The difference between micro LED and LED display screen
In today’s market, where traditional LED displays dominate, Micro LED displays have emerged as a new type of display. What is the difference between Micro LED and LED displays? This article will provide a detailed comparison of the two, analyzing their differences.
What is an LED display?
An LED display is an electronic display that uses LED light-emitting diodes as pixels to produce self-illuminating images. Its resolution is typically determined by the screen size and pixel pitch you purchase.
When purchasing an LED display, you can freely customize all specifications, making it suitable for various practical needs. Additionally, LED displays are widely popular across markets due to their clear visuals, energy-efficient operation, and long service life.
What is a Micro LED display?
A Micro LED display is also an LED display that uses LED light-emitting diodes as its light-emitting pixels. However, the LED chips in a Micro LED display are not of conventional size but are ultra-small chips at the micron level.
Manufacturers use a “batch transfer” technology to bond these micron-sized LED chips onto the circuit board. Due to the extremely small pixel size, Micro LED displays can achieve ultra-high pixel density, resulting in stunningly high-definition visuals.
Difference between micro LED and LED displays?
LED chip size
LED displays: Depending on the pixel pitch used to produce the screen, LED chip sizes ranging from 0.8 to 10 mm are common. The larger the LED chip size, the higher the maximum brightness the LED screen can achieve.
Micro LED displays: The size of Micro LED display chips typically ranges from 1 to 10 micrometers. At this scale, the chips are virtually invisible to the naked eye. To assemble a screen using these chips as pixels, millions of them are required, resulting in an extremely detailed and clear image.
Technology
LED Displays: The packaging technologies for LED displays primarily include DIP, SMD, COB, and GOB. These technologies use surface-mount technology or concentrated bonding to assemble small batches of LED chips, thereby achieving the bonding of LED chips to circuit boards.
Micro LED Displays: LED chips smaller than 10 micrometers are too small to be mounted individually. Instead, Micro LED chips are typically bonded in large quantities to circuit boards, which involves a highly complex production process and requires advanced equipment.
Image Quality
LED Displays: Indoor LED displays typically have pixel pitches ranging from 0.8 to 4 millimeters, while outdoor LED displays have pixel pitches ranging from 4 to 20 millimeters.
LED displays can be customized with the most suitable pixel pitch specifications based on the installation environment and requirements, ensuring clear and bright visuals in various settings.
Micro LED Displays: Micro LED displays achieve superior image clarity compared to traditional LED displays. With millions of pixels, Micro LED displays offer high resolution, vibrant colors, and excellent visibility.
Scalability
LED displays: LED displays can be freely customized in terms of performance, size, brightness, and other specifications, including installation shape and method. Additionally, LED displays feature flexible LED display that can be assembled into displays of various unique shapes, offering exceptional scalability.
Micro LED Displays: In theory, Micro LED displays can also be freely customized in terms of size. However, due to manufacturing process limitations, their installation shapes are not as diverse as those of LED displays. Additionally, cost constraints prevent Micro LED displays from achieving the same large sizes as LED displays.
Overall, the scalability of Micro LED displays is lower than that of LED displays.
Brightness
LED displays: Indoor LED displays can achieve brightness levels of 500–1,000 nits, while outdoor LED displays can reach 3,000–5,000 nits. For special application requirements, LED displays can even achieve brightness levels exceeding 10,000 nits.
Micro LED displays: As a self-emissive LED display, Micro LED displays also feature high brightness, with brightness levels exceeding those of LCD and OLED displays, resulting in superior visibility. However, due to the smaller chip size of Micro LED displays, their maximum brightness is lower than that of traditional LED displays.
Energy Efficiency
LED displays: LED light emitting diodes have a high light conversion efficiency, with light conversion efficiency 50% to 80% higher than that of conventional lights.
Unlike backlit displays such as LCDs, where the backlight continues to consume energy even when the screen is off, LED displays consume no power when the screen is black. Therefore, LED displays feature low power consumption and high brightness.
Micro LED Displays: Micro LED displays operate on the same principle as LED displays and also offer high energy efficiency.
Additionally, the bulk bonding structure of Micro LED display chips eliminates the need for circuit design between the LED chips and substrate, making Micro LED displays even more energy-efficient than traditional LED displays.
Durability and Lifespan
LED Displays: The light-emitting process of LED diodes is relatively stable, and LED screens do not have the risk of burn-in like OLED screens. The aging of LED modules before shipment also ensures more stable and prolonged use of LED displays. A properly installed LED display typically has a lifespan of around 10 years.
Micro LED Displays: Micro LED displays are also highly stable during use and have a very long lifespan under normal conditions.
However, Micro LED displays are not as easy to maintain as LED displays. While minor LED chip failures in LED displays can be repaired on-site, Micro LED displays must be returned to the factory for repairs.
Cost
LED Displays: LED displays have been widely used in the market for over 20 years, with mature production technology and supply chains, resulting in lower production costs compared to Micro LED displays. They are currently the mainstream display technology in the market.
Micro LED displays: Micro LED displays are an emerging display technology, and due to the limitations of their advanced technology, their manufacturing costs are extremely high.
Application Scenarios
LED displays: LED displays are widely applicable in various scenarios such as sports events, stage performances, trade exhibitions, and conference presentations, whether indoors or outdoors, for large-scale or small-scale events.
Micro LED displays: Due to cost considerations, Micro LED displays are only suitable for extremely high-end display scenarios, such as business display screens and high-end cinema displays.
Conclusion
From the perspective of light emission principles, Micro LED displays and LED displays are consistent. However, Micro LED displays feature more precise LED chips, enabling the creation of higher-resolution displays, representing a more advanced display technology.