Apple has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop “ultra-advanced display technology at a secretive facility in Taiwan,” reports Nikkei Asia.
The “ultra-advanced display tech” is apparently micro OLED displays. Nikkei Asia says Apple is collaborating with its longtime chip supplier TSMC because micro OLED displays aren’t built on glass substrates like the conventional LCD screens in smartphones and TVs, or OLED displays used in high-end smartphones.
More manufacturers are looking forward to develop microLED display technology due to its superior advantages over OLED display and LCD technologies. Apple started developing its own implementation in-house in 2018.
Micro-LED involves using microscopic light-emitting diodes or LEDs and fitting them into a single pixel. Earlier prototypes have demonstrated three microscopic LEDs per pixel. The fact that display panel uses LEDs means that it does not require LED backlighting unlike LCD technologies. LEDs are self-emissive.
One of the primary selling points and advantages of this technology is that it has the positive characteristics of OLED minus the drawbacks associated with shorter lifespan due to screen burn-in and limited luminosity.
OLED has increasingly become a preferred display technology since 2008 among manufacturers and consumers. However, improvements in productions allowed manufacturers to use OLED displays even on their mid-range product lines.
Which means there’s a good chance we can see micro-OLED displays in upcoming iPads, Macs, iPhones, and the rumored Apple Glasses.
