Development trend of LED lighting driver chip
① Linear constant current scheme brings highly integrated LED intelligent application
Linear constant current drive is a simpler and direct new drive mode developed according to the characteristics of LED. It can save some magnetic components and reduce the hidden danger of electromagnetic compatibility. It is better than the traditional drive mode in stability and service life; In the field of intelligent lighting, the linear constant current drive scheme has an intelligent dimming port in the integrated circuit design, which can realize intelligent dimming and has development advantages.
② Under the trend of small spacing of LED display screen, the driver chip is highly integrated
Under the trend of small spacing of LED display screen, with the reduction of lamp bead spacing, the number of lamp beads used per unit area increases exponentially, and more LED display driver chips need to be placed on LED screen. In order to break through a series of problems such as reduced size, good current display uniformity, low mutual crosstalk between chip output current channels and high reliability, while integrating more transistors to improve IC performance, multiple functional modules need to be encapsulated in the same IC, so as to realize the diversification of functions and form a highly integrated drive IC product.
③ The new application scenarios of LED are constantly expanding, and the development of driving chips is diversified
With the continuous progress of LED technology, the emerging demand of downstream has been spawned. The intelligent display function of LED can be applied to a variety of scenes and electronic products, including automotive atmosphere lamp, led transparent advertising screen, and array display of various electronic products such as intelligent speaker and intelligent alarm clock. Moreover, with the development of small spacing of LED display, LED display will realize the commercial application in the field of television and further enter the consumer electronics fields such as wearable devices, displays, mobile phones, augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR). With the continuous expansion of LED application scenarios, LED lighting driver chip enterprises need to continue R & D investment and diversified development to meet the application needs of different products.
④ The degree of localization substitution will be further improved, and the export of advantageous technologies will be gradually realized
One belt, one road, is the LED lighting driver chip industry. The industry is becoming more mature. The overall technology level of the domestic market has been catching up. The domestic driving IC enterprises have significantly improved their competitiveness in the world, especially in terms of high cost performance. They gradually realize the localization of LED driven IC field, complete the self controlled process in the LED driving field, and drive the strategy of "one belt and one road". Realize the export of advantageous technologies and products, and further improve the competitive voice of domestic LED lighting driver chips in the world.
Industry downstream overview
LED is known as the fourth generation lighting source or green light source. It has the characteristics of energy saving, environmental protection, long service life and small volume. It is widely used in various scenes such as display, indication, decoration, backlight, lighting and urban night scene. With the maturity of LED technology, the reduction of lamp bead cost and the gradual improvement of cost performance, the penetration of LED products in various downstream application fields has increased, and the scale of China's LED market has continued to increase. According to the data of national semiconductor lighting engineering R & D and Industry Alliance, the scale of China's LED market increased from 192 billion yuan in 2012 to 754.8 billion yuan in 2019, with an average annual compound growth rate of 21.60%.
In the LED lighting driver chip industry chain, Chinese enterprises are in a dominant position in the global industry chain from upstream light-emitting layer epitaxy, midstream packaging to downstream applications. According to the statistics of GGII, more than 70% of the global LED application products are produced in China. China's LED industry has a high degree of autonomy and controllability and has strong bargaining power in international trade.
Development prospect
As the downstream application of LED industry chain, LED lighting driver chip industry has experienced the development process from single and dual color display to full-color screen. Later, with the development of technology, the small spacing below p2.5 came into being on the basis of full-color screen, realizing the transformation of LED display from outdoor to indoor scene. The growth of demand side is the main reason to promote the development of LED display industry. The industry development has always focused on the key factor of LED demand substitution for other display modes. The emergence of small spacing has realized the substitution of LED for indoor DLP and LCD splicing screen. With the decline of cost, small spacing has penetrated from the field of professional display to the field of commercial display with wider space. Small space initially entered the military, government and other professional display fields. After the cost gradually decreased, it entered the commercial application scene. Sports and leasing have become the fields of commercial application earlier, and Shangxian has also become the most promising market.
On the basis of small spacing, the further reduction of pixel spacing gave birth to mini and micro LEDs. At present, the large-scale application of mini LED is mainly in two directions. One is RGB direct display. Using mini LED can realize the display scheme with smaller size and higher resolution; The other is to use mini LED as backlight scheme, which is applied to TV, computer display, etc. Compared with the traditional backlight, mini LED backlight has the advantages of more concentrated luminous wavelength, faster response speed, longer service life and low system light loss. In addition, the consumer market faced by the backlight is broader. In June 2019, apple WWDC has launched a 32 inch 6K display Pro display XDR similar to the mini backlight. The attempts of influential terminal brand manufacturers will effectively drive the layout of the industrial chain. The mini backlight is expected to achieve large-scale production and commercial use in the short term. Mini RGB achieved mass production in 2018. At present, the commercial point spacing has reached 0.9mm, and p0.7 products have also been launched in 2019. From the perspective of time process, it is expected that after the mini backlight enters the scale and volume, the scale effect will reduce the overall cost of mini led, thus boosting the mini RGB into the stage of standardized commerce. According to ledinside data, it is estimated that the small spacing market is expected to reach US $9.7 billion in 2024, with a compound growth rate of 30-35%, and the mini LED market is expected to reach US $5-6 billion.
Micro LED is recognized by the industry chain and will become the core scheme of the next generation display technology. It has outstanding advantages over LCD and OLED and is an upgraded version of mini led. Compared with mini led, micro LED has smaller chip size and closer point spacing. In the future, it is expected to enter the field of small-size display such as wearable, mobile phone and computer, or become an alternative to the current popular OLED display technology. At present, Samsung, Sony and other leading manufacturers in the world have micro LED products as exhibits. According to ledinside, the commercialization of micro LED will be realized before the TV field, and then enter the consumer electronics fields such as wearable devices, displays, mobile phones, augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR), and the growth space is expected to exceed that of mini led in the future.