According to the latest report by the LEDinside research division of TrendForce, titled 2020 Mini LED Next-Generation Display Technology and Supply Chain Analysis, as Apple pushes forward the development of Mini LED backlight technology, the company is expected to incorporate Mini LED backlight technology to improve the performance its existing products such as the iPad and Pro Display. The application of Mini LED backlight technology is expected to reach 18% penetration rate in the overall market for IT products in 2025. TrendForce Assistant Resear...

On April 14, 2020, Apple was granted 54 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and one of the patent is related to sensors that might be added to Apple Watch in the future to detect the environment of water and the makeup of water. The new patent issued to Apple, titled “Portable electronic device as health companion,” describe the function of the incorporating sensors for identifying the water based on the detected property and initiate actions of the wearable device to send notifications to the user. For example, the Apple Watch would be able to warm...

AR applications and devices are one of the major focuses of Apple at the moment. The company has shown its interests in AR technology development and considered that AR wearable glasses may replace smartphones in the near future. Rumors about Apple to reveal its AR smart glasses soon have been going on as well. Apple launched the new iPad Pro adopting LiDAR Scanner and releases the latest ARKit 3.5 which enables app developers to take advantage of the new LiDAR Scanner to capture 3D features of the surrounding environment. ARKit 3.5 also includes instant A...

APPLE reveals the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro product of 2020, which is equipped with a LiDAR scanner for world facing 3D sensing solution. The product can be regarded as an outpost for full 3D sensing iPhones scheduled in September 2020. 3D sensing has been equipped with rear camera to provide features like rangefinder, blur photo effect (background removal included), 3D object recognition, spatial modeling and augmented reality. 3D sensing combining 5G transmission and AR function with gesture control is expected to realize interactive augmented reality, leading to ...

It has been reported that Apple will launch new products with Mini LED backlight technology including iPad Pro and MacBook Pro in 2020 and 2021. Recently, Apple is reportedly developing six products adopting Mini LED technology including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 27-inch iMac Pro, a 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, a 16-inch MacBook Pro, a 10.2-inch iPad and a 7.9-inch iPad mini. (Image: Pixabay) Apple’s products with Mini LED display technology are believed to boost demands in the Mini LED market. Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturer Epistar, who i...

Media from Taiwan reported that Apple has placed Mini LED orders to Innolux, a display manufacturer of the Foxconn group, for the new iPad Pro scheduled to launch in 2H20. In response to the report, Innolux announced that the company did not reveal relationships with its clients and the information was not correct. (Image: Pixabay) It was reported that Innolux has sent display samples to Apple for the new Mini LED based iPad Pro. Innolux has been a strong player in Mini LED and Micro LED technology development. As a member of the Foxconn Group, the ...

Rumors of Apple’s Mini LED products have been going on since April 2019 and the latest news is that the company will begin mass production of iPad and MacBook Pro with Mini LED backlight display in 2020. Other Mini LED-based products will come in two to three years. (Image: Apple) Apple’s new Mini LED products, including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and a 16-inch Macbook which are said to be launched the soonest in the third and fourth quarter in 2020, will benefit the company’s supply chain covering chip makers, display producer and assembly com...

The new Apple facility in Taiwan was said to be finished in December 2019 but analyst of LEDinside visited the site and noted that the building may not be completed at the scheduled time. Two weeks ago LEDinside covered that Apple is building a new plant in Taiwan which might be used for developing Micro LED products. The planned complete time was set on December 2, 2019; however, according to analyst of LEDinside who visited the site last week, the facility would take at least two to three months to be able to operate. (The new Apple facility in the front)...

Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published 59 patents of Apple including one patent named “Lighting Systems of Vehicle Seats,” which is believed to be part of Apple’s autonomous vehicle project “Project Titan,” according to the report of Patently Apple. Apple’s new patent of vehicle lighting systems noted that the lighting system can be integrated into a seat, door panel, dashboard, or other interior portions of a vehicle. These interior parts of car would be illuminated with the light systems for providing icons, text, a...

Apple is currently constructing a new facility in Taiwan, next to Apple’s Taoyuan plant opened in 2015, reported Taiwan’s Wealth Magazine. According to the report, Apple is building the third plant in Taiwan which is scheduled to be finished in December 2019. Many believe that the new facility, like the old ones, are for Micro LED. (Apple's Micro LED research center in Taiwan, image: Seeking Alpha) Taiwan has been a key place for Apple in developing Micro LED technology where the iPhone maker strategically collaborated with local supply ch...

Apple just won another Micro LED related patent with other 63 patents issued on October 8, 2019, reported Patently Apple. The patent, titled “Optical Verification System of verifying Micro Device Transfer,” focuses on mass transfer process, which has been one of the most challenging issues that slow down Micro LED commercialization. (Image: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) In the patent, Apple described an optical verification method and mass transfer system which includes optical imaging and inspection for monitoring Micro LED transfe...

Micro LED technology is on its way to take off with various applications launched by leading companies across the world. Small size displays for wearable products, middle size display for automotive applications and extra-large TVs are the three major areas targeted by current Micro LED players according to their strategies of Micro LED technology. LEDinside observed several roadmaps of Micro LED technology developments of different leading companies in the field. Luxury Micro LED TVs Since Micro LED technology still faces the challenge of high pro...

Patently Apple published a new article noting that Apple was granted another Micro LED related patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent is titled “Micro LED mixing cups,” describing the integration of different layers in Micro LED. The mixing cups structure, according to the patent description, includes “a diffuser layer adjacent the LED, an angular filter directly over the diffuser layer and the LED, and an overcoat layer directly over the angular filter and the LED.” These layers are designed to integrate differen...

In April, an Apple rumor pointed out that the company would have launched Mini LED backlight product in the second half of 2019 and Mini LED iPad as well as Macbook since the end of 2020. In June, we have seen Apple presented its Pro Display XDR based on LED backlight display which is similar to Mini LED backlight technology but not the same. Now, Apple was said again that it will launch iPad and MacBook adopting Mini LED displays. The rumor said that the Mini LED based iPad and MacBook will use about 10,000 LED chips that are smaller than...

Patently Apple reported an Apple’s patent published in Europe titled “Display with Embedded Pixel Driver Chips” describing the method of fabricating Micro LED display panels with a display integration scheme that embed an array of LEDs on substrates with the front side up. In the description of the patent application, Apple used figures of flexible and foldable display to illustrate how the approach of LED pixel driver chips can be embedded on different display panels. (Image: World Intellectural Property Organization) With the patent app...

When and in what product Apple will adopt Micro LED display technology has been an ongoing topic for the industry. Apple Watch and AR/VR smart glasses were the two products that are most likely to adopt Micro LED according to industry rumors as well as Apple’s revealed patents. On August 1, 2019, a new Micro LED display patent applied by Apple was published in Europe, reported Patently Apple. The patent abstract described that it states the structure and methods of Micro LED display fabrication, including how LEDs are transferred to a carrier subst...

Smart glasses and AR devices have been targeted by Micro LED display technology and were considered to be the first applications entering the market. Previously LEDinside has collected news about Apple’s patent applications related to Micro LED and AR smart glasses. However, rumors said that Apple might have dropped its AR glasses project. Apple’s project of AR/VR headset development might have been suspended due to immature capability of building 5G connectivity and data, according to the report of Digitimes. The report said that the team was dis...

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, points out that Apple has just released the Pro Display XDR 32-inch 6K display, which utilizes a brand new LED backlight solution. In doing so, Apple is motivating the display industry to actively explore new solutions for high end products, with next generation Mini LED backlight technology to become the main area of development for many suppliers. Mini LED backlight revenue is expected to reach US$340 million in 2023 (not including the revenue from other driver ICs and backplanes). TrendForce points out that the brand n...

Rumors about Apple said that the company will launch Mini LED products in the second half of 2019. Nevertheless, at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference 2019, Mini LED products have not showed up. Instead, Apple presented a 32-inch HDR display, Pro Display XDR which adopts direct LED backlight. (Image: Apple) Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch 6K LCD monitor featuring a resolution of 6,016*3,384, 1,600 nits peak and 1,000 nits sustained brightness and a contract rate of 1,000,000:1. These characteristics were achieved by using a direct ...

Patently Apple reported that the US Patent and Trademark Office have published several new patents for Apple recently including two patents of Micro LED chip transferring and structure and one related to a head-mounted system with a holographic element. The first patent of Micro LED transferring, titled Micro LED Display, described a Micro LED structure with a metallization layer between a bonding layer and the micro p-n diode, as well as a conformal dieletric barrier layer. The structure of Micro LED enables a phase change during chip transferring and enabl...

Rumors about when Apple will start adopting Micro LED in its products have been going on since it acquired Micro LED startup LuxVue in 2014. Many believed that Apple Watch would be the first Apple product using Micro LED display featuring its high brightness and low power consumption. However, it is also likely that the technology will be seen in augmented reality (AR) devices based on Apple’s recent plans. Reuters reported that Apple has teamed up with German software developer SAP to help business develop applications based on Apple’s machine-l...

As more Asian players demonstrate their progress in Micro LED, LED technology providers and researchers from Europe and North America also synchronize their advances through deepening collaboration with various solution providers. Europe: Plessey presents Micro LED AR/VR glasses; Osram joins in on Micro LED automotive display research After Plessey unveiled its GaN-on-Si monolithic Micro LED in 2018, the UK-based company has cooperated with several partners including Vuzix, JDC, Nanoco Technologies, Aixtron, Mojo Vision and others. In col...

Apple has held talks with LiDAR suppliers seeking for advanced LiDAR sensors for its self-driving cars, suggesting that Apple is still working on its automotive vehicle project, known as “Project Titan,” reported Reuters. According to Reuters, Apple has talked to at least four LiDAR suppliers, aiming to find LiDAR sensors with a “revolutionary design” that are “smaller, cheaper and easily mass produced” in comparison to the current technology. However, the reports said Apple has not yet found one that meets its demands. (I...

Since Mini LED began its commercialized applications in the second half of 2018, the market of Mini LED backlight continues to expand. It is said that Apple will also start to adopt Mini LED backlight for iMac and iPad. Apple was said to release a 31.6-inch iMac with Mini LED back light in 2H19, a 10- to 12- inch iPad in 4Q20 or 1Q21 and a 15- to 17- inch Macbook in 1H21. With features of wide color gamut, high contrast ratio, high dynamic range, local dimming and long lifespan, Mini LED backlight would be a better option for devices such as monitors, tab...

We have all heard rumors about Apple’s augmented reality (AR) glasses and they might be materialized soon as suggested by recent reports and Apple’s newly granted patent. It is said that Apple will begin manufacturing its AR device the soonest in 4Q19 and release the product by 2Q20. According to a report covered by 9To5Mac, the device will be heavily dependent on the iPhone, using its computational power for image rendering, internet connection and location service. The pairing between the AR glasses and the mobile phone might be wireless connection that sim...

Chinese panel producer BOE will become a supplier of OLED panels to Apple for iPhone aside from Samsung and LGD, reported Etnews, a South Korean media. According to the report, BOE might be providing flexible OLED panel for the folding iPhone scheduled for 2020. However, currently the flexible OLED panels of BOE have not passed Apple’s final validation yet. For officially supplying its OLED products to Apple, BOE has to provide further sample products and go through the demanding process of quality control. As a result, it might take more...

Apple was grated with several patents relating to smart fabric in the past week. One of them is a glove with integrated circuity and forces sensors that could connect to Apple device for monitoring blood pressure, respiration and heart rate, reported Patently Apple. (Image: The US Patent and Trademark Office) According to the patent, Apple embeds force sensing circuity into fabrics that could sense pressure and force on the fingers and/or palm area of the glove. The glove can transmit the information collected from the circuitry to other devices for further processing an...

Apple has applied a patent related to optoelectronics devices for improving LiDAR sensors and applications, reported Patently Apple. The report said that Apple noted the demands for applications using 3D sensing and imaging systems and proposed enhanced technologies to integrate LiDAR and VCSEL for advanced 3D image technology. The new patent introduce a method to combine different types of light source and laser array such as diffractive optical elements or VCSEL to develop improved 3D image devices for various applications. (Image: Apple) Patently Ap...

Optoelectronic component producer II-VI Inc. announced on November 9th that it is going to acquire Finisar, the supplier of optical communication products for Apple with a deal worth US$3.2 billion cash and stock.

Apple has reportedly been granted a patent related to Micro LED display which provides an angle-of-view adjustment layer that involves holographic technology, according to an article by Patently Apple. The patent application, titled “Display with Holographic Angle-of-View Adjustment Structure” describes that by adding an angle-of-view adjustment layer on the array of display pixels, the viewing angle for users is enriched. The angle-of-viewing adjustment layer may be formed from holographic structure. (Image: the United States Patent and Trademark Offi...