Where has the Mini LED backlight that attracted industry attention gone?

Since the concept of Mini LED came out, the industry has derived two directions: Mini LED direct display and Mini LED backlight. At present, Mini LED has become a battleground for the industry. Various LED companies have begun to invest in expanding production and recruiting troops in order to occupy a place in the Mini LED market that has not yet had time to become a blue ocean. So what is the future prospect of Mini LED backlight? What level has product research and development reached?

1. What is the market prospect of Mini LED backlight

As TV brand manufacturers such as TCL, Xiaomi, and Konka have introduced Mini LED backlight TVs, technology and costs continue to be optimized. According to the "Micro LED Era, Technology and Market Assessment Research Report" by the Industry Research Center/SNOW Intelligence, Mini LED display applications will exceed 5 million units in 2021. From an area perspective, TVs will be the main contributor to Mini LED backlights in the future, and their cumulative share will reach more than 70% by 2025.

2. The mainstream technical route of Mini LED backlight

①Mini SMD solution (referred to as "Gypsophila")

Currently, the mainstream devices on the market include Chip 1010, CSP1616, TOP3528 and other packaging forms. There are several considerations when choosing the Gypsophila solution. The LED device solution is more mature, more reliable, relatively cost-controllable, and easy to maintain. At the same time, it can reduce the precision requirements of the PCB board, thereby reducing the cost of the PCB board. It has certain cost advantages in large size and large OD value.

②COB/COG integrated solution

In terms of product trends, integrated solutions will definitely become the mainstream. The main difference between COB and COG lies in the difference in substrate. The glass substrate has high precision and has advantages in main driving. It also solves the problem of excess LCD panel production capacity. However, considering factors such as product diversity and differentiation, PCB substrate has more advantages.

3. Problems with Mini LED backlight

①Reliability issues

Mini LED backlight technology solution, the number of LEDs ranges from a few K to dozens of K, which is several orders of magnitude higher than the number of LEDs in traditional LED backlights, which also puts forward higher requirements for the reliability of LEDs. In particular, TVs/monitors are consumer electronic products. Once an LED fails, its use will be seriously affected. In principle, the failure rate of Mini LED backlight is required to be 0PPM, which puts forward higher threshold requirements for Mini LED technical solutions.

②Cost issue

The main cost of Mini LED backlight is divided into three major parts: PCB, LED, and driver IC. The proportion of the three will change to a certain extent according to the changes in OD value and number of partitions, but PCB occupies the main cost. Therefore, in order to become popular, the cost of PCB must be further reduced. But for current applications in the mid-to-high-end market, cost seems not to be the core issue. Taking 75 inches as an example, with 500+ partitions, 4K+PCSLED, the cost of the light panel can be controlled within 2,000 yuan/set.

4. Take Nationstar Optoelectronics RGB Division as an example to see the advantages of Mini LED

①Mini LED Chip1010

It can be used in backlight modules based on PCB and glass substrates. Using flip-chip, combined with the large-angle five-sided light extraction technology, it can ensure that small OD or even OD0 can be achieved under large pitch, thereby reducing the number of lamp beads used and optimizing the cost solution.