illuminating

One of the biggest areas where the quality of picture on CRTs was seen as poor by the majority of people wasn't the fault of the CRT, but rather the noisy analog signal of broadcast, things like RF or composite video connectors, and things like recordings done on VHS tapes. All of these things combined created fuzzier, noisier images that the CRT would dutifully render for you. Granted a CRT is really inefficient and heavy, but input a signal with something like SCART or S-Video with a digital input source, and you'll get a clean image, even high definition models existed. Sony's Trinitron models always looked really good back in the day compared to other ones I used.

Ironic that the world has gone from Red LED's being the cheapest/easiest to produce and Blue the hardest/most expensive to completely the other way around.

Ok, so I can count on having a micro-LED monitor about the same time my local nuclear fusion generator comes on line?

Those big stadium displays consume huge amounts of power. The largest reach close to 1MW at full brightness and many have their own air conditioning.

The invention of the Blue LED was so important that the inventor and the group that worked on it, both japanese researchers, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014. Physics is considered one of the most, if not the most, hard subject to win the Nobel prize.

An expert interviewed on FOMO's channel asked to guess when prices will be attainable for consumers for micro LED TVs and he said around the early 2030s.

you don't know how much i'm waiting for Micro-LED tech

I nearly threw my phone when you said that 90s era LCD panels (or any lcd panels for that matter) have better contrast ratios than CRTs

I saw this video and I was so excited. Micro-led is one of those technologies that is so perfect but has challenges including cost, manufacturing, etc, if I ever have the opportunity to buy a microled monitor or tv i'll definitely remember how far away it was in 2020

every single vid you make is an absolute banger. Id love for you to produce one on the back story and explanation of the tech in quantom dot. thanks for all the work you put into these

There was also a tech called SED (if I recall correctly) which was basically like having every pixel be a separate CRT (one electron emitter per pixel). Basically a truly flat CRT, which would have had excellent contrast (although probably the same phosphor burn in issues)

As a PC enthusiast I feel like Micro-LED is one of those technologies that has been 5 years in the future for the past 10 years

Hey, don't forget the CFL LCDs! Those were where backlights really were most of the time until LEDs took over. I even had a MacBook with CFL backlighting.

not another word against CRTs. Its superior to LCDs in many respects.

Good to see Plessey making an appearance. One of the rare UK fab companies, I remember visiting their Plymouth fab as a schoolkid in the early 80s, goggling at 3" wafers. The company's history goes back to 1917, or at least the name does; the logo comes from the days when it did lots of military radar. Not as well known as it shuold be.

my guess is the QD-Leds will be the way to go - only blue backing mini LED's with efficient photon down-shifting via quantum dot to the colour wanted.

It sounds to me like the tech won't be practical until someone comes up with a way to just construct the pixels on the substrate.

Fascinating video! Very informative. I did want to point out that they actually used compact florescent bulbs for backlighting in some early LCD displays. I had no idea until I saw some retro computer channels having to replace them.

I almost forgot all these problems with microled, great summary. The transistor once used to be impossible to make a reality. I guess these things just need the right minds and people together, that's what makes it such a slow progress.

Great video as always. It's staggering the amount of useful information that's on your channel John, thanks for all your hard work.

Love the humour mixed into these videos. That introduction was golden! 😁 (but there are many more hidden gems in the video).

If you think CRTs had poor image quality, then you probably only saw some heavily used consumer-grade CRT TVs with a low line count. Sony Trinitron and NEC/Mitsubishi Diamondtron and possibly other aperture grille CRT monitors had and still do have good image quality, though they might not be optimal for small text unless perfectly calibrated and in good shape. Aside from the bulky size, I'd say the main drawback of CRTs is the less-than-perfect geometry.

Excellent ep. thank you for making it!

Love your closing statement. I am told, the most promosing technology in mass transfer right now is LIFT (laser induced forward transfer), using eximer laser with mask to transfer a n area of micro LED's instead of one by one. However, before it is proven successful in mass scale I would still be doubtful.

I watch every report twice, my education is coming along nicely. Thank you for your work.

So you make a substraight that is just connections (like a surface covered with a furry forest much smaller than the leds), you make a paint out of all 3 colors of micro leds (probably even smaller ones), and you paint them onto the substraight. Then you have a device like a fpga that tests every set of connections and sees what color is produced and programs itself to know what connections produce what colors at what points.

Great analysis! Reminds me of my chemical engineering days ... without the math. Very much appreciated!

Your videos on chip manufacturing are always a joy. Would love one on OLED displays and Quantum Dots.

This is the best explanation of what MicroLED technology is all about and the problem with how hard it's to manufacture MicroLED's. Thank you for sharing this video and information with us because now I fully understand why it's taking so long for this awesome technology to be available for purchase. Hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to purchase a MicroLED at a price that most of us can truly afford. Please keep up the awesome work and I promise to keep coming back for more and sharing your video's with as many people as I possibly can because you definitely deserve all the exposure that you can receive...💯👍

This video finally explained to me _why_ it's so hard to get good yields on micro LED! Thanks :D.

A CRT, while incapable of large sizes actually had the ability to create true black which and an LCD can not.

CRT worked poorly? It took a long time for LCD to match them in overall quality.

I bought the $80K Samsung TV, hooked my Atari 2600 up, Pitfall never looked so good. Gonna play Demon Attack next, I'm almost giddy.

I made a prototype device today for an idea I had, it uses tiny tiny 0201 size LEDs (they are such small specks that you can barely even feel them if you rub your fingers together), it was not actually that difficult to place with tweezers.

Content is lit as always 💡

I love your research and analysis of a topic so in depth, and getting to the core of issues. But still your meme's make me think, where does he find those? 😂😂

You talked about CRTs like they're such a bad technology, but they were still better than LCDs and even better than OLED in some ways. The near-infinite horizontal pixels would've been really nice. I get that CRTs are analog and have some drawbacks, but even still, I'd love to see how the technology would exist with 2022 tech inside. I bet it'd be a lot nicer than we remember. You also completely skipped over Plasma. Pretty sure Plasma is just mini CRTs.

The display industry has been working for years to get back to the CRT black levels. CRT Monitors had the advantage displaying the actual resolution they were set to, unlike the monitors today which use tricks to display the requested resolution.

In one of your older vides you mentioned how your mother said that your voice could put people to sleep. But it turns out it's just the right tone and timbre for this kind of informative content.

Displays with individual emitters per pixels I think will always have uniformity issues or divergent aging problems of the pixels. It was with CRT, plasma and OLED.

great video :D I still think CRTs have the best colour reproduction/response time/smoothest image, but obviously they have the worst packaging constraints and their resolution hasn't kept pace with other technologies. Hopefully MicroLED will be the best of everything.

Thank you for yet another excellent tech overview (though somehow your history of displays at the beginning of the video missed that LCDs were used for quite a while without LED illumination).

I'd love to see a video from you talking about Laser-phosphor Displays, aka the next gen CRTs

Seems like quantum dots is the way to go. When Linus was looking at the wall, it's not low power, it puts out a ton of heat that needs extra ac, and the smaller panels that lock together to make a large panel isn't color calibrated. So if one panel goes out put a new one in the colors are slightly off, and the panel go out often enough. The 146 size is 5.76 m/2 uses 2990 watts max. And needs 10,212 BTU of cooling. This is the second smallest one.

Great video. Not sure if this is within your knowledge, but I’d love a video on virtualisation and its future, particularly within the context of the Broadcom/VMWare deal. Thank you!

Nice. Quality research. Thx

People up to 2019 on a nostalgia trip on youtube were laughing at old television series where now laughably outdated, then bleeding edge computers cost $5-10k. Nobody is laughing now. Price brackets for every single category of item even remotely related to information technology just keep increasing and things get less and less affordable. I have perfect vision (actually my right eye is 20/16 instead of 20/20), and between my 159 PPI monitor and 534 PPI phone I couldn't care less which one I'm staring at. Who are these screens for? People with money to waste to enjoy the placebo effect of sunk cost?

Loved that video!

It's a challenge they should overcome. It just might take longer than we expected.

Think about it this way.. OLEDs were already being prototyped in the 90s, I remember writing an article on them in primary school... but OLED TVs are still not affordable 30 years later, if you consider the fact that their lifespan is only about 5 years of actual use...

interesting video on a rather complex and potentially new and exciting technology. Just saw 2023 CES piece on Samsung exhibiting a Micro-LED set.

You mentioned a couple of mass transfer methods but there are others as well like laser based transfer and stamp based transfer. Allegedly samsung electronics is using laser based transfer for their 2022 microled tvs.

Thanks for the information :)

Quality content, keep going 🌟🌟

Fantastic video. Thanks.

What about A pick and place style roller? Using MEMS to hold on via negative pressure, then slowly rotate the roller onto the substrate, but move the substrate at the same time to get the desired spacing. (and up/down to not catch any LEDs by accident). Or combining fluidic self assembly with pick and place to make chiplets that can be effectively assembled? Also, as someone else noted, a QD layer over blue LEDs is most likely where the industry will go. Consolidating 3 LED types into just one seems the best to increase output consistency and reduce R&D expenditure in fabrication when it's more needed in assembly. And final side note: Thoughts on optical antennas?

Awesome review

I would work toward a stacked geometry. Red on the bottom can be largest and has insufficient energy to excite green or blue carriers into conduction. Similar considerations apply to the green under blue interface. We do need to prevent the light going the other way, which can be done with dichroic mirrors. Lattice matching among these layers and material purity/control may limit yield, but I think this will win in the long term.

I must've missed the memo on Micro LEDs. I have never heard about this technology before, thank's for the learning experience :-)

If you grow them on sapphire (already transparent) then why not just grow three layers, plate/mask/etch the conductive lattice onto each and then stack them? Each layer could just shine through if they're offset correctly

Thank you. Most often I enjoy listening to your information. It appears to me at least, the content conveyed is concise, clear, and easy to comprehend from a layperson's perspective. Well done indeed.

0:20 the contrast ratio of CRTs was MUCH better than the one of LCDs! The brightness level probably as well, at least on average.

Something in my head lit up!

4:58 'sloshing around'. This metaphor pleases me.

So from my perspective there are two options to make this somewhat easier. 1) Construct the panel from only blue LEDs and then use quantum dots for the red and green sub pixels. Solves the need for green and red LEDs. 2)Do away with LEDs altogether and use electrical charge to directly stimulate blue quantum dots. Then use red and green quantum dots after the blue ones for those sub pixels.

Interesting area of technology that I had never even heard of. I enjoy your graphic memes to punctuate points.

Just fyi, "The Wall" tv is probably a reference to an old sci-fi novel, "Fahrenheit 451".

Wow, this is insane. Your video gave me a sense of appreciation for these enormous TV price tags.

RIP Nick Holonyak, inventor of the LED.

Would love to know more about how OLED's are made

my dear lord, these videos are extremely informative

They must find a way to grow the micro-LED in place. This mean abandoning GaAs and InGaN emissive materials, and using a single material while utilising heterojunctions to get different wavelengths. It is a challenge for solid-state physicists...

Thanks for condensing all of that egghead material to an understandable data stream - sorry for your headaches and bloodshot eyes. Thanks for sharing.

great summary

Great video

Given the difficulty and the costs involved it's looking more and more like MicroLED displays may never come to market in the kinds of quantities that everyone was originally hoping for. That entire area of technology may well just be skipped and/or set aside while others (and older technologies that can be mass-produced affordably) are updated, advanced and approved upon. And, that's all perfectly fine as not all technology necessarily needs to find its way through to direct commercial viability. Besides, there is still a LOT more performance that can still be squeezed out of existing display tech like LCD and OLED. Every year companies find new way to improv on those platforms as well.

Seriously, how do you even research this broadly within semiconductor lol? Great content!

Great graphic representation. I think I saw an actual nerd conversations 🙃. Do you offer any suggestions for when my head turns into a potato? Thanks

cool, never knew it was so complex! hopefully by the time microled comes out, it'll cost around 10G's for a 75" 8K microled tv. :)

We also had CCFLs.

Thank you. Excellent.

Outstanding video! Bravo! A couple of minor issues: the key advantage with microLEDs is brightness - I.e. being able to use them outdoors. Also, 20 microns is fine for a mobile phone display and 100microns us fine for a large TV display.

Can't wait to buy one of these.

LED diodes not only emit light… they also absorb light, not super efficiently as the most high tech solar collectors, but well enough… so every old LED tv that is thrown away could actually generate electrical voltage… not super well, but it does work. If you connect wires to the old display and measure emitted voltage when placed in the sun you will get current. The possibility of making LED displays that generate their own power from sunlight photonics is entirely feasible… not sure why we don’t. Remember absorb as well as emit.

0:10 - I'd argue a CRT looks better at a given low resolution than any LCD I've seen. Sports fans continued to enjoy using them well into the 2010's because LCD's were cursed.

Leds did NOT free us from CRTs. For the first years for Desktop Monitors, the back light came from fluorescent tubes.

Could the red green and blue LEDs be grown on the same substrates? This would allow using the growth wafer for final assembly. (contacts on top, transparent sapphire substrate below). Doing this seems less daunting to me then solving the transfer challenge...

Press X to doubt. 0:28 that flat panel monitors in the early 2000s and 2010s had better image quality than CRT monitors is something that's almost completely untrue. They had the same inky blacks of OLED monitors, that they had worse contrast is not true. Early versions of flat-panel monitors looked horrible. Response time is also something that was unmatched with CRTs all the way until just a few years ago with OLEDs. So I'll repeat it again, CRTs had perfect contrast, zero ghosting and instant response times, and often perfect colors as well. This part of the video is wildly inaccurare. A high-end CRT monitor like a Sony Trinitron from the 90s would still be competitive today against most consumer monitors that aren't microLED or OLED, and is still comparable to those. Digital Foundry made a great video on this, highly recommend watching it. There's also a great article from Eurogamer, Vice made one as well.

Any updated thoughts on this?

fluidic self assembly is cool to the point that i hope it's the technique that ends up winning in the end

Thanks!

I see the fluid self assembly process work awesome on single colored panels, but how the hell you make it work on every third?(or fourth)

Man we need a follow up with corrections wrt information on CRTs in this video.

ooh _that_ shockley, sure yeah, now i understand. I was thinking of _another_ shockley... 😂

Whoa whoa whoa. CRT's are awesome.

Video that shines!

Thank you 👍

Intresting report as usual. Never heard much about this micro led technology before. Anyway, besides all common display technologies, promises and the race of resolutions that already reached a point that human eye can't differ from a distance, the question of technology should also be which technology saves the most amount of power? Most (in Germany sold) TV sets have an very bad energy label. Since I know now about the light intesety effects of the red micro led depending on the size, this technology maybe could not save more power than a (led) backlight powered display.

Enlightening