Display Industry Finally Settling On Definition Of True MicroLED: Futuresource

November 30, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Image: PlayNitride

The misleading labelling and fuzzy marketing that has surrounded the emergence of large format microLED displays is starting to go away, says an expert display market analyst, with the industry starting to broadly agree on what really is a microLED video wall – or more specifically, a True MicroLED display.

“Over the last two years, the market has been awash with bad labelling and fuzzy marketing,” says Ted Romanowitz, Principal Analyst, Futuresource Consulting. “There were broad disagreements about the proper definition of MicroLED, and it became little more than a hot industry buzzword, creating confusion in the marketplace.”

“However, it is now broadly agreed that True MicroLED will be implemented as sub-100-micron chiplets, mass transferred onto a TFT backplane with active driver technology. Without digging into too much of the intricate detail here, that means we’re seeing significant interest from the giants of LCD panel manufacturer. They are motivated to leverage their expertise, drive down manufacturing costs, and build a bridge to widespread adoption.” 

In the last three or four years, numerous display manufacturers have launched products they have called microLED, when the LED tech used didn’t actually meet the technical definition of microLED. This is pretty standard from an industry that was calling LCD video walls seamless, when there were obvious seams, and so on. It’s not been something that should keep industry people up at night, but I’d prefer – probably like a lot of people – to get the straight goods on what something is. What matters most is how it looks (and then little things like reliability and price).

The comments from Romanowitz are contained in a brief touting a fee-based Futuresource report on True MicroLED.

That report also suggests the True MicroLED display market for pro AV and consumer televisions is set to skyrocket, jumping from just $24 million this year to $26.2 billion in 2032, even with expected price erosion as more competition appears and economies of manufacturing scale are realized.

Futuresource also predicts the market “will break the one-billion-dollar barrier in 2027 and will continue to generate a cumulative $63 billion market within the first ten years.”