Mini LED has become the trend. Everything is ready. All we need is the east wind.

Mini LED uses backlight design, microchip and other technologies to achieve thinness, high image quality, low power consumption and other characteristics. Its performance level is close to that of OLED, and it is better than OLED in terms of brightness and color rendering. Mini LED targets backlight applications and can be used in automotive panels, outdoor displays, large-size TVs, mobile phones, gaming laptops and other fields.

Micro LED will be difficult to achieve mass production in the short term due to key technical and equipment challenges such as mass transfer. As a transition from Micro LED display technology, Mini LED has more mature manufacturing technology and more complete production equipment, making it easier to achieve mass production of related products.

Mini LED enters the panel TV market

Whether it is Mini LED or Micro LED, mobile phones and tablets are the most difficult application fields to enter. After all, OLED technology in this field has been relatively mature. Although it is only a matter of time before the technical bottleneck of Mini LED or Micro LED is overcome, reducing costs is not something that can be easily overcome in the short term. At least, at this stage, it cannot threaten OLED’s unique position in mobile phone panels.

"OLED panels may disappear in 10 years. Mini LED panels are an opportunity for Taiwanese manufacturers." - said Ding Jinglong, executive vice president of Innolux.

"Just like when plasma TVs were a hit but then withdrew from the market, OLED panels may also be out of the market within 10 years because they do not comply with optical principles. Especially medium and large-sized OLED panels used in OLED TVs will bear the brunt."

The current high-end industry of mobile phone panels is still dominated by OLED panels, and the OLED industry is being monopolized by South Korea's Samsung and LG, and even Apple has to compromise. OLED panels for mobile phones are currently hot, and there is not much pressure to exit in the short term. However, the price of OLED TV panels is too high, and it is expected to be replaced by Mini LED panels with lower cost and better image quality.

At CES earlier this year, Samsung exhibited a 146-inch ultra-large screen Micro LED TV. The shocking effect attracted the attention of many people. According to the latest news, Samsung’s Micro LED TV named “The Wall” will be mass-produced in September. However, even if Samsung mass-produces this TV, its price will definitely not be cheap. Mini LED is currently more competitive than Micro LED in terms of technology and cost, and Mini LED TVs naturally have a market than Micro LED TVs.

Mini LED’s biggest enemy in the future will still be Micro LED

However, the biggest enemy of Mini LED in the future is Micro LED. Many people believe that Mini LED is a transitional product of Micro LED. It is Micro LED products that can ultimately shine in the entire display market. However, because Micro LED still has many technical difficulties and cost issues to be overcome, Mini LED, which has relatively low technical difficulty, has attracted many manufacturers to invest in research and development.

In terms of Micro LED, major manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, and AUO have demonstrated related conceptual products this year. Although they will not reach mass production levels in the short term, leading manufacturers and start-up companies are actively participating in research and development, and some technologies have made certain progress. It is expected that high-end products will appear in the second half of this year.

Even Apple, a giant in the mobile phone industry that has never been good at production, has personally held high the banner of Micro LED. Although many manufacturers have announced that they will mass-produce Mini LED, Micro LED is promoted by giants like Samsung, Sony, and Apple. With unparalleled brand influence, as soon as the cost of Micro LED technology falls, it will definitely be a devastating offensive. Mini LED is called a transitional product of Micro LED. In terms of display performance alone, Mini LED is definitely not a match for Micro LED.

The only thing that is beneficial to Mini LED is technology and time. Overcoming the problem of massive transfer of Micro LED is obviously not something that can be accomplished overnight. The maturity of technology means cost reduction and performance improvement. These are the decisive factors affecting the entry of display solutions into the market. Domestic manufacturers have unparalleled expectations for Mini LED, and they should devote themselves to researching Mini LED technology and deeply explore the potential of Mini LED. The problem of massive transfer of Micro LED will eventually be solved. Only by mastering the deeper technology of Mini LED can we withstand the offensive of Micro LED. After all, there is food in the warehouse, so don’t panic.

The competition between Mini LED and COB LED has never existed

At the beginning of this year, the hottest discussion in the industry was COB. As a new packaging technology, COB directly uses packaging to replace the two-step process of "first encapsulating lamp beads and then surface mounting in the surface mounting process", which brings more space and more possibilities to the LED display industry. The emergence of COB technology broke the public's concept of lamp bead packaging and gave birth to COB LED. At the same time, it also attracted a large number of companies as powerful fans. Representative domestic companies include Lehman, Cedar and Absen.

In fact, COB technology is indeed a great invention for the industry. However, although COB technology has been making steady progress for more than ten years since its invention, it has still not been able to implement the technology and achieve mass production. At least at this stage, the status of the traditional packaging method SMD is still very stable. Although many industry insiders believe that COB technology will eventually replace SMD technology, how long will it take for that day to come?

Closer to home, in fact, the competition between Mini LED and COB LED has never existed. Whether it is at this stage or the era when COB technology replaces SMD technology that has not yet arrived, Mini LED and COB LED are not and will not be in a competitive relationship. From a definition point of view, COB is just a packaging technology, and COB LED is just a product of this packaging technology. Mini LED is an LED product with a point pitch of about 100 microns. The two have no intersection in terms of definition. The competition is also between COB technology and SMD technology, Mini LED and Micro LED, and traditional small-pitch LED.

At this year's US infocomm show, Cedar Electronics brought a series of Mini LED COB products to the US infocomm show. Domestic industry giant Leyard also stated on the public platform that it is developing COB-style Mini LED small-pitch products, which means that the two are not competitive but can also be well integrated and complementary. The pitch of Mini LED is too small, and traditional SMD packaging technology may not be able to meet the packaging requirements of Mini LED. COB technology may be a better choice.

Mini LED’s competition with traditional small-pitch LEDs and LCDs

Different from the comparison between Mini LED and COB LED, the definitions of Mini LED and traditional small-pitch LED are defined in the same direction. The competition between Mini LED and traditional small-pitch LEDs is actually the same as the competition between Mini LED and Micro LED. Even the comparison of technology and production costs at this stage is the same. The display performance of Micro LED is better than that of Mini LED, and the display performance of Mini LED is better than that of traditional small-pitch LED. As long as the technology cost of the one with better display performance is reduced, it will have an advantage in the competition.

However, the market is not a simple competition in display performance. As long as Mini LED cannot be at the same level as or lower than traditional small-pitch LED products in cost, it cannot completely replace traditional small-pitch LED products.

As for the competition between Mini LED and LCD, it is still a matter of technology implementation and cost. LCD controls most of the commercial display and civilian display markets, and its biggest reliance is on controlling technology costs to a certain extent. If you want to challenge the absolute status of LCD, you must work hard on the two aspects of "ease of use" and "affordability." However, after so many years of development, LCD can defeat the previous mainstream display technology, and can withstand the impact of various technologies that later challenge the mainstream display status. There is no doubt about its strength. From this point of view, Mini LED still has a long way to go. However, it is still too early to say that it will challenge the mainstream status of LCD displays. Mini LED currently needs to take every step in a down-to-earth manner.

It is estimated that the overall Mini LED output value will reach US$1 billion in 2023. At present, Taiwanese LED manufacturers are very active in the layout of Mini LED. Epistar, Lextar, Macroblock, Innolux, AU Optronics, Acer, and Everlight have all stated that they will achieve mass production of Mini LED products this year. Mainland manufacturers are also making plans.

Many major manufacturers, including Sanan, Huacan, Qianzhao Optoelectronics, and Nationstar Optoelectronics, have already made preparations for the mass production of Mini LED, and have determined the time for mass production of Mini LED products. They will gradually achieve mass production in the second half of this year.

The wind is blowing and the clouds are flying. When a large number of Mini LED products flood into the market, a new situation will open.