In January 2021, when Vuzix released the world's first Micro LED AR smart glasses, the concept of Metaverse has not been officially released until the second half of 2021, with Meta, Microsoft, Alibaba, ByteDance, iQi Internet giants such as Yiyi have entered the field in a big way, and the Metaverse has been in the limelight for a while. So far, Metaverse players have spanned many industries including communications, cloud computing, Internet, semiconductors, gaming and entertainment, automotive, retail, industry, education, medical care, financial services, and more.
Some people think that the gimmick of the metaverse is greater than the substance, and it is too early to talk about industrialization and realization. Indeed, in terms of technical level, industrial support, profit model, industrial ecological maturity and industry standards, the Metaverse industry is still in the incubation stage. But with a long-term vision, this emerging industry undoubtedly has a broad space for development, which will inject fresh vitality into many industries. Moreover, this emerging industry has received policy support.
On December 30, 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai Electronic Information Industry" issued by Shanghai listed Metaverse as one of the key development industries for the first time. In the future, Shanghai will strengthen the basic capabilities of Metaverse's underlying core technologies. Forward-looking research and development, promote the development of new terminals that deepen perception and interaction and the construction of systematic virtual content, and explore industry applications.
According to TrendForce's analysis, Metaverse will push more manufacturers to invest in the construction of virtual worlds, and the fields of community communication, game entertainment, content creation, virtual economy, and industrial applications will all become the focus of future development of related companies.
In addition to the improvement of semiconductor computing performance and the expansion of low-latency high-speed network coverage, the popularization of AR/VR equipment will also become the key to the development of the Metaverse industry. Whether it is investors or entrepreneurs, they are beginning to dig into the AR/VR market. According to Crunchbase, an enterprise services database company, AR/VR startups will raise a record $3.9 billion in funding in 2021. It is self-evident that the AR/VR field is hot.
As a window for the interaction between the metaverse and the real world, AR/VR devices have sprung up in just over half a year. TrendForce estimates that the global AR/VR device shipments will reach 12.02 million units in 2022, with an annual growth rate of 26.4%.
Terminal brands are flocking, and the next-generation AR/VR equipment accelerates capacity expansion
As early as early 2020, Mojo Vision, an American startup, successfully developed an AR smart contact lens and embedded a Micro LED display in the contact lens for the first time. Since then, there have been rumors of the brand planning to launch the next generation of AR/VR smart devices.
In January 2021, the world's first commercialized Micro LED AR smart glasses came out. Although the Metaverse was not widely known at the time, the next-generation AR/VR smart wearable devices were also very attractive in the commercial and consumer markets. In this context, the brand Vuzix and JBD, a supplier of Micro LED displays, also began to make a name for themselves. No. In the second half of the year, the rapid popularity of Metaverse further detonated the AR/VR/MR equipment market.
According to incomplete statistics from LEDinside, 16 brands have launched AR/VR smart devices with new display technology, including Mojo Vision, Vuzix, WaveOptics, EM3, Varjo, Pimax (Xiaopai Technology), Xiaomi, Rokid, TCL Thunderbird , OPPO, Sony, arpara, Panasonic, Cellid, tooz, Nreal.
From the perspective of product layout and release time, international brands are leading the way, followed by domestic brands. However, most of the products are still prototypes, and very few have been mass-produced. Internationally, Vuzix NGSG AR smart glasses have been launched, mainly targeting the commercial market. On the domestic front, OPPO Air Glass, the first mass-produced consumer-grade smart glasses, was officially launched on March 3 in limited quantities, priced at 4,999 yuan, but this product is not augmented reality, but assisted reality.
As the leading brands in the field of consumer application equipment, Apple and Meta will naturally not be absent, and have released relatively clear signals that the next generation of AR/VR headsets will be released in the next year or two. According to the latest news from the market, Meta will be one step ahead of Apple to release a new generation of AR/VR devices.
The latest report from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out that Meta will release the Oculus Quest 3, a Mini LED VR device with a resolution of 2160x2160, in the second half of 2022. Apple's AR/VR headset will be delayed until the end of 2022.
In fact, Apple's goal is not only AR/VR, but also MR devices that integrate AR and VR functions. According to display analyst Ross Young, Apple will launch an MR head-mounted display device equipped with two Micro OLED displays and one AMOLED display in 2022, with the Micro OLED display provided by Sony.
Sony, after showing the prototype of the single-eye 4K Micro OLED VR headset in December 2021, released the PS5's next-generation VR HMD (4K) product - PlayStation VR 2 at CES 2022 in early January this year, but this 4K The VR device uses not a Micro OLED display, but an OLED. According to Ming-Chi Kuo's forecast, Sony's PS5 VR device will start shipping in the second quarter of 2022.
With the entry of many terminal brands, the next-generation AR/VR equipment continues to expand. In the future, players are bound to go far beyond what they have seen at the moment, and the products will also be varied, which can also be inferred from the situation of patent applications.
It is reported that IPRdaily, a comprehensive intellectual property information service provider, released the TOP 100 VR/AR global invention patent rankings since 2020 at the beginning of the year. Among them, there are many well-known brands, such as TOP 20: Samsung, Tencent, Baidu, Sony, OPPO, Ping An Group, SenseTime, Canon, Huawei, Microsoft, Alibaba, IBM, APPLE, LG, Google, BOE, Intel, VIVO, JD, Meta.
Obviously, major brands have long been lining up and accelerating the pace of research and development with the advent of the Metaverse era, and they will be ready to explode in the future. Take Google as an example.
Google was the first brand to launch AR smart glasses, but shelved the project due to poor market response. Until 2020, Google acquired Canadian smart glasses manufacturer North Inc. In this regard, the industry believes that it has returned to the AR smart device track. Recently, foreign media also reported that Google acquired Raxium, a Micro LED microdisplay manufacturer, and will consider more acquisitions in the field of AR hardware in the future.
It can be seen that in the near future, the AR/VR equipment market in the metaverse era will be very lively.
Micro LED new track, supply chain gearing up
The AR/VR industry chain is divided into two parts: hardware and software, which is a relatively large and complex ecosystem. As a part of hardware, the display is an important carrier for content presentation and virtual-real interaction, and needs to meet high requirements such as ultra-high brightness, contrast, and resolution. Whether AR/VR devices are used in different scenarios such as game entertainment, smart industry, smart travel, smart marketing, live video, smart education, smart medical care, etc., there is a great demand for ultra-high-resolution, high-performance displays.
Therefore, as far as the display industry is concerned, driven by the metaverse industry, the AR/VR field will provide a broad incremental space for the display industry, and will also accelerate the maturity of new display technologies. Display technologies used in existing AR/VR devices include Mini LED, Micro LED, Micro OLED and OLED. Manufacturers related to the supply chain have already sensed business opportunities, or they are busy deploying, or shouting that they are about to enter this market, among which the Micro LED field is the most lively.
According to LEDinside, since the second half of 2021, the dynamics of some Micro LED display related companies are as follows:
In addition to the above-mentioned companies, according to LEDinside interviews, related manufacturers in the LED industry chain have also begun to move.
As far as the LED chip side is concerned, Huacan Optoelectronics revealed that its Mini/Micro LED chips can be used in AR/VR equipment; Huayingxin has launched the planning and layout of Micro LED products in this field; The chip manufacturing process has been comprehensively developed and laid out, in order to promote the accelerated realization of related products; Zhaochi Semiconductor has decided to officially launch the Micro LED technology project and tackle key problems this year, and will meet the needs of Metaverse-related microdisplays in the future.
Judging from the dynamics of manufacturers, the competition for Micro LEDs in this new "battlefield" has already begun.
Micro LED short-term road resistance, long-term prospects
Micro LED has been recognized as one of the best solutions for AR/VR displays due to its high brightness, high resolution, high contrast, thinness, miniaturization, low power consumption, and flexible design. The road is still very difficult to pass. Specifically, Micro LED is currently facing "three mountains": chip efficiency, mass transfer, and full color. The chip efficiency problem and the mass transfer process will have a direct impact on the full color of Micro LED displays.
First, the chip efficiency will decrease as the size of Micro LED chips shrinks, especially for red light chips. When the chip size is less than 20μm, the EQE drops significantly, and the difference between the efficiency of red light chips and the efficiency of blue-green light chips can reach more than 5 times. Even if some companies propose to use the BGRR scheme for supplementary light, more LEDs means that the number of transfers will increase, which will lead to high costs, so the product competitiveness is not ideal.
Furthermore, although there are many methods of mass transfer technology, according to LEDinside, due to the small size of AR/VR microdisplay chips, the transfer is difficult, so the current mass transfer methods are Wafer Bonding (wafer bonding), Chip Bonding (chip bonding) or Laser Transfer (laser laser transfer) is based.
It is reported that most manufacturers use the Wafer Bonding and Chip Bonding solutions, that is, the process of combining wafers or chips with CMOS backplanes, but currently only a single color can be achieved. The full-color process faces greater challenges, and the laser transfer technology This problem can be solved and the full-color specification of micro-displays can be realized. At present, K&S, Coherent, etc. are actively researching and developing, but this solution has not yet entered the stage of mass production, and the equipment is very expensive, which has also become a major commercialization of Micro LED micro-displays. hinder.
Therefore, the existing Micro LED displays in the world are still mainly monochromatic. Although TCL Thunderbird has taken the lead in releasing the first binocular full-color optical waveguide Micro LED AR glasses, it is only a prototype product.
The good news is that in the past year, global Micro LED manufacturers have achieved remarkable results in the issues of red light chip efficiency, mass transfer and full colorization, which to a certain extent ignited the enthusiasm of enterprises, investors and consumers for Micro LED. confidence.
In addition, LED chip manufacturers are also actively making suggestions to overcome the problems. Among them, for the problem of low chip efficiency, Hua Yinxin pointed out that the improvement methods include adopting a new type of LED chip structure design and improving the process flow to reduce sidewall effects. Boost EQE. In terms of the mass transfer method, according to LEDinside's understanding, the Die-to-Wafer Bonding solution is currently adopted by Huaying.
In general, Micro LED has natural advantages in brightness, contrast and resolution, and the industry chain is gradually improving. Although Micro LED cannot be truly commercialized on a large scale in the short term, driven by many forces, breakthroughs in technical bottlenecks and cost issues will be gradually achieved, which can be expected in the long run.
