WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Six years ago, we put out a video on micro LED, 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.960 or micro LED as I call it, an emerging display tech that looked poised 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:10.560 to overtake OLED. There was even a report that Apple invested 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. 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, 00:00:21.720 --> 00:00:24.840 OLED. They last much longer, they resist burn in, 00:00:24.840 --> 00:00:30.360 and they can get much brighter all the while, also having self lighting pixels 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:35.960 and those inky dark black levels. But here we are six years later, 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:39.960 and micro LED displays are barely anywhere to be seen. 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:44.800 What gives? For starters, micro LED is very difficult to manufacture. 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, 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, 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:56.840 then you have to take it off and put a new one in its place. 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.520 But it can be tough to do this without damaging nearby pixels. 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:04.200 And once this happens enough, you've suddenly got a dud of a product. 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:08.200 A related issue is just how small the pixels need to be. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.200 Although in a strict sense, you can build a micro LED display with big pixels. 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:16.880 Samsung's almost famous The Wall actually had relatively large ones. 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:22.440 The problem is that the wafers upon which the LEDs are printed are extremely expensive. 00:01:22.440 --> 00:01:26.560 And to make micro LED cost effective, you need to be able to make multiple displays 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:30.040 from a single wafer, meaning smaller pixels. 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.280 But making pixels that small is also quite challenging, 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. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:46.200 For example, a micro LED size blue LED is only about 40% efficient. 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:50.080 But even that is nothing compared to red, which is notoriously inefficient. 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:53.160 We're talking around 1% efficient. 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 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:01.560 looking at fixing this problem? It's actually possible to combine quantum dots 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:04.800 which emit specific colors of light according to their size 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:07.920 with micro LEDs to make them brighter. 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 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:16.700 than quantum dots can effectively handle, it's something that the industry is looking 00:02:16.700 --> 00:02:20.680 for a way to do effectively. However, despite the fact that micro LED 00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:25.920 can get brighter than OLED, OLED technology, partly with the help of quantum dots, 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, 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:33.040 which is important for HDR. In fact, there are now OLED TVs 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:38.580 that can hit 3,000 nits of brightness, which is plenty bright for most applications. 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, 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.680 namely better efficiency and enhanced brightness, would make it good for something like a smartwatch, 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:51.980 which you'd often be looking at in bright sunlight. 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, 00:02:56.500 --> 00:03:02.180 but they canceled these plans in early 2024 due to the difficulties we already mentioned, 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:05.220 as well as the fact that higher end watch displays 00:03:05.220 --> 00:03:08.340 are pretty darn good in terms of brightness and battery life. 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:11.400 And guess what? The current Apple Watch uses OLED. 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:16.940 NanoSys, a major developer of micro LED technology, likewise sold off their micro LED fab 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 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:26.240 for multi-terabit interconnects. So basically, using it for optical communication, 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 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:34.920 of micro LED being the future of TVs, monitors, and watch displays. 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:38.120 Between OLED's development future looking bright 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:43.760 and the emergence of competing technologies like Qdell or QDEL, essentially quantum dots 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 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:53.240 without the ridiculous manufacturing problems. Micro LED might end up only being a thing 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:58.280 in applications that we now consider niche. For example, they might end up powering augmented reality 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:03.320 glasses due to their high brightness. We're talking like three million nits brightness. 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 00:04:08.660 --> 00:04:13.800 this cool micro LED concept laptop, but I'm not sure why you'd want everyone 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. 00:04:17.520 --> 00:04:20.720 If you liked this video, you might wanna see our original video on micro LED. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.920 You can check that out right here, it's somewhere.