Mini LED has always been a hot topic in LED display industry research. In the field of small-pitch LED displays, Mini LED was the first to be implemented, which has become a symbol of Mini LED commercialization. Represented by Mini LED and Micro LED, small-pitch LED displays will initially fully develop the potential for "comprehensive development" in many fields such as professional displays, commercial displays, home displays, consumer electronics, etc. Especially in recent years, with the support of the Mini LED concept, small-pitch LED display technology has broken through the P1.0 pitch, and even achieved "PPI resolution" comparable to large-screen LCD displays, which is definitely a milestone. Because this indicator not only represents new progress at the technical level, but also means that small-pitch LEDs have gained new tools in the expansion of application scenarios, and the market size will move from tens of billions to hundreds of billions.
The development driving force of Mini LED display market
Taken together, the current development drivers of the domestic Mini LED display market are as follows:
First of all, the development of the competitive product market is slowing down. Judging from the current development situation of LCD splicing, the largest competitive product in the small-pitch LED category, the overall market is currently in a state of development with increasing volume and declining sales. The low-price competition in the market is fierce, and the gross profit of each manufacturer is low. The sales market growth rate is also continuing to slow down. This year, it will also drop from last year’s double-digit growth rate to single digits; and the sales proportion of LCD splicing products within its leading companies continues to decline. LED The proportion of small-pitch sales has increased significantly; and SDC, the panel manufacturer that entered the market earliest and has always been the largest in terms of scale, officially announced that it will cease production of all LCD splicing product lines in July. Japanese and Korean manufacturers Samsung, LG, and JDI have also given up on the domestic LCD market, which has caused great turmoil in the industry. This news has brought new confidence to LED display practitioners.
Secondly, the entire industry chain is actively promoting the development of Mini/Micro LED, and strong alliances are continuing. Starting from the second half of 2019, enterprises in various LED industry chains have cooperated frequently. For example, in September, Huacan Optoelectronics signed a strategic cooperation in micro-display with seven enterprises including BOE, Sharp, Innolux, Unilumin Technology, Xida Electronics, Ledman Optoelectronics and Zhongqi Optoelectronics, which will focus on Mini/Micro Development and application of LED display technology; in December, Lianjian Optoelectronics announced that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Lianjian Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Konka Research Institute signed a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement", and the two parties will establish a joint venture to engage in the research and development, production and manufacturing of Mini LED and Micro LED large-screen display products. At the same time, Leyard announced at the end of December that it planned to cooperate with Yuanfeng New Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Epistar, to jointly build a Mini/MicroLED display project base with a total investment of 1 billion yuan. Leyard has officially signed the "Cooperation Investment Agreement on Mini LED and Micro LED Display Projects" with Yuanfeng New Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Epistar, and Liangxi District of Wuxi City, and plans to It is planned to build a factory and trial production in 2020, build a research and development experimental line, enter the trial production period in 2021, and enter the production period in 2022.
The actions of various LED chain companies are enough to show the overall industry's determination and confidence in the Mini LED market; at the same time, domestic panel manufacturers BOE and CSOT have plans to launch glass-based Mini LED display products. BOE has launched glass-based P1.6mm LED small pitch, marking its official crossover from LCD to LED display field.
The last step is the release of demand under the new infrastructure. Since this year, new infrastructure has become the focus, and LED small-pitch LEDs will also usher in more opportunities under the upsurge of new infrastructure. Such as big data centers, industrial Internet platforms, intercity high-speed rail and rail transit construction, and the release of industry demand under 5G such as 5G+ telemedicine, 5G+ teleconferencing, etc., will drive the application demand for LED small spacing. Overall, although Mini-LED displays are driven by multiple driving forces and are highly anticipated by manufacturers, there is still a long way to go from product launch to widespread application and large-scale mass production. And with the increasing number of newly entered companies and the current outbreak of overseas epidemics, the LED display export market has also been greatly affected, with a significant decline. More LED companies have also turned their markets to domestic markets. It can be expected that competition will be fierce in the future.
LED market demand characteristics in the Mini era
From the perspective of market demand, the advantage of Mini LED is "not just smaller spacing", especially when combined with new processes such as COB technology's four-in-one packaging, its "application value" is almost universally required for "all indoor screens". Because of this, industry insiders believe that indoor LED displays will fully move towards the Mini LED era, including products with P0.9-P2.5 spacing, and there is a demand for "Mini LED".
For example, if used in a P1.8 small-pitch LED display, the "integrated process amount" of the terminal lamp bead of the four-in-one Mini LED product is reduced, the grayscale effect is better at low brightness, the graininess of the picture is significantly reduced, and the screen reliability is enhanced - "In fact, whether Mini LED is meaningfully applied to large screens with a P0.5 pitch has yet to be verified by the market; but in comparison, at a slightly larger pitch such as P1.5-P2.0, Mini The value of LED technology has been very intuitive." Industry insiders commented on the "universal nature of Mini LED."
In fact, it is a "general trend" for the small-pitch LED display industry to adopt smaller LED crystal sizes: four-in-one packaging technology has made a breakthrough in accelerating the arrival of the "Mini LED" era. Under the background that the current mainstream small-pitch LEDs have achieved the P0.9-P1.2 pitch indicator, the "technological innovation" focus of the small-pitch LED large-screen project is likely not to be "smaller spacing" (the picture size and viewing distance of the project's large-screen determines the need for continuous reduction of the pixel pitch), but to "better picture quality and reliability." The latter is one of the main advantages of Mini LED.
The issue of Mini-LED industry certification standards needs to be solved urgently
As far as LED displays are concerned, the mass production of Micro LED is extremely difficult and costly for almost all manufacturers. Because of this, Mini-LED, which has relatively low process difficulty, is generally considered by the industry to be the core technology that will dominate the development of the industry in the next few years. However, Mini LED technology is not “just a piece of cake”. This has led to the continuous emergence of "compromise" "Mini LED" products. There are a large number of products using Mini LED labels on the market, mainly including traditional surface mount packaging, N-in-1 packaging, formal chip COB packaging and other solutions. These technologies can circumvent the difficulties of mass transfer processes to some extent and achieve faster productization. These technologies cannot be said to be “exquisite” inventions. However, a variety of ingenious technical implementation methods also disrupt the intended meaning of Mini LED.
The significance and shortcomings of compromise technology are not difficult to understand for professionals. However, for ordinary users, this kind of chaos of using the same product name but having multiple technical certification standards is bound to cause certain misunderstandings and misunderstandings. On the other hand, the coexistence of multiple standards is not conducive to unified market management and healthy development of the industry. Therefore, unifying the industry certification standards for Mini LED has become the primary issue that needs to be solved. This involves scientific discussion and progress in many aspects such as crystal size, integration process, screen formation or application terminal technology.
To sum up, Mini LED now has a strong market driving force. The development speed of LCD splicing screens in the competitive market has gradually slowed down. The upstream and downstream of the industry chain have formed a consensus to actively promote the development of Mini/Micro LED. Strong alliances have continued, and the demand for new infrastructure has been released, which has released a lot of signals for the rapid development of Mini LED. At the technical level, Mini The "universal nature" of LED has laid a very good foundation, but today it still faces some problems that need to be solved urgently. For example, there are currently many different identification standards for Mini LED in the industry. Once these problems are solved, it will also take an important step towards the steady development of Mini LED in the future, the scientific construction of the consumer market, the maintenance of market order, the reflection of industry value, and the upgrade of product experience.
ANNA