Nichia all announced that they are ready to mass produce Mini LED for backlight applications. Packaging company Everlight revealed that the company expects to ship Mini LED products in Q4 while Harvatek and Refond reported their progress of product verification. AUO, the panel producer, said that the company has delivered Mini LED backlight panel samples for gaming displays and may start shipping them in Q4.

To collect and share more insights of Micro LED technologies, LEDinside is currently hosting the 2018 Micro LED Technology Research Contest and would like to invite companies, academic institutions and other corporate entities to submit abstracts or outlines of their latest technical papers related to innovative Micro LED technologies. For more details, please visit: LEDinside " Micro LED Technology Competition" Calls for Paper Abstracts.