LG Display supplies miniLED LCD for Dell monitors

LG Display has supplied world’s largest monitor maker Dell with light emitting diode (LED) Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels, TheElec has learned.

The South Korean display maker provided the panels for Dell’s 31.5-inch medical miniLED monitor launched earlier this year.

MiniLED is being touted as the next-generation light source for display panels. The LED chip is sized between 100 micrometers to 200 micrometers, much smaller than conventional LED chip’s 300 micrometers. Making the chips smaller allows more chips to be placed at the back light unit that can increase contrast ratio of screens.

The display panel that LG supplied for Dell’s 31.5-inch miniLED monitor had over 10,000 LED chips, people familiar with the matter said. Dell had LG Display participate from the development stages for the monitors as its LCD had great color expression rate, they said.

The LED chips and packages were provided by a company in the Greater China area.

Dell was preparing a successor to the monitor that will have a similar screen size, the people said.

However, sales of the medical monitor remained low, and as it was the first model, there were many room for improvements in overall quality and miniLED equipment used in production, the people said. Dell was continuing to make improvements when faced with issues.

LG Display is also expected to supply the panels for Apple’s first miniLED iPad Pro. Cupertino has already begun production of components for the 12.9-inch tablet. The miniLED iPad Pro will be unveiled in the fourth quarter at the earliest and first quarter of 2021 at the latest.

MiniLED will likely continue to replace conventional LEDs in monitors, notebooks and signage where it is difficult to apply organic light emitting diode (OLED). For monitors, it will be used for medical and professional gaming models where contrast ratio is important.

MiniLED LCD panel also fits with LG Display’s goal of shipping more high value LCD panels for IT applications. Last week at its conference call for the second quarter, company CFO Seo Dong-hee said it will continue to reorganize its LCD business to offer competent products.