MicroLED TVs - Page 8

Samsung electronics announced a new partnership with CJ ENM, to install a large microLED The Wall display at CJ ENM's studio which will enable a 'virtual production studio'.

The main display in the new studio will be a 20-meter diameter oval-shaped The Wall microLED displays, with a height of seven meters. The idea is that this will create a "seemingly endless backdrop to capture content."

It is quite challenging to produce microLED TVs, and while display companies all over the world are investing billions into R&D, and are developing new process and production technologies, we're still quite far from the emergence of mass production of microLED displays.

As we discussed earlier this month, it happens that even though the industry is still at an early stage, microLEDs are finding early market niches, mostly in AR/VR microdisplays and large-format TVs. Indeed the microLED TV market is promising and companies such as Sony, Samsung, LG, Konka and others already offer large-area tiled microLED TVs for the premium-consumer market. Here are some of the latest microLED TV updates that we published in recent months:

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung plans to build a new TV production line in Vietnam, that will be dedicate to microLED TV production. The new plant will begin production in 2022, and will be used to produce its upcoming smaller 77-inch and 88-inch TVs. Samsung is also expanding its facility in Vietnam which is currently used to produce the 110-inch microLED TVs.

Samsung aims to reduce the production costs of its MicroLED TVs, and has launched a project that will develop a TFT backplane for its future TVs (to replace the currently used PCBs). The company hopes that this will enable it to reduce the production costs of its microLED TVs to the level of its 8K QLEDs. This sounds a bit optimistic, at least for TVs in sizes such as 77-inch or 88-inch.

Samsung Electronics announced a new microLED The Wall IWA display module, that offers upgraded performance and a thinner profile compared to its current displays. It has installed the first such display at its Suwon office, a 1,000-inch display (8K resolution).

Samsung says that the new module uses LED chips that are 40% smaller compared to current models (for which the chip size is around 100 um so the new ones are likely to be around 60 um). The new TVs support a refresh rate of 120Hz, 8K resolution, a brightness of 1,600 nits and a new enhanced AI processor.

Samsung unveiled its TV lineup for 2021 in its Unbox & Discover 2021 event. Included in this new lineup are two new MicroLED TVs aimed for the residential consumer market.

Samsung will start selling its MicroLED TVs by the end of the month (March 2021), with two models - 110-inch and 99-inch in size. In the fall Samsung will release a 88-inch model, and it also revealed that it has a 76-inch model on its future roadmap.

Austria-based C SEED announced a new MicroLED TV, the 165-inch 4K C SEED M1. This TV uses a unique foldable design, which makes use of seven large MicroLED panels that can be unfolded and be inserted into the floor.

Unfortunately C SEED does not detail much about the display itself, or who produces the MicroLED tiles. The price is around $400,000.

Global digital signage solution provider STRATACACHE is embarking on a project to construct a microLED display production line in Eugene, Oregon. The company aims to start production in this fab at around 2022-2023, with plans to adopt these microLED displays in its own solutions.

The new factory (E4) will be a complete microLED production line, from epiwafer (on 300 mm silicon wafers), through transfer process and to final module assembly. The company plans to produce a wide range of displays, from tablet-sized panels to large-area displays. Some of these displays will be flexible and transparent as the company sees a market demand for such technologies. The yearly capacity of the E4 is expected to start at a 1 million square meters per year.

In September 2020 LG launched its MAGNIT MicroLED TV. The company is now showcasing its next-generation TV technology at virtual CES 2021:

The MAGNIT TVs are made from 160x180 modules, arranged in 8-unit Cabinets (640x360 each). The MAGNIT offers a brightness of 600 nits (peak 1,200 nits) and feature LG's AI solution (based on its a7 image processor). LG says it uses a new advanced black coating technology that maximizes black levels and increase resistance to dust, humidly and finger marks. A 4K MAGNIT configuration is 163" in size.

Towards the end of 2020, Samsung announced it's first "consumer"110-inch 4K MicroLED TV. It's not really for regular consumers with a price tag of around $150,000 - but this is a step forward in Samsung's goal to advance its MicroLED display technology.

Samsung now announced that its Micro-LED TVs will also be available in 99-inch sizes - and even smaller ones by the end of the year.

Sony introduced its next-generation microLED display technology (direct-view LED as the company calls it), the high contrast Crystal LED C-series (ZRD-C12A/C15A) and the high brightness B-series (ZRD-B12A/B15A).

The new display modules offer two pixel pitch sizes (in both series), 1.26 mm and 1.56 mm and are equipped with Sony's "X1 for Crystal LED" image quality processor, which features Sony's signal processing technology and microLED control technology. Other features include high-quality and high-resolution upscaling, Sony's Motionflow technology for smooth and artifact-free pictures without motion blur, 22 bit Super Bit Mapping, 120 fps (HFR) and HDR.