Mini LEDs and Micro LEDs are considered to be one of the hottest topics in the market recently. With announcement of the new holding company of the joint venture by Epistar and Lextar through equity swap, it should help strengthen the investment in Mini LED and Micro LED displays. On the other hand, related topics have become more heated in the markets. It does not matter how the terminal brand applies the product or the supply chain benefits from it, the market is looking for whichever manufacturers make the best from such business opportunities.

     Regarding PCB supply chain, companies like Unimicron and Uniflex are on the list of beneficiaries. Recently, Zeng Zi-zhang, chairman of Unimicron, made a comment at the shareholders meeting about this very trend as he felt that Mini LEDs and Micro LEDs are becoming more fundamental in the market. Actually, it is not just Taiwanese manufacturers, but also companies from South Korea and China who are also actively participating in this trend. At present, as many as 60% of related Micro LED products on the market are using plates by Unimicron.

However, Zeng Zi-zhang also mentioned that Micro LEDs can be used on various types of plates such as flexible board, rigid board, carrier boards, etc. For the time being, each and every customer has their own preference such as processes, technologies, materials, and so on that they are working with. Unimicron is able to work with all of them, regardless of their preference; however, although the related technology has been most popular now, it is critical that the technology be rendered to become more matured and the costs be lowered.

 

     As a matter of fact, all players of the trade are well aware that mass transfer with Mini LEDs is extremely difficult. Nonetheless, Uniflex is one of few manufacturers which claims to have overcome the technical bottlenecks associated with it. Furthermore, Uniflex noted that since the technology is to place thousands or even tens of thousands of Mini LEDs on a PCB, it is why the substrate material has to be well selected, and the other difficulty is in transferring a huge amount of Mini LEDs in one go without rendering the product defective.

     Since 2016, Uniflex has been working on developments for more than two years. In addition to mastering patent rights of substrate materials, it has also achieved notable advantages in terms of substrate flatness, alignment, thinning, and other technologies. Most of all, Mini LED substrate developed by Uniflex is not only suitable for mass transfers but the SMT yield rate can be as high as 99.8%.

     In the second half of the previous year, Uniflex has shipped related products of Mini LEDs in small quantities, whereas other applications such as e-sports screens and samples of medium to high-end laptops have also been sent for certification. In addition, the demand for mobile phones and large-sized TVs will undoubtedly surge later on. As for automotive applications, there has been no contribution in revenue as of yet due to the pending safety issues involved. However, the company has sent out samples for certification in September and October of the previous year. Unfortunately, the certification process and introduction or popularization of terminal applications and such factors has been affected by the epidemic at the end of the year. Therefore, it will still take more time to observe its developments.

     According to the industry, Mini LEDs have attracted loads of attention because of their longer life-span, higher brightness, lower power consumption, and a broader optimum temperature range than OLEDs. Mini LEDs performance is not inferior to that of OLEDs, whereas they use direct-lit backlight, they are small sized and have a high density output, brightness, color saturation, and contrast. Although the current cost is still higher than that of LCD or OLEDs (looking at past records), the cost will gradually drop with popularization of technology in the future. With the support of various applications, it is sure to become a future trend, and this would explain why terminal brands and major manufacturers in various industries are competing for its production lay out. (News source: Commercial Times)