Samsung Electronics has once again been forced to delay the launch of its smaller MicroLED TVs due to its inability to overcome production issues, reports from South Korea say.
MicroLED is an extremely promising, advanced display technology that many believe will one day surpass OLED in terms of picture quality. The tech has already been implemented on giant-sized displays with success. However, Samsung Display is experiencing lots of trouble in its attempt to shrink the technology down to a size that’s more palatable for people’s living rooms.
As a result, The Elec said the company has been forced to delay the launch of its promised 89-inch MicroLED TVs, which were slated to enter production in May.
Samsung’s first ever MicroLED TV was The Wall, a 146-inch beast that was first launched in 2018, and followed by new variants in 2019 and 2020. The Wall is designed for commercial buyers, for use as an advertising display, because it’s both incredibly expensive and far too large to fit in most living rooms. However, the company finally launched its first-ever consumer MicroLED TV in early 2021 – a 110-inch display priced at a cool $150,000.
Now obviously, that first model is both too big and too expensive to see mass adoption from consumers, hence Samsung Display’s attempts to build smaller models at a more affordable price tag.
Samsung was hoping it would be able to launch both 89-inch and 101-inch MicroLED TVs this year. It was rumored that the 89-inch model would cost around $80,000. Now, it seems those plans are in doubt.
“The production timeline for the 89-inch model has been pushed back to the third quarter of this year while Samsung is yet to decide when it will start production for the 101-inch model,"an anonymous source with knowledge of the situation told The Elec.
Samsung is having difficulties because it has had to rely on a new low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFTs, as opposed to the printed circuit boards used in the original 110-inch MicroLED TV. The LTPS TFTs make it possible for each LED on the display to be controlled individually. While the older PCBs can also do this, it isn’t possible to create a 4K resolution display at smaller sizes using that technology, hence the need for the newer tech. Unfortunately, Samsung is struggling to implement the new LTPS TFTs.
The Elec said the 89-inch MicroLED TV is using LED chips that measure just 34 micrometres horizontally by 85 micrometres vertically. That’s considerably smaller than the 75mm X 125mm LEDs that are used in the older 110-inch MicroLED TV.
Samsung Electronics may still launch a 99-inch MicroLED TV based on the older design during the second quarter, but it’s unclear what resolution this would be.
