Outline:
- LCD Technology
- TFT LCD Technology
- LED Technology
- OLED Technology
- Mini LED Technology
- Micro LED Technology
- Micro OLED Technology
- Final Words
Have you ever wanted to understand from the most commonly heard LCD, LED, and OLED to the most desirable display technologies, Micro LED, Mini LED, and Micro OLED, or only to be confused?
This article will try to briefly introduce some features of these new-generation display technologies and the differences between them and the old ones to understand them quickly.
1. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
- The principle of displaying images in a general LCD.
- Polarizers
- Glass Substrates
- ColourFilters
- Liquid Crystal Panels
- Directional Films
- Glass Substrates
- Polarizers
- Optical Films
- Backlight Modules
- Light Reflectors
- Cold Shaded Light Tubes
- Light guide Panels
- Optical Films
2. TFT LCD Technology
LCD is a liquid-crystal display. Most of the current market uses TFT-LCD or thin-film transistor liquid crystal display technology. TFT-LCD consists of a layer of liquid crystal sandwiched between two glass substrates. The lower glass layer is inlaid with electro-crystals and the upper glass substrate is a color filter. The electric field passes through the crystals created by the electric current and making the original rotational arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules twist. Different colors produce by changing the rotational amplitude of the light passing through and shining on the color filter in different proportions.
- LCD panels are made using TFT-LCD technology.
It Includes:
- Polarizers
- Glass Substances
- Color filters
- Colored molecular layers
- Glass substrates
- Polarizers
- Backlight Module
It is now quite grown and is used for TV screens and public computers. And It is a low-cost technology that has become the foundation for consumer products.
After understanding LCD and TFT LCD, let’s move on to LED and OLED technologies.
3. LED Technology
The LED is called a light-emitting diode, which uses electrical energy to convert into light energy by applying a voltage to the positive and negative terminals in the semiconductor. The electrons combine with the electric hole when the current passes through, and the remaining energy is released in the form of visible light. The direct display LED is commonly used for outdoor traffic lights or TV walls. LED chips are the mainstream TV, screen backlighting, and lighting products.
- LED technology uses electrical energy to convert into light energy, and it includes:
- Optical
- P-Type Semiconductor
- N-Type Semiconductor
4. OLED Technology
Generally, the concept of conducting LEDs is quite similar to that of OLEDs. But the materials used in LEDs are totally different because OLEDs are called organic Light-Emitting Diodes and shortly OLEDs. The basic structure of OLED consists of an organic material light-emitting layer made on Indium Tin Oxide glass. It is covered with a low power function metal electrode on top of the light-emitting layer. An external voltage drives the light-emitting diode. The cathode electrons combine in the light-emitting layer to emit light and generate energy, producing R, B, and G primary colors depending on the characteristics of the material from the primary colors.
- OLED technology includes:
- Polarizers
- Substrates
- Electrodes
- Electron layers
- Organic light Emitted layer
- Electron hole layer
- Electrodes
- Substrates
The most noteworthy difference between OLED and LCD is that LCDs require LED backplanes and filters and OLEDs are self-luminous.
Although OLED presents a vivid picture, has low power consumption, and can be bent, the organic material will oxidize, so the life span is relatively short. There will be problems with color burn-in, coupled with high technical content and the high cost. Currently, it is mainly used for small screens only, such as mobile phone screens, etc.
Now, we will look at advanced display technologies like Mini LED, Micro LED, and Micro OLED. After understanding the fundamental differences between LCD, LED, and OLED.
5. Mini LED Technology
The most automatic difference between Mini LED and Micro LED is the size of the LED crystals. But there is a slight difference from a conceptual point of view; Mini LED is formally known as a sub-millimeter light-emitting diode, while Micro LED refers to the micro light-emitting diode.
- Micro LED technology no longer requires a filter and liquid crystal layer, and it includes:
- Anti-glare and Protective films
- RGB micro LEDs
- Electrodes
- Substrates
Mini LED is considered as the transition period of Micro LED. It is an improved version based on the conventional LED backlight and used as the backlight of LCD panels. Micro LED is regarded by the industry as the new generation of display technology and matrixing the LED backlight. It is dedicated to driving inorganic self-lighting or self-luminous alone and allowing longer product life and even perform better than OLED.
Mini LED technology is currently mainly used in multi-zone backlight displays and large RGB small pitch displays. The multi-zone backlight control function can be achieved by zonal dimmings, such as the screen’s high resolution and enhancing the high contrast ratio, or performing the HDR effect. The effect is similar to OLED displays; another technology uses Mini LED chips to create a display with a pixel pitch lower than Pitch 1. Mini LED chips are another technology used to create large screens with a pixel pitch of approximately less than 1.0 mm, which improves the resolution of LED display screens. It creates a new mainstream specification for display screens.
6. Micro-LED Technology
Micro LEDs will bring a new technological breakthrough. Their use is not only specified to backlighting, as the grains of Micro LEDs are of an indistinguishable grade to the naked eye. Also, it can directly combine the R, G, and B primary colors into a single pixel, turning it into the concept of one pixel.
- The technology is different from the light-emitting structure of previous LCD screens.
- Huge Transfers
- Wafer Dicing
- Red, Green, and Blue LED wafers
Moreover, to create a whole new scenario for the LCD industry, the future of Micro LED has a wide range of applications, including automotive screens, VR/AR devices, and high-resolution wearable products. However, Micro LED technology has many significant difficulties, like Mass Transfer yield, packaging testing problems to the next inspection and maintenance. These are all critical challenges and affect whether Micro LED can be mass-produced or not.
7. Micro OLED Technology
As Apple has approached TSMC to collaborate on the development of Micro OLED panels, Micro OLED has been the talk of the town this year. It is not like traditional LCD or OLED for TVs and high-end mobile phones where the screen is built on a glass substrate.
It is directly mounted on a wafer, which is the essential feature of Micro OLED. Micro OLEDs use a single silicon wafer as the backplane especially suitable for AR, VR, or other display wearable devices.
It has the advantages of making the display thinner, shorter, lighter, self-luminous, high luminous efficiency, and consuming less power.
7. Final Words
All the above LCD, LED, OLED, Micro LED, Mini LED, Micro OLED has their own features and characteristics, and all are useful for humanity’s services. So You can choose one of them according to your need and desire based on their uses.
