If you know anything about anything when it comes to display technology, you know that OLED has been pushing hard to be king. Resulting in some of the greatest looking screens that LED panels just couldn’t stand up against, they have been dominating the upper line-ups from companies like LG. Some of your flagship smartphones have even been packing OLED displays.
It’s true that they look amazing. Perfect blacks, crisp images, wonderful color. However, they come with their own issues, like burn-in troubles and the fact that they are just crazy expensive compared to LED (to name a few). They aren’t nearly as easy to manufacture as LED, so it’s hard to get that price tag down to something that could take over the market with.
Meanwhile though, as everything thinks that OLED has a chance, LED has been making a comeback thanks to MicroLED. MicroLED opens new doors thanks to the fact that they have the potential to take on OLED when it comes to performance and quality. Although OLED still has the edge on image quality for now, MicroLED may give it a run for its money very soon as that slowly changes.
What really sets MicroLED apart from normal LED screens, is flexibility (in every definition). Not only can you easily build out modular systems, allowing you to build out a display to whatever size you’d like (you’ve seen what Samsung has accomplished already), it is also being applied to bendable metals, which will allow for incredibly flexible screens that can be made into just about anything you want.
The latter benefit is being made possible by companies like iBeam (a Samsung Ventures invested company), who are working at fabricating MicroLEDs directly onto bending metal foil. They hope to be able to break into the industry with various wearables that could benefit from this, and then work their way into just about every other niche possible.
We spoke with them at CES 2020 about where they have come with everything, and it sounds like the future is going to be quite kind to them. In fact, they have taken home one of our Best of CES 2020 awards because of the work they have been doing.
With MicroLED, not only will you have the ability to wrap ultra-thin displays of any size around just about anything, they will be much more affordable to manufacture. They should be able to accomplish image details close to (or hopefully equal to) OLED and without any burn-in issues. All of these being major perks that are going to allow the technology to have a major impact on the industry.
If you look at iBeam’s website, you can find all sorts of concept images of where MicroLED can be applied, including a pair of sneakers. They are looking to achieve large-scale manufacturing by 2022, so there won’t be a moment of rest for them as they push forward.
It brings me one step closer to being able to turn an entire wall of my house into a display that can mimic a virtual window looking down into some fog-draped mountains for a relaxing atmospheric touch. So they have my attention.
Although this isn’t something we will be seeing immediately, it is a start to an interesting future for display technology.
