According to the latest report of LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, while conventional LED components are used for backlight, Micro LED and Mini LED technology have been gradually used for self-emitting in displays of consumer electronics. Every LED will then stand for a pixel, increasing the number of LED wafers used.

With the development of display technology, the panel industry will no longer only focus on the supply and demand. Instead, more emphasis has been placed on the quality and specs upgrade of panels in order to increase the value of display products. This trend has motivated the display panel makers towards better specs, such as high resolution, curved, ultra-thin, lightweight, bendable, high dynamic HDR, high contrast, and wide color gamut. In this way, the displays will be able to present more natural colors and vivid image.

In recent year, Mini LED has undoubtedly emerged as a new sector where LED companies and panel vendors actively enter. The reason is that the traditional LED backlight has been developing for many years, reaching a bottleneck in technology; the profit is relatively low as well. Meanwhile, OLED displays, which feature thinness and flexibility, are invading into the backlight display market. As the result, manufacturers that do not worked on OLED displays have turned to the development of Mini LED, a new product that is highly competitive in terms of function and cost.

Concepts of Micro/Mini LED display are more and more popular. Enterprises' developments in this segment also become focuses of the LED industry.

As Micro LED still encounters certain technical bottlenecks, some companies are currently focusing on the transition technology Mini LED instead. The squad proactively developing Mini LED applications includes panel giants (Innolux and AUO), LED chip makers (Epistar and Lextar), and LED packaging firms (EVERLIGHT, AOT, and Harvatek).

According to media reports, Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi are worried about insufficient OLED panel production, so they plan to use Mini LED-lit LCD displays for their smartphones in 2H18. Despite the fact that this rumor is not confirmed yet, the LED supply chain already pins its hope on Mini LED.

Optovate has revealed further details of its innovative micro-LED technology, following its first technology announcement in March 2018. Optovate has since 2008 been developing catadioptric micro-optic arrays to enhance the benefits of micro-LED, mini-LED and OLED displays and also a patterned laser lift-off (p-LLO) micro-LED transfer process.

The oversupply in the LED chip market continues in 2018. The market demand is estimated to recuperate in the second quarter; however, it will still need new technologies such as Mini LED to ease the oversupply, according to Biing-Jye Lee, Chairman of Epistar

Currently in the industry, on one hand, Apple has been very active in developing Micro LED; on the other, display makers AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux just announced to roll out Mini LED applications by the end of 2018.

Taiwan LED manufacturers recently announce their first-quarter revenues. The revenues of Epistar and Lextar both declined more than 10% YoY. In 2H18, these two companies will launch new Mini LED products, which might help increase their revenues.

Over the past two years, Micro LED, regarded as the new generation display technology, has attracted a lot of attention. Seeing great potential in this new technology, a large number of manufacturers have scrambled for it. According to LEDinside’s latest report "1Q18 Micro LED Next-Generation Display Technology Market Report- 2018 Micro LED and Mini LED Industry Trend", the market value of Micro LED is expected to reach US $2.891 billion in 2025.

The sales of iPhone X turned out to be less than market expectation, so Samsung has lowered the utilization rate of OLED production lines. The tight supply of OLED panels over the past two years has also been eased. According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, Apple has initiated the trend of OLED panels, and it is estimated that the penetration rate of OLED panel in smartphones will reach 46% by 2021. Mini LED is overwhelmed by OLED’s technology maturity and competitive costs, so it might be hard for Mini LED to grow in the smartphone market in short term.

According to the latest Gold Member Report - LED Industry Demand and Supply Data Base from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, in 2017, due to the stable prices on LED market and the rapid growth of automotive lighting and outdoor architectural lighting, LED market value of 2017 reached USD 17.16 billion, up 7.4% YoY.

Chinese LED packager Nationstar on March 2 inaugurated its new research center focusing on the research and development of Mini LED and Micro LED.

Optovate Ltd., the Micro LED optical specialist, announces that it has realized a Micro LED technology that enables multiple Micro LEDs transferred in parallel from a wafer to a substrate to be aligned in one step with a precision optical array. The technology is the subject of a portfolio of 20 granted and pending patents dating from 2008.

Mini LED is a new display technology in Asia. AU Optronics (AUO) on March 8 released the world's first Mini LED-based product line, including a gaming monitor, a gaming laptop, and a small-sized display for VR wearable devices. The company will begin to ship its Mini LED products in 2H18 and the large-scale gaming monitor will be the first to be on the market, said Michael Tsai, General Manager at AUO.

Before we can see real Micro LED, sized below 100µm, Mini LED (100-250µm) will be rolled out to the market first. People must be curious about which consumer electronics will Mini LED choose and how will it enter those markets.

Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturer Epistar reported a decrease of 8.59% MoM and a growth of 11.52% YoY in its revenue for January 2018. The slow season and the price decline of LED are factored in for the decrease.

LED vertical integration manufacturer Lextar Electronics registered a revenue of NTD 760 million (USD 25.97 million) for February, down 21.7% MoM. The company attributed the revenue decline to the Chinese New Year holiday and product mix adjustment.

Here begins a debate: when Mini LED is ready to enter the smartphone display market, it have to face an oversupply of OLED screens. Does Mini LED still have chances to grow in this space? And for how long can it last?

LEDinside would like to thank everyone for your support and regular visit to our online magazine. As Chinese New Year is approaching, we will temporarily stop updating industry news until February 21.

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2018 in the Netherlands is an international well-known exhibition for display. This international exhibition is taking place from February 6 to 9 in the Netherlands and has caused a lot of attention in the digital display industry.

LEDinside listed out companies worldwide that have tapped into the development of Micro LED and what they have achieved so far. This up-to-date table covers the majority of the activities happening within the global Micro LED developing force. 

Innolux yesterday (February 6) demonstrated a 10.1-inch AM Mini LED display at a shareholder meeting. This new technology will be officially commercialized in the automotive electronics market, said Chin-Lung Ting, Executive Vice President of Innolux Corporation. Before that, the Taiwan-based company will continue the development of other devices.

Last year, Taiwanese LED packaging company EVERLIGHT registered a lukewarm annual earnings with a YoY decline of 6.6%. In face of looming threats from Chinese competitors, EVERLIGHT adjusts its product mix in hope to push up its revenue in 2018.

A KAIST research team led by Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Daesoo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences has developed flexible vertical micro LEDs (f-VLEDs) using anisotropic conductive film (ACF)-based transfer and interconnection technology. The team also succeeded in controlling animal behavior via optogenetic stimulation of the f-VLEDs.

Finance of Taiwanese LED giant Epistar saw a noticeable recuperation last year. The market this year anticipates Mini LED, one of Epistar’s new lineup, to generate a revenue for the company in 2H18.

Since Apple joined to share some of the OLED supply for its iPhone X in 2017, the shortage of OLED panels has become intensified. Because of the agreement Apple signed with the exclusive supplier Samsung, Apple always stays in the list as the top priority that a large proportion of the OLED supply goes to. Other smartphone manufacturers struggle as they also want to use OLED panels for their products but the supply is simply not enough. Thus, they, the Chinese smartphone brands in particular, turned to Mini LED.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 1Q18 Micro LED Next-Generation Display Technology Market Report- 2018 Micro LED and Mini LED Industry Trend, the Micro LED market value in 2025 is expected to reach USD 2.891 billion.

Self-driving car, electric vehicle and internet of vehicles are three major trends of automotive panels. Innolux takes part in the 2018 CES to exhibit the world’s first AM Mini LED automotive panel.