It’s several years since I have been to Taiwan, so I’m specially pleased to be going, this year to the Touch Taiwan exhibition in Taipei. Justifying the cost of overseas trips for news is very difficult in today’s tough media environment, so I’m really grateful for support from the organisers of the event to enable the trip. What do I expect to see?
The Asian display events that I have been to in the past have been very national rather than international and Touch Taiwan, which will take place from 28th to 30th August at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall, is no exception. The panel makers that will be there are AUO, E Ink and Innolux the three Taiwan-based companies. Although the exhibition is labelled as a Touch event, news that we have reported in the past has covered displays in general, not just the touch technology or displays. As well as the Exhibition, there is a concurrent “International Micro LED Display Conference 2019” and the “Display Innovation Taiwan & International Display Manufacturing Conference 2019” (supported by the SID).
MicroLED is bound to be a hot topic at the event and Taiwan can exploit its strength in LED technology. A number of interesting speakers at the event will include representatives of PlayNitride, which has been widely rumoured to be working with Samsung. AUO has previously shown microLED technology at SID and will be talking about its developments at the event.
What else will I be looking for? Well, Taiwan is still very important for monitor making and development and there are bound to be some new developments in miniLED backlights (BLUs). I also expect to see see some dual layer LCD prototypes. Each of these technologies can dramatically boost contrast levels but seem to have different strengths. It seems to me, because of the low energy efficiency, that dual layer may find its place in the market at lower levels of brightness of perhaps up to a maximum of 500 cd/m² or 1,000 cd/m². MiniLED, on the other hand, has some cost challenges and may find its place at brighter levels of up to 2,000 cd/m² or even more.
MiniLED backlights for monitors seem to have been a challenge, with panels from AUO for gaming monitors taking quite a long time to come to market. That’s a topic I hope to get more about at the event. It seems to me that automotive is the market that could drive developments in miniLED BLUs. Auto makers want the deep blacks of OLED so that they can hide the rectangular edges of the displays that may be visible in traditional LCDs, when ambient lighting is very low. However, OLEDs have struggled to be qualified for automotive use because of image burning issues which get worse at high temperatures, where automotive displays need to be able to work. MiniLED should not have that problem.
8K is likely to be a big issue at the show and I expect to see new panels from AUO and Innolux. The topic that I will be most interested in is the true resolution. I’m planning a Display Daily on this topic soon, but some current panels use some techniques to overcome manufacturing and efficiency challenges that seem to actually mean that the panels are not truly 8K. I’m expecting more noise on this controversy during the second half of 2019, so will be trying to get more information.
JOLED will be talking at the conference, but I don’t expect to see any other large OLEDs at the show, although there are bound to be plenty of small OLEDs. Taiwan, like China, is a long way behind Korea in developing OLED manufacturing. That is also a factor in the enthusiasm for microLED in Taiwan.
Anyway, I will be in Taiwan for a couple of extra days beyond the event, so if you would like to meet, contact me here. (BR)
