tft lcd screen future pricelist

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At present, TFT LCD touch panel prices rebounded, after six months of continuous decline, TFT LCD touch panel prices began to rebound at the end of July. Global TFT LCD panel prices have rebounded since August, according to Displaysearch, an international market-research firm. The price of a 17-inch LCD touch panel rose 6.6% to $112 in August, up from $105 in July, and fell from $140 in March to $105 in July. At the same time, 15 – inch, 19 – inch LCD touch panel prices also showed a different range of recovery. The price of a 17-inch LCD touch panel rose 5.8 percent, to $110, from $104 in late July, according to early August quotes from consulting firm with a view. Analysts believe the rebound will continue through the third quarter; LCDS will see seasonal growth in the third quarter, driven by back-to-school sales in us and the completion of inventory liquidation in the first half of the year. Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) started placing orders for monitors in the third quarter, and display makers Samsungelectronics (SXG) and TPV (TPV) are expected to increase production by 25% and 18% respectively.

It seems that due to the increasing demand in the market, the production capacity of the display panel production line has been released. Domestic TFT-LCD touch panel makers boe and Shanghai guardian said their production schedules have been set for September, and their production capacity may reach full capacity by the end of the year. Jd will produce 85,000 glass substrates per month (with a designed capacity of 90,000), according to boe and Shanghai guardian. Previously, panel makers have been hit by falling prices, with boe, SFT, and even international panel giant LG Philips all reporting losses. If the rebound continues into the fourth quarter, boe, Shanghai radio and television and other panel makers will use the rebound to reverse the decline, according to industry analysts.

It is understood that the first quarter of the boe financial results show that the company’s main business income of 2.44 billion yuan, a loss of 490 million yuan.Jd.com attributed the loss to a drop in the price of 17-inch TFT-LCD displays made by its Beijing TFT-LCD fifth-generation production line of Beijing boe photoelectric technology co., LTD., a subsidiary. Boe has issued the announcement of pre-loss in the first half of the year in April. Due to the influence of the off-season of TFT-LCD business operation in the first quarter of 2006, the company has suffered a large operating loss, and the low price in the TFT-LCD market has continued till now. Therefore, it is expected that the operating loss will still occur in the first half of 2006.LG Philips, the world’s largest TFT LCD maker, reported a won322bn ($340m) loss in July, compared with a won41.1bn profit a year earlier.LG Philips attributed the loss to fierce price competition and market demand did not meet expectations.

The TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigationclass-action lawsuit regarding the worldwide conspiracy to coordinate the prices of Thin-Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels, which are used to make laptop computers, computer monitors and televisions, between 1999 and 2006. In March 2010, Judge Susan Illston certified two nationwide classes of persons and entities that directly and indirectly purchased TFT-LCDs – for panel purchasers and purchasers of TFT-LCD integrated products; the litigation was followed by multiple suits.

TFT-LCDs are used in flat-panel televisions, laptop and computer monitors, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, semiconductors and other devices;

In mid-2006, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division requested FBI assistance in investigating LCD price-fixing. In December 2006, authorities in Japan, Korea, the European Union and the United States revealed a probe into alleged anti-competitive activity among LCD panel manufacturers.

The companies involved, which later became the Defendants, were Taiwanese companies AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (Chunghwa), and HannStar; Korean companies LG Display and Samsung; and Japanese companies Hitachi, Sharp and Toshiba.cartel which took place between January 1, 1999, through December 31, 2006, and which was designed to illegally reduce competition and thus inflate prices for LCD panels. The companies exchanged information on future production planning, capacity use, pricing and other commercial conditions.European Commission concluded that the companies were aware they were violating competition rules, and took steps to conceal the venue and results of the meetings; a document by the conspirators requested everybody involved "to take care of security/confidentiality matters and to limit written communication".

Companies directly affected by the LCD price-fixing conspiracy, as direct victims of the cartel, were some of the largest computer, television and cellular telephone manufacturers in the world. These direct action plaintiffs included AT&T Mobility, Best Buy,Costco Wholesale Corporation, Good Guys, Kmart Corp, Motorola Mobility, Newegg, Sears, and Target Corp.Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. § 26) to prevent Defendants from violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. § 1), as well as (b) 23 separate state-wide classes based on each state"s antitrust/consumer protection class action law.

In November 2008, LG, Chunghwa, Hitachi, Epson, and Chi Mei pleaded guilty to criminal charges of fixing prices of TFT-LCD panels sold in the U.S. and agreed to pay criminal fines (see chart).

The South Korea Fair Trade Commission launched legal proceedings as well. It concluded that the companies involved met more than once a month and more than 200 times from September 2001 to December 2006, and imposed fines on the LCD manufacturers.

Sharp Corp. pleaded guilty to three separate conspiracies to fix the prices of TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Motorola Inc., and was sentenced to pay a $120 million criminal fine,

Seven executives from Japanese and South Korean LCD companies were indicted in the U.S. Four were charged with participating as co-conspirators in the conspiracy and sentenced to prison terms – including LG"s Vice President of Monitor Sales, Chunghwa"s chairman, its chief executive officer, and its Vice President of LCD Sales – for "participating in meetings, conversations and communications in Taiwan, South Korea and the United States to discuss the prices of TFT-LCD panels; agreeing during these meetings, conversations and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain predetermined levels; issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached; exchanging information on sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices; and authorizing, ordering and consenting to the participation of subordinate employees in the conspiracy."

On December 8, 2010, the European Commission announced it had fined six of the LCD companies involved in a total of €648 million (Samsung Electronics received full immunity under the commission"s 2002 Leniency Notice) – LG Display, AU Optronics, Chimei, Chunghwa Picture and HannStar Display Corporation.

On July 3, 2012, a U.S. federal jury ruled that the remaining defendant, Toshiba Corporation, which denied any wrongdoing, participated in the conspiracy to fix prices of TFT-LCDs and returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff class. Following the trial, Toshiba agreed to resolve the case by paying the class $30 million.

In this Arduino touch screen tutorial we will learn how to use TFT LCD Touch Screen with Arduino. You can watch the following video or read the written tutorial below.

For this tutorial I composed three examples. The first example is distance measurement using ultrasonic sensor. The output from the sensor, or the distance is printed on the screen and using the touch screen we can select the units, either centimeters or inches.

The third example is a game. Actually it’s a replica of the popular Flappy Bird game for smartphones. We can play the game using the push button or even using the touch screen itself.

As an example I am using a 3.2” TFT Touch Screen in a combination with a TFT LCD Arduino Mega Shield. We need a shield because the TFT Touch screen works at 3.3V and the Arduino Mega outputs are 5 V. For the first example I have the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, then for the second example an RGB LED with three resistors and a push button for the game example. Also I had to make a custom made pin header like this, by soldering pin headers and bend on of them so I could insert them in between the Arduino Board and the TFT Shield.

Here’s the circuit schematic. We will use the GND pin, the digital pins from 8 to 13, as well as the pin number 14. As the 5V pins are already used by the TFT Screen I will use the pin number 13 as VCC, by setting it right away high in the setup section of code.

I will use the UTFT and URTouch libraries made by Henning Karlsen. Here I would like to say thanks to him for the incredible work he has done. The libraries enable really easy use of the TFT Screens, and they work with many different TFT screens sizes, shields and controllers. You can download these libraries from his website, RinkyDinkElectronics.com and also find a lot of demo examples and detailed documentation of how to use them.

After we include the libraries we need to create UTFT and URTouch objects. The parameters of these objects depends on the model of the TFT Screen and Shield and these details can be also found in the documentation of the libraries.

Next we need to define the fonts that are coming with the libraries and also define some variables needed for the program. In the setup section we need to initiate the screen and the touch, define the pin modes for the connected sensor, the led and the button, and initially call the drawHomeSreen() custom function, which will draw the home screen of the program.

So now I will explain how we can make the home screen of the program. With the setBackColor() function we need to set the background color of the text, black one in our case. Then we need to set the color to white, set the big font and using the print() function, we will print the string “Arduino TFT Tutorial” at the center of the screen and 10 pixels  down the Y – Axis of the screen. Next we will set the color to red and draw the red line below the text. After that we need to set the color back to white, and print the two other strings, “by HowToMechatronics.com” using the small font and “Select Example” using the big font.

Now we need to make the buttons functional so that when we press them they would send us to the appropriate example. In the setup section we set the character ‘0’ to the currentPage variable, which will indicate that we are at the home screen. So if that’s true, and if we press on the screen this if statement would become true and using these lines here we will get the X and Y coordinates where the screen has been pressed. If that’s the area that covers the first button we will call the drawDistanceSensor() custom function which will activate the distance sensor example. Also we will set the character ‘1’ to the variable currentPage which will indicate that we are at the first example. The drawFrame() custom function is used for highlighting the button when it’s pressed. The same procedure goes for the two other buttons.

So the drawDistanceSensor() custom function needs to be called only once when the button is pressed in order to draw all the graphics of this example in similar way as we described for the home screen. However, the getDistance() custom function needs to be called repeatedly in order to print the latest results of the distance measured by the sensor.

Ok next is the RGB LED Control example. If we press the second button, the drawLedControl() custom function will be called only once for drawing the graphic of that example and the setLedColor() custom function will be repeatedly called. In this function we use the touch screen to set the values of the 3 sliders from 0 to 255. With the if statements we confine the area of each slider and get the X value of the slider. So the values of the X coordinate of each slider are from 38 to 310 pixels and we need to map these values into values from 0 to 255 which will be used as a PWM signal for lighting up the LED. If you need more details how the RGB LED works you can check my particular tutorialfor that. The rest of the code in this custom function is for drawing the sliders. Back in the loop section we only have the back button which also turns off the LED when pressed.

Apollo specializes in TFT-LCD flat panel technologies and supply chain solutions. We offer a huge selection of TFT-LCD monitors and touchscreens, as well as corresponding components. We also offer hardware and software solutions for all of our products and digital signage applications.

As a worldwide supplier of state-of-the-art TFT technologies and system solutions, Apollo Displays supports you in all project phases – 1 from construction of the metal housing and procurement of specific parts to in-house development of controller boards and touchscreen integration.

We always work as a tangible team to ensure that we can provide you with the best quality and the best price for PriceList for Lcr Meter Bench - ET44/ET45 Benchtop LCR Meter for Component Measurement – Zhongchuang , The product will supply to all over the world, such as: Paraguay, Mauritius, Greece, Our company has already had a lot of top factories and professional technology teams in China, offering the best products, techniques and services to worldwide customers. Honesty is our principle, professional operation is our work, service is our goal, and customers" satisfaction is our future!

Complex and sophisticated in its abilities, IDS offers a future-proof control system that connects to everything and is infinitely scalable. IDS revolutionises your environment by bringing all your equipment and workflows together to a single interface that can be controlled from anywhere.

Reliable and durable our Densi-Shield TFT displays offer an accurate and fast touch operation without any risk of contamination.Accurate and fast touch operation

Combine the advantages of graphical displays with touch-screen-based controls and tactile objects for precise adjustment.Tactile rotary objects allow an initial integration of rotary controls in a graphical environment

Display technology plays a critical role in how information is conveyed. Since its commercialization in 1922 up until the late 20th century, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) has dominated the display industry. However, new trends such as the desire for mobile electronics have increased demand for displays that rival and surpass CRTs in areas such as picture quality, size, and power consumption. One such technology that has replaced the CRTs is Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) due to their lightweight, low operating power, and compact design. LCDs allowed devices such as digital watches, cell phones, laptops, and any small screened electronics to be possible. Although LCDs were initially created for handheld and portable devices, they have expanded into areas previously monopolized by CRTs such as computer monitors and televisions. Other contenders for leadership in display technology are Organic light emitting diode(OLED) and Plasma Display.

LCD is an electronically-modulated optical device made up of any number of pixels filled with liquid crystals and arrayed in front of a light source (backlight) or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome.

An active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) is a type of flat panel display, currently the overwhelming choice of notebook computer manufacturers, due to low weight, very good image quality, wide color gamut and response time.

The most common example of an active matrix display contains, besides the polarizing sheets and cells of liquid crystal, a matrix of Thin film transistor(TFT) to make a TFT-LCD. These devices store the electrical state of each pixel on the display while all the other pixels are being updated. This method provides a much brighter, sharper display than a passive matrix of the same size. An important specification for these displays is their viewing-angle.

Twisted nematicdisplays contain liquid crystal elements which twist and untwist at varying degrees to allow light to pass through. A Super-twisted nematic(STN)display is a type of monochrome passive matrix LCD.STN displays provide more contrast than TN displays by twisting the molecules from 180 to 270 degrees. Film compensated Super-twisted nematic (FSTN) is a passive matrix LCD technology that uses a film compensating layer between the STN display and rear polarizer for added sharpness and contrast. It was used in laptops.

Pie chart depicts the revenue share of major technologies in the display market in 2010, which clearly indicates that TFT LCD is the leading technology and has maximum market share(92%) of the global display market.

After growing rapidly throughout the 2000s, industry revenues declined in both 2008 and 2009. While the immediate cause of this decline was the global recession, the display industry has also entered a mature phase. With notebook PCs and desktop monitors completely penetrated by TFT-LCDs, much of the growth in recent years has come from the TV market. Despite the recession, flat-panel-TV shipments grew on the order of 30% per year in 2008 and 2009. However, this growth is leading to high penetration rates, even in formerly emerging markets, such as China, and will push the flat-panel share of the TV market past 90% in 2011. This high penetration, combined with increasing pressure on prices, will lead to slower revenue growth, particularly for TFT-LCDs.

Large Area TFT - comprises of products that have a display size of more than 10 inches. The major applications for these displays are Television, Desktop Monitor and Notebook PC. Public displays comprises of only 2% share of the large area but is a growing sector.

Small & Medium TFT- comprises of products that have a display size of less than 10 inches The major applications for these displays are mobile phones and automotive displays. Digital cameras and Digital photo frames are also promising sectors in the future.

The revenue of overall TFT LCD market had gone down in the years 2008 and 2009 due to recession. Also, the share of Large area in these 2 years have gone down, as the demand for these high priced products had gone down.

Year on Year there was an increase in shipments for all the products of large area TFT LCD. In total the revenue grew by 25% in 2010 up from 20% in 2009. After recession and a laggard growth of 11.5% in 2008, the market has picked up and the revenue is growing.

Notebook PC market also looks profitable, with a growth rate of 31.7%, but a decline from the previous year from 36.6%. The OLED technology is eating up the market share of the TFT LCD market share in this market.

Here we observe that there is technology shift that is happening. Industry has moved from CRT to LCD now. The is shift has been gradual over the time.

Display Search forecasts that the plasma TV market will start shrinking in 2009 after hitting $24 billion in 2008, while it sees LCD TV demand reaching $75 billion in 2008 and $93 billion in 2010 - a trend that will likely make companies offering both LCD and plasma lines think twice about their strategy.

Sharp has recently developed 64 inch ultra high resolution direct view LCD with “ 4k *2k” one kind of digital cinema system specification- making it world’s first.

Sharp Corp. in August started LCD production at its Kameyama No. 2 plant, the world"s first to cut panels from eighth-generation glass substrates, which can yield eight 40-inch-class panels.

With escalating demand for larger fabs of Gen 8, Gen 8.5, and Gen 10, the liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing equipment market has witnessed a growth spur. The market will continue its upward growth trajectory through 2011, with the majority of demand stemming.

Under the belief that only technological development can secure the company"s survival and progress, Dongwoo Fine- Chem has been investing aggressively in the field of R&D. The company has built its main R&D center in Poseung Industrial Park in Pyeongtaek with an investment of 10 billon won for improving the quality of such LCD materials as color resists and polarized films in addition to electronics materials such as CMP slurries and color resists of next generation. In addition, the company constructed a new R&D center next to its already existent one in Iksan. The company has invested 7 billion won for the construction of Iksan research center furnished with ultramodern equipment.

The world"s largest LCD display manufacturer TPV Technology has signed an agreement with the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone to launch its R&D and production center in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China"s Sichuan Province. The center of an investment of $90 million is expected to start operation in 2012 and will reach its full capacity in five years, with an annual output of some 6 billion yuan, said officials from the zone.

The share of LCD TVs outsourced reached a record high of 34% in Q3"10, as Sony and LGE increased their outsourcing ratio to more than 50% and 20%, respectively.

In 2011, the top three panel makers, Samsung, LG Display, and Chimei Innolux, will be aggressive with their plan to ship more than 60 million units of LCD TV panels. In total, LCD TV panel makers plan to ship more than 270 million units in 2011.

Equipment/Material Suppliers: these are the industries which supply the basic material like ICs, Chemicals, and Liquid crystal etc. They help in putting the fundamental frame in place and start the process of manufacturing. They supply the basic and essentials parts required for the LCD.

Panel Makers: Panel makers are the companies which make basic Skeleton for product. They design the panels according to the demand and requirement. They play a major role as to design the basic frame. They are the players who design the basic technology like LCD, AMOLED etc. these are the companies which do most of the R&D in the technology to improve and introduce innovations.

LCD TV in the worldwide TV market has been well placed in the developed nations. However, there is an increase in the sales of LCD TV in the emerging countries as well.

Nokia captures 36% of the mobile market, but Nokia doesn"t produce its own mobile phone LCD panels but rather outsources it from other companies that produce the same.

This year over year forecasted growth rate is taken as an indicator to show the future growth rate of each segment in the industry and hence its attractiveness in the future.

Market size and Forecasted CAGR have been assigned 40% weigh each as these are the two most important parameters which will help in determining whether a company should enter into that segment of the industry or not. Market size would give the revenue in the segment at present and also the percentage share each segment captures of the total Industry. CAGR would determine the growth rate of the revenue of each segment and hence would be profitable in the future or not.

Major segments of the LCD display technology were found out on the basis of the revenue and the shipments of each. 5 top segments were found out: Television, Desktop Monitor, Notebook PC, Mobile Phones and Automotive monitor displays. Automotive monitors are used for in-console navigation, controls and rear-seat entertainment.

Market sizes of each of the 5 segments on the basis of revenue were found out. Also the revenue share of the Total TFT LCD market was found out in order to calculate the share of each segment in the whole industry.

In 2009, Innolux Display acquired Taiwan LCD maker TPO Displays Corp. Then, Innolux acquired another Taiwan LCD maker, Chi Mei Opto electronics Corp. And recently, Innolux Display announced the completion of its acquisition of Chi Mei Optoelectronics and TPO Displays.

The new entity is called Chimei Innolux Corp. Chimei Innolux is now a dominant player in the global TFT-LCD panel market. It sells from 1.5- to 50-inch. panels. By essentially gaining control of Chimei Innolux, Foxconn can now offer customers a one-stop shop of contract manufacturing services, including LCD production.

Hisense and Konka have set up LCD-module assembly lines with the help of CMO; TCL set up an LCD-module assembly line using know-how transmitted from Samsung.

LG Display formed an alliance with AmTRAN to set up an LCD-module and LCD-TV-set assembly line and set up a joint venture with TPV for LCD-module lines.

The new entity would overtake Sharp as the largest maker of small and mid-sized LCD panels, which are commonly found in smartphones and tablet computers.

Though the market share of TFT LCD in the display market is predicted to reduce in the future, it would still capture more than 80% of the market. This presents ample of opportunity for existing players (currently producing semiconductor devices and want to enter LCD market) to use their technological excellence to milk the LCD market.

AMOLED technology is predicted to substitute TFT LCD in applications like smart phones and tablets. Hence for a new player, who plans to invest in R&D and manufacturing to enter the LCD industry, investing in better technology is advisable.

It is not advised for small players to enter the LCD industry as it is already in the consolidation phase. Many players like Samsung, have undergone vertical integration to optimize their costs. The initial investment required to enter the LCD industry is very high. In such a scenario, for a small player, who manufactures displays or products, will find it difficult to compete with giants like Samsung, LG etc on prices.

Players who have the expertise, capital and capacity to invest in LCD market can consider entering Mobile phones and Notebook PCs market. For them to succeed in the LCD market, they can either specialize in producing LCD displays with the latest and best technology available or consider vertical integration to optimize their cost.

Reports suggest that Apple is getting closer to implementing MicroLED in its future product releases, including the Apple Watch, with the display technology potentially offering a number of benefits compared to other methods. AppleInsider explains how the current TFT and OLED display technologies work, and how MicroLED differs.

MicroLED shows promise as a display technology, potentially offering power savings and a reduced screen thickness when put beside current-generation display panels. Apple has recognized the potential, and has invested heavily into developing the technology over the last few years, with a view to using it in the company"s future products.

The most common display technology used by consumer products today, and the oldest of the technologies examined in this article, TFT"s full name of TFT LCD stands for Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display. This technology is extensively used by Apple in its products, found in iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and iMac lines.

The LCD part relates to the concept of defining small translucent or transparent areas in a thin and flexible liquid crystal-filled panel, like the displays used in calculators. Passing current through the segment changes the molecular properties of the defined segment area, allowing it to switch between being see-through or opaque.

TFT takes this a stage further, by effectively covering an entire panel with a grid of isolated liquid crystal segments, which again can vary between opaque and transparent based on the level of electrical current. In this case, there are far more segments needed to make up the display than with a normal calculator.

Polarizing filters on either side of the TFT display sandwich are used to prevent light from passing through directly, with the liquid crystal reaction of each segment affecting polarized light passing through the first filter to go through the second.

Sometimes these types of display are known as "LED," but this somewhat of a misnomer, as this actually refers to the use of Light Emitting Diodes as a light source. The LED backlight shines light through the various layers making up the TFT LCD.

Displays that use collections of LEDs as individual pixels do exist, but it isn"t usually found in consumer products. LED screens are commonly used for billboards, in attractions, and as a large-scale display for events.

TFT LCD screens continue to be widely used in production for a number of reasons. Manufacturers have spent a long time perfecting the production of the display panels to make it as cheap as possible, while its high usage allows it to benefit from economies of scale.

Used in consumer devices in a similar way to TFT LCD, OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is a display technology that is similar in the basic concept, but differs considerably in its execution. Again, the idea is for a thin panel to be divided up into segments, with charge applied to each section to alter its molecular properties, but that"s where the techniques diverge.

These self-emitting pixels gives OLED a considerable advantage over LCD-based systems in a number of areas. Most obviously, by not needing a backlight, OLED panels can be made far thinner than an equivalent LCD-based display, allowing for the production of thinner devices or more internal area for other components, like a larger battery.

The power efficiency of OLED panels can be far greater, as while a TFT screen requires an always-on backlight, the brightness of OLED pixels themselves determine power usage, with a black pixel consuming no power at all. OLED screens are also faster to respond than LCD displays, making them more useful for VR displays, where response time needs to be as rapid as possible.

This also allows OLED to provide superior contrast ratios compared to TFT, as the lack of backlight bleed-through that occurs in TFT simply doesn"t happen in OLED.

OLED also can be produced on plastic substrates instead of glass, allowing it to be used to create flexible displays. While this is currently embodied in curved and other non-flat screens in some devices, it has the potential to be employed in foldable smartphones or rolled up for storage, an area Apple is also allegedly examining.

Despite the advantages, OLED is still lagging behind TFT in terms of adoption. The cost of production is far higher, in part due to the need for extremely clean environments, as a single speck of dust can potentially ruining a display during fabrication.

OLED panels are also affected by the presence of water, both in production and in use. Small amounts of water contacting the organic substrate can cause immediate damage to the display, rendering parts of the screen useless.

So far, Apple"s usage of OLED consists of the premium iPhone X and the Apple Watch. As the cost of production drops down, it is plausible for Apple to use OLED in more future products, providing a better screen for customers to use.

Thought to be the next big thing in display technology, MicroLED basically takes the idea of using LEDs for pixels in a large stadium-style screen and miniaturizes it all.

Using extremely small LEDs, three MicroLEDs are put together to create each pixel, with each subpixel emitting a different color from the usual red, blue, and green selection. As each LED emits light, there is no need for a backlight as used in TFT screens.

MicroLED offers the same lower power consumption and high contrast ratio benefits as OLED when compared to TFT. However, MicroLED is also capable of producing a far brighter image than OLED, up to 30 times brighter, and is in theory more efficient in converting electricity into light.

As a relatively new and in-development technology, the cost of MicroLED production is extremely high in comparison to the more established OLED and TFT mass production lines, in part due to lower than required yields. Manufacturing equipment vendors have produced hardware for MicroLED production that cuts defects in half and reduces deposition deviance from 3 nanometers down to 1 nanometer, but it is unclear if this is enough to help mass production move forward.

Quantum Dots are photoluminescent particles included in an LED-backed TFT display that can produce brighter and more vibrant colors, with the colors produced depending on their size. While available in current QLED televisions, the technology is only really being used to enhance the backlight, rather than being used to illuminate individual pixels.

The QD patent application certainly shows Apple is thinking about display technology in multiple ways, and how it can be applied to future devices, but short of getting firm supply chain information or an official announcement from Apple directly, it is difficult to confirm which direction it will be heading.

At the time, the acquisition was thought to be an attempt by Apple to bring part of its display technology development in-house, with suggestions the MicroLED technology would be used in another rumored-at-the-time device, the Apple Watch. A more recent report suggests Apple is working with TSMC to make small panels for a future premium Apple Watch, potentially starting mass production by the end of the year.

The rumored small screen production may be for the Apple Watch now, but it may also benefit another often-rumored device, namely the VR or AR headset. This type of hardware relies on light components to keep the weight off the user"s head and neck, as well as displays with a high refresh rate and as close to perfect color reproduction as possible.

Apple is also apparently planning to use the technology in larger displays, said to be bigger in size than those in the MacBook Pro lines. This could be an iMac or iMac Pro, or even an external display, but ultimately there"s no real indication of Apple"s plans at this point, regardless of the scale of the screen.

Aside from Apple"s development, there has been little in the way of announcements from other firms for products using the technology that could be bought by consumers in the coming months. The exception is Samsung, Apple"s main rival in the mobile marketplace and a major supplier of display panels, but its usage of MicroLED is not aimed at producing smaller screens.