Mini LED development for improvements in HDR beyond FALD backlights

There are also plans to develop further HDR-capable panels with a new "mini LED" technology that will offer improvements in HDR local dimming capability over current Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) backlights. Mini LED offers much smaller chip sizes than normal LED and so can allow AUO to offer far more local dimming zones than even the current/planned FALD backlights that we've seen so far. Those FALD backlights have been limited to around 384 dimming zones on already announced 27" and 32" sized panels that are in production, certainly offering improvements in dimming capability compared with say, edge-lit panels. The new mini LED backlight systems will support more than 1000 zones on a planned 32" panel, that's expected to go in to production in Q1 2019. They are a long way away, and that date could well slip, but it's interesting to see what's coming around the corner with mini LED backlights. Considering the production cost of Mini LED is still relatively high, AUO will first launch the Mini LED-lit gaming monitor, according to Michael Tsai, President and Chief Operating Officer at AUO. The company expects customers in the gaming monitor segment to have a higher price tolerance it is said from recent press releases. In the future, expect to see even smaller "micro LED" production to offer even more zones and direct backlighting for HDR displays. There are no dates or expectations from AUO on the use of micro LED yet though.

The planned 32" panel with mini LED will be an AHVA (IPS-type) technology panel and will offer an Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 resolution, 600 cd/m2 brightness (1000 cd/m2 peak), 10-bit colour depth, 99% Adobe RGB gamut and will have two refresh rate options - a 60Hz version and even a planned 144Hz version (with 8-bit colour depth on the 144Hz option we believe).