1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,120 Six years ago, we put out a video on micro LED, 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,960 or micro LED as I call it, an emerging display tech that looked poised 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,560 to overtake OLED. There was even a report that Apple invested 4 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:16,200 around $3 billion into micro LED with an aim of debuting it in a new Apple Watch. 5 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:21,720 And that made some sense as micro LED displays offer crucial advantages over the current state of the art, 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,840 OLED. They last much longer, they resist burn in, 7 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:30,360 and they can get much brighter all the while, also having self lighting pixels 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:35,960 and those inky dark black levels. But here we are six years later, 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,960 and micro LED displays are barely anywhere to be seen. 10 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:44,800 What gives? For starters, micro LED is very difficult to manufacture. 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,920 Not only do you have to place the sub pixels onto the display one at a time, 12 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,840 and there's a lot of them, but if one of those sub pixels ends up being dead, 13 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,840 then you have to take it off and put a new one in its place. 14 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:00,520 But it can be tough to do this without damaging nearby pixels. 15 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,200 And once this happens enough, you've suddenly got a dud of a product. 16 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:08,200 A related issue is just how small the pixels need to be. 17 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:12,200 Although in a strict sense, you can build a micro LED display with big pixels. 18 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,880 Samsung's almost famous The Wall actually had relatively large ones. 19 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:22,440 The problem is that the wafers upon which the LEDs are printed are extremely expensive. 20 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,560 And to make micro LED cost effective, you need to be able to make multiple displays 21 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:30,040 from a single wafer, meaning smaller pixels. 22 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:34,280 But making pixels that small is also quite challenging, 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:41,000 as some pixels are more likely to come out defective and shrinking them down also makes them much less efficient. 24 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:46,200 For example, a micro LED size blue LED is only about 40% efficient. 25 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,080 But even that is nothing compared to red, which is notoriously inefficient. 26 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,160 We're talking around 1% efficient. 27 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,760 Sounds like a lot of energy and a lot of heat. So how in the world is the industry 28 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:01,560 looking at fixing this problem? It's actually possible to combine quantum dots 29 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,800 which emit specific colors of light according to their size 30 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,920 with micro LEDs to make them brighter. 31 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:13,020 Although this is tricky because the number of photons coming out of the LEDs is often higher 32 00:02:13,020 --> 00:02:16,700 than quantum dots can effectively handle, it's something that the industry is looking 33 00:02:16,700 --> 00:02:20,680 for a way to do effectively. However, despite the fact that micro LED 34 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:25,920 can get brighter than OLED, OLED technology, partly with the help of quantum dots, 35 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:29,640 has evolved to the point where brightness isn't as much of an issue as it used to be, 36 00:02:29,640 --> 00:02:33,040 which is important for HDR. In fact, there are now OLED TVs 37 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:38,580 that can hit 3,000 nits of brightness, which is plenty bright for most applications. 38 00:02:38,580 --> 00:02:43,680 So where exactly does that leave micro LED? It did look like the initial advantage of micro LED, 39 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:48,680 namely better efficiency and enhanced brightness, would make it good for something like a smartwatch, 40 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,980 which you'd often be looking at in bright sunlight. 41 00:02:51,980 --> 00:02:56,500 Apple thought the same, obviously, which is why they invested billions into micro LED production for the Apple Watch, 42 00:02:56,500 --> 00:03:02,180 but they canceled these plans in early 2024 due to the difficulties we already mentioned, 43 00:03:02,180 --> 00:03:05,220 as well as the fact that higher end watch displays 44 00:03:05,220 --> 00:03:08,340 are pretty darn good in terms of brightness and battery life. 45 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:11,400 And guess what? The current Apple Watch uses OLED. 46 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:16,940 NanoSys, a major developer of micro LED technology, likewise sold off their micro LED fab 47 00:03:16,940 --> 00:03:21,400 to a startup that isn't even gonna be using it to make displays. Instead, they're gonna use micro LEDs 48 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:26,240 for multi-terabit interconnects. So basically, using it for optical communication, 49 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:30,880 which is pretty cool in its own right, but a very far cry from the original vision 50 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:34,920 of micro LED being the future of TVs, monitors, and watch displays. 51 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:38,120 Between OLED's development future looking bright 52 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:43,760 and the emergence of competing technologies like Qdell or QDEL, essentially quantum dots 53 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:48,240 that emit their own light when you feed them electricity, that promise many of the benefits of micro LED 54 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:53,240 without the ridiculous manufacturing problems. Micro LED might end up only being a thing 55 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,280 in applications that we now consider niche. For example, they might end up powering augmented reality 56 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:03,320 glasses due to their high brightness. We're talking like three million nits brightness. 57 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:08,660 It's crazy, but it's far from a sure thing. In the meantime, we do at least have 58 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:13,800 this cool micro LED concept laptop, but I'm not sure why you'd want everyone 59 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,520 being able to see what you're looking at from the other side of the screen. So thanks for watching guys. 60 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,720 If you liked this video, you might wanna see our original video on micro LED. 61 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,920 You can check that out right here, it's somewhere.