According to a supply chain report published Tuesday in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, relayed byDigiTimes, contract manufacturer Foxconn has continued to deepen its deployments inmicro-LEDtechnology “through a multi-pronged approach in order to win display orders from Apple for its next-generation iPhone devices.”
Three Foxconn subsidiaries (Advanced Optoelectronic Technology, Epileds Technologies and Marketech International) are building up their capacities related to the production of micro-LED chips, indicating the promising technology is one step closer to commercial deployments.
Both micro-LED and OLED-based display panels don’t require a power-hungry backlight because they feature individually-lit pixels that deliver true blacks and high contrast.
Some of thebenefits of micro-LEDs over OLEDsinclude:
Apple in 2014snapped up micro-LED specialists LuxVue.
Soon after,it set upresearch and development facilities in Taoyuan, Taiwan dedicated to accelerating commercialization of micro-LEDs. Bloomberg in March 2018allegedthat Apple had begun building its own micro-LED displays at a secret plant in Santa Clara, California.
However, Tim Cook & Co. are likely going to need to outsource production of these panels because the California facility is reportedly too small for mass-production.
Don’t expect these power-sipping micro-LED panels to start popping in Apple’s upcoming product releases slated for later this year—the company is likely to first deploymicro-LEDs on future watchesbefore the technology makes its way into iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Micro-LED displays shouldn’t be confused with mini-LED backlights that the California firm issaid to adoptacross upcoming products, beginning with a 31.6-inch standalone display due later this year and continuing with iPads in 2020 and Mac notebooks in 2021.
At any rate, Apple’s switch to OLED panels for iPhones two years agowill likely be short-livedas micro-LED panels offer better features, assuming Foxconn and other manufacturers manage to perfect the technology to the point where it could be produced on a mass scale.
