Display giants are focusing on OLED and Micro-LED to extend the life of LCD technology. Is it too late?

Traditional LED display technology, once known for its high brightness and stable performance, seems to be inevitably replaced by OLED in the face of the fierce attack.

For example, according to recent reports from foreign media, Samsung Electronics is considering selling Tianjin Samsung LED Co., Ltd., and is likely to carry out a large-scale restructuring of its LED business in order to better invest in OLED screen production.

The situation of LED and OLED today is just like that of CRT and LCD in the past. Although there are overlaps in the usage scenarios of the two, OLED has always been regarded by industry insiders as the next-generation product. In the life cycle of LED, it has no chance to compete head-on with it.

However, under such circumstances, Micro-LED, a new generation of LED-based display technology, suddenly emerged, raising the question of whether LED will be replaced by OLED.

Micro-LED technology has a promising future and it is not just talk to compete head-on with OLED

Whether Micro-LED can surpass OLED and make a great comeback for LED technology has become a hot topic in the display panel market.

Essentially, Micro-LED refers to micro light-emitting diodes, which integrates a high-density, tiny LED array on a chip to reduce the pixel distance from millimeters to micrometers.

Because each Micro-LED can be regarded as a pixel that is driven and lit individually, it can not only present a higher level of image detail and a more delicate image with a strong contrast, but also, compared with other LEDs, Micro-LED has the characteristics of high brightness, low power consumption, ultra-high resolution and color saturation.

According to the data, when Micro-LED is compared with OLED, which is also a self-luminous display, not only is its brightness about 30 times higher, but its resolution can reach 1500PPI, which is 5 times higher than that of the Apple Watch using an OLED panel.

In addition, unlike OLED which uses organic materials, Micro-LED is mainly based on inorganic materials, which gives it a lot of room for development in terms of cost reduction and service life.

It can be said that Micro-LED not only integrates the advantages of low cost and high brightness of LED display technology, but also takes into account the characteristics of low power consumption and high contrast that were originally only possessed by OLED technology.

Micro-LED counterattack OLED? TV large screen is not the breakthrough

Even though the emergence of Micro-LED is enough to compete with OLED, in fact, Micro-LED will face considerable barriers if it wants to surpass OLED and become the mainstream of the industry in a short period of time.

First, OLED technology has become mature, and the original niche technology has now overcome the difficulties of commercialization in terms of efficiency, cost and life. For this reason, not only Samsung has abandoned its LED business in preparation for OLED, but even LGD, another Korean panel manufacturer, has begun to focus on OLED.

Not only that, many domestic TV manufacturers are also actively deploying OLED products. According to industry insiders, except for Hisense, almost all domestic TV brands have begun to transform towards creating OLED products. Micro-LED hopes to counterattack OLED in the large-screen TV industry, but it is not optimistic.

However, this does not mean that Micro-LED has completely lost the opportunity to compete with OLED.

It is understood that Apple is expected to use Micro-LED technology in the next generation of Apple Watch and iPhone, and plans to launch Micro-LED wearable devices in 2018. It can be seen that the competition between Micro-LED and OLED may first start on mobile devices that focus on power consumption.

But what cannot be ignored is that when OLED technology becomes the mainstream choice of the display industry in the future and is seen as a foregone conclusion, the emergence of Micro-LED still makes people feel that there are more potential variables in the future.

We still cannot be sure whether the competition between LED technology and OLED technology will usher in a new "World War II" if Micro-LED large-screen devices appear in front of TV consumers one day.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.