It was reported today on September 21 that Chinese LED chip manufacturer Sanan Optoelectronics has progressed faster than expected with its Mini LED chip development and might begin to supply its product to Apple’s iPad Pro and MacBook in 2021. If Sanan joins the supply chain with lower price, the business of Epistar, the Taiwan-based LED supplier who is reportedly the major Mini LED chip supplier of Apple, may be impacted. However, TrendForce said that Sanan has yet made its way into the Apple supply chain and the low price may not be the first priori...

Even without a physical presence, Display Week 2020 still functioned as a major arena for competing technology providers to showcase their offerings. Noteworthy participants that unveiled their latest Micro LED products included LGD, AUO, Tianma, and BOE. In demonstrating their cutting-edge solutions, exhibitors used videos, images, and other media resources to overcome the limitations of the virtual venue. The lack of physical exhibitions and conferences did not diminish the excitement over Micro LED displays during Display Week 2020. Many prominent developers ...

A Korean company announced that it has developed “12-inch sapphire wafer” with required quality which can help to support local demands of semiconductor materials, reported ETNEWS, a Korean media. Japan imposed restriction on exportation of three semiconductor materials that are critical for display manufacture to South Korea due to disputes between the two countries. The Korea government and companies have thus been pushing the development of materials, components and equipment so that they will be less reliable on imposed products. (Image: Samsung) The...

According to the latest report of TrendForce, “2020 Global Automotive LED Product Trend and Regional Market Analysis,” demands for automotive LED increase stably driven by advanced applications such as intelligent headlamp, central tunnel taillights, HDR automotive displays, ambient lights and more. Headlamps play the major role in the development of automotive LED lighting. The driving momentum include halogen replacement, small aperture, adaptive driving beam (ADB) and projection. TrendForce analyzed that halogen replacement and ADB will occup...

As applications adopting Mini LED technology are about to boom, Chinese companies reported their new investment projects for expanding capacity for the new display technologies including Mini LED and Micro LED. Last week, LED display maker Dicolor and LED chip producer Focus Lightings announced their new projects for Mini and Micro LED respectively. Dicolor added RMB 1 billion (US$ 146.28 million) to build a Mini LED display production center in Chuzhou and Focus Lightings announced that it will expand capacity for Mini/Micro LED chip with an...

Mini LED backlight display technology is going to be adopted by Apple and Samsung for tablets and TVs launching next year. Meanwhile, we have seen several Micro LED technology breakthroughs recently with AUO, PlayNitride and ITRI showcasing their prototypes for innovative applications. To speed up Micro/Mini LED display technology, integration within the supply chain is a major strategy recognized by industry players. Epistar and Lextar, the two Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturers, are merging with the aim to leverage their expertise and avoid duplicated ...

2021 is expected to be the year that Mini LED will illuminate the display market. Apple is getting ready to launch the new iPad Pro featuring Mini LED backlight display and Samsung will probably debut new high end TV portfolio based on the technology. Recently a Korean media added that Samsung might produce about 2 million units of Mini LED backlit TV next year. With all the upcoming Mini LED display applications, the supply chain in Taiwan covering LED manufacturers and panel makers who have been dedicating to improving the display technology based on mini...

Innolux hosted 2020 new product premiere yesterday and presented a 55-inch rollable Mini LED emissive display featuring active matrix (AM) driving technology. The panel maker also introduced new display products targeting health and entertaining applications. The rollable display adopts flexible PCB backplane and features high curvature, brightness, contrast and saturation. However, Innolux did not reveal further details such as resolution for the product. Comparing to the rollable OLED panel LG demonstrated before, Innolux claimed that direct emissive Mini LE...

Sharp’s mass production plan for Micro LED displays marked a progress of the Foxconn Group in next-gen display technology development. Incorporates LED chip production, packaging technology, panel manufacture and TV brands, the Foxconn Group is known for its ambition to set up an internal Micro LED supply chain. The Micro LED displays developed by Sharp, a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI, were designed by the semiconductor group under Foxconn and manufactured by Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor. ...

Taiwan-based LED company Lextar announced the expansion of its I-Mini LED portfolio with four new Mini LED backlight products targeting applications covering TVs, monitors, automotive display and nautical instruments. The products have been manufactured in volume and delivered to its clients. (Image: Lextar) Lextar introduced the technologies adopted in its new I-Mini LED backlight products including COB, DOB and microlens array. By bonding Mini LED flip chip directly onto driver substrate, the COB (Chip on Board) technology achieves ultra-thin ...

LED testing and sorting equipment manufacturer FitTech held investor conference yesterday (August 20, 2020) and announced that in order to meet the demand of Mini LED chip process from its clients, the company will expand its capacity in 4Q20. The expansion is expected to finish in the second quarter of 2021 and will be a major growing momentum for FitTech. (Image: FitTech) Being part of the Mini LED backlight technology supply chain, FitTech provides LED testing equipment for Epistar, who is known for the major Mini LED chip supplier for Apple’s ...

According to the latest report of TrendForce, “2020 Global Automotive LED Product Trend and Regional Market Analysis,” the market demand for automotive panel has reached 134-144 million units in 2019-2020 with center informative display accounting for the highest share. This was estimated based on the sales of car shipment. Currently, 12.3 inch is the mainstream size for center informative display, which is designed with two or three connected panels, or even designed into a whole panel sized 30 to 50 inch. Since 2020, car makers attempt to implement HDR and...

In the second half of 2020, increasing applications based on novel display technologies are emerging in the market. Mini LED backlight technology has reached the stage of commercialization with several notebook and monitor products launched. Chinese TV brands TCL have released its Mini LED TV series and Korean giants Samsung and LG are likely to roll out Mini LED backlight TVs in the near future as well. And of course, the most expected Mini LED product would be the 12.9 iPad Pro of Apple. Meanwhile, Micro LED technology is still developing and a few...

Chinese brands TCL and Xioami introduced their new TV products featuring advanced display technologies. TCL launched its new Mini LED backlight TV, 6-series and Xiaomi presented a transparent OLED TV. TCL released 5- and 6-Series Roku TV lines. The 6-series products are based on Mini LED backlight technology with 240 dimming zones that enables brilliantly bright and deeply dark areas to achieve ultra-high contract ratio. According to TCL, the series will be the first TV with THX® Certified Game Mode, supporting a refresh rate of 120Hz. A...

Among the next-gen display technologies based on miniaturized LEDs, while Micro LED is still confronting issues of low yield and high cost, Mini LED backlight display technology has been commercialized and is seeing a thriving future starting next year. Currently at the market, we can see Mini LED backlit gaming notebooks and monitors launched by Acer, Asus, MSI, Lenovo and other notebook brands. The long rumored Mini LED iPad Pro from Apple is another highlight expected by the market and the industry. In addition, Samsung is reportedly debuting a series o...

On August 7, LED companies Epistar and Lextar held an extraordinary shareholders meeting to pass the share conversion of both companies to the new holding company, ENNOSTAR. The members of the board of directors, supervisors and chairman of ENNOSTAR were also elected. As expected, Epistar holds three seats in the board of directors, Lextar takes one seat and its parent company AUO gets one seat as well. The members of the board of director include Biing-Jye Lee, Chairman of Epistar; Chin-Yung Fan, President of Epistar; Shih-Shien Chang, Vice P...

Mini LED backlight display applications are spreading with increasing products entering the market including notebooks, monitors and TVs. Leading brands like Apple and Samsung are going to launch products based on the technology in 2021 as well. Meanwhile, TCL, the Chinese TV brands who released Mini LED backlit TVs last year, is reportedly increasing the product shipment. In 2019, TCL launched 65- and 75-inch Mini LED backlit TVs. The company changed its pricing strategy this year by cutting the 65-inch TV from $1,999 to US$999 and the 75-inch from ...

As virtual Display Week goes on, Taiwan-based panel maker AUO announced its demonstration of advanced display technologies covering Micro LED automotive displays, Mini LED medical displays, a full range of gaming displays as well as display applications in smart retail and transportation. Pioneering the next generation display technology, AUO is showcasing a complete series of full color TFT driven Micro LED automotive displays. The 9.4-inch flexible Micro LED display developed jointly by AUO and PlayNitride is now integrated into a automotive display t...

As the market is expecting Apple and Samsung to release products adopting Mini LED backlight display technology, companies of the supply chain are gearing up with increase production to meet the hiking demands. These big names are reportedly securing their LED chip supply from manufacturers in Taiwan, Korea and China. (Image: Pixabay) Samsung, who is likely to release Mini LED backlit TVs series in 2021, has been in talk with Episar, Lextar, Sanan and HC Semitek to make sure that its demands of 30 billion Mini LED chips for over 3 million TV units wou...

With a focus on the emerging Micro LED and Mini LED display markets, GE unveiled its advances with narrow-band red (PFS-KSF) and green phosphors that will accelerate their integration into these next generation display applications. These advances were highlighted during a keynote presentation by Dr. James Murphy during the SID Virtual Display Week Business Conference. GE demonstrated the new inkjet-printed red phosphor on a plastic substrate which that illustrates advances toward printing phosphors for Micro- and Mini- LED displays. (Image: GE) ...

SmartKem is a UK-based organic semiconductor materials producer and it has announced its development of Mini LED backlight prototypes for full array local dimming aimed at TV, monitors and signage applications. The company is showcasing its development at Display Week 2020, which is virtually taking place this week. Organic materials for organic thin-film transistors using SmartKem materials can be used to manufacture active matrix backplanes, driving arrays of thousands of individual Mini LEDs on a substrate, thereby delivering impressive high resolution images with...

Taiwanese panel manufacturer AUO held its investor conference yesterday and announced financial results of 2Q20. Driven by “Stay-at-home” economy, the company reported strong demand for display applications and expects the growth momentum to continue in the second half of the year. For 2Q20, AUO posted consolidated revenues of NTD 63.50 billion (US$ 2.16 million), up by 18.3% QoQ. Gross margin came to 2.7%. In the second quarter of 2020, large-sized panel shipments totaled around 30.71 million units, hiked by 37.0% QoQ. Shipments of small-and-medium-s...

Singapore based equipment supplier K&S announced financial results of its fiscal 3Q20 ended June 27, 2020. The company posted revenue of US$ 150.5 million which grown by 18.4% YoY. For the third fiscal quarter of 2020, K&S reported a gross profit of US$ 69.4 million and a gross margin of 46.1%. On the non-GAAP base, the company’s net income grew by 258.3% YoY to 12.9 million. The increased profit and revenue were boosted by the company’s recently mass produced Pixalux, which was designed to meet the high speed transfer needs in Mini LED...

Next-generation Micro/Mini LED display technologies have generated a market which companies hoping to recover from the pandemic-induced global economic downturn look to for the next wave of commercial opportunities. Furthermore, major brands including Samsung, Apple, Facebook, Google, LG, and Sony are also rushing to get a head start in Micro/Mini LED development, in turn galvanizing the growth of the overall supply chain. Total Micro/Mini LED revenue is projected to reach upwards of US$4.2 billion in 2024. TrendForce’s latest investigations find that cu...

Mini LED backlight products are expect to bring a revolution to the display market with driving momentum from leading brands including Apple and Samsung. The two companies are reportedly launching Mini LED backlight tablets and TVs in the coming months or next year, which will bring up demands for Mini LED chips. LED chips suppliers from Taiwan and China are seeing a surging demands for Mini LED chips in the second half of 2020. Taiwan-based Epistar has been preparing its Mini LED capacity for Apple and will be ready to begin shipment in September. E...

Samsung is reportedly preparing the launch of Mini LED backlit TVs in 2021 and the increasing demands of Mini LED chips will be supplied by Taiwan and China companies, reported TechNews, a Taiwan-based online media. (Image: Samsung) By quitting the production of LCD display, the Korean giant plans to boost its high end TV products shipment based on diverse display technologies, aiming to exit the low price competition. Apart from the scheduled “The Wall” TV launch in the market of North America and Europe, Samsung might also release new TV...

Mini LED backlight display, featuring high brightness, contrast, reliability as well as longer lifetime, is regarded as a great competitor to OLED display, which is the current dominant display technology for high end consuming electronics. But higher production cost is still a pain point for Mini LED backlight display. From the viewpoint of the supply chain, driver ICs that control the local dimming zones of Mini LED backlight display could actually be a critical component to help reducing production cost. The increased production cost of Mini LED comes from the ...

A research team led by Shin-Tson Wu, Professor from the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, USA, conducted a comprehensive analysis on the current display technologies: LCD, OLED, Mini LED and Micro LED. The researchers analyze the performance of self-emitting Mini LED, Micro LED and OLED display, as well as Mini LED backlit LCD, evaluating the power consumption and ambient contrast ratio of each display in depth and systematically compared the dynamic range, motion picture response time, color gamut, and adaptabili...

TrendForce’s latest LED Industry Demand and Supply Data Base finds that, by 2024, the global Mini/Micro LED market is projected to reach US$4.2 billion in revenue. The positive outlook of the Mini/Micro LED industry has attracted many investors. Since 2019, total investments in Mini/Micro LED-related projects in China have reached RMB 39.1 billion, with more than 14 newly added projects, according to TrendForce’s investigations. This massive influx of capital is expected to accelerate the overall pace of Mini/Micro LED commercialization. ...

Epistar and Lextar, the two LED companies in Taiwan said that they are forming a new holding company via share conversion with the aim to strengthen Micro LED and Mini LED display technology and business. The new holding company is now named ENNOSTAR, revealed Epistar in its announcement following the agreement of both companies. The share conversion ratios of two companies are set at one share of Epistar for 0.5 ordinary share of ENNOSTAR, and one share of Lextar for 0.275 ordinary share. An extra ordinary shareholders meeting and the promoter’...