The Present and Future of LED Transparent Screens

With the continuous progress of LED technology, LED display appears in the form of more diversified applications, such as xR virtual shooting, naked eye 3D, poster, cinema screen, rental screen, transparent screen, creative screen. The rise of these innovative applications speeds up the LED display into the public's life, which creates a full of potential segments of the market for the LED display.

LED transparent screen products is the special existence of many emerging LED display. The LED displays is used to extend the application of more different scenarios because of its high permeability and ultra-thin and lightweight characteristics, connecting the virtual and the real world.

What is Transparent LED Screen

LED transparent screen, as the name suggests the product's most important feature is its transparent display form, compared with traditional LED display products Today's common LED transparent screen on the market has a high degree of transparency, ultra-light features. In fact, the principle of its realization is the innovation of the light bar screen, through the patch manufacturing process, bead encapsulation, control system for targeted improvement, and coupled with hollow structure design to reduce the structural components of the line of sight Obstruction, thus greatly improving the LED display's translucent effect.

TrendForce Global LED Display Market Report 2024 introduces that, in terms of specifications, compared to general displays, LED transparent displays are more different in horizontal and vertical pitch. And in terms of usage scenarios, LED transparent displays can be classified into indoor transparent displays with brightness in the range of 4,000-5,000 cd/m² and transparency of 75% and outdoor transparent displays with higher brightness. According to the LED device type to distinguish, can be divided into the use of front-emitting, side-emitting LED transparent screen, of which the front-emitting LED transparent screen is becoming the mainstream type of market.

At present, transparent LED display is mainly used in store retail, stage , media advertising, creative tourism and other scenes. The main market is in China, followed by Europe and the United States and Asia.

LED transparent screen can be favoured by the above application scenarios, originating from its following characteristics, first is more flexible relative to the traditional LED display box, which can be combined with the specific dimensions of the glass custom box size in order to better fit with the glass curtain wall; second is the LED transparent screen has good performance like a high degree of translucency, no noise, low-power consumption; third is the maintenance of the LED transparent screen is easy and safe maintenance, saving manpower and material resources; forth is that its display effect is more attractive than traditional products, which has a certain positive effect on attracting traffic, information dissemination.

Although the advantages of LED transparent screen is rich, but the other side of the LED transparent display screen has following defects, the screen brightness, clarity and transparency of the contradiction, as well as transparent screen performance is difficult to further enhance.

In the face of the problems that exist in the LED transparent screen, the industry has developed different solutions to solve the problem, and now the LED transparent screen can also be subdivided into crystal film screen, film screen, photoelectric glass and other categories. Compared with the conventional transparent screen, the weight and transmittance rate of the product are significantly optimized and maximized display clarity.

LED crystal film screen: crystal film screen is made of flexible transparent film, with light, thin, free design and other characteristics. It can be better control of the line width through the application of laser etching circuit, to ensure that the impedance is the same, so that the brightness of each LED chip is the same, to achieve the effect of displaying the information content of the brightness of the uniformity of the effect at the same time, the crystal film screen light transmittance can be as high as 95%.

Image Source: Jin Changhong LED Display

LED film screen: LED film screen through a specific bare chip, the components are solidly installed in the high-transparency PCB board, through the unique cover glue process, so that the display module is integrated into a high-transmittance lens-type substrate, the thickness of the product is only 1~3mm. LED film screen transmittance can be 70%~95%, does not affect the indoor and outdoor lighting; the film screen does not need to be installed on the bracket, able to curved surface display, the display effect of no dead corners and no colour deviation; energy-saving effect is 30% above the ordinary LED display.

LED photoelectric glass: LED photoelectric glass is a kind of comprehensive technology products, integrated LED chip, driver chip, embedded control system, deep processing of glass, and chemical process. LED chip is placed between two pieces of glass, using glass coating conductive technology to achieve the effect of photoelectric display. The product has a longer lifespan, better display effect, higher temperature resistance, waterproof and other characteristics. At present, the photoelectric glass can be divided into monochrome static, monochrome dynamic, full-colour dynamic and other display types.

Image Source: NEXNOVO

Crystal film screen, film screen, photoelectric glass and other emerging LED transparent screen products are now mainly for the mid-to-high end commercial display field, so the product price is relatively high compared to the conventional transparent screen price. However, the transparent screen also improved its thin and light degree, display effect, protection performance.

In the face of retail department stores, museums and other large-scale indoor and outdoor space applications, LED transparent class display screen gradually derived from a variety of different types of segmented products. It can present the same wonderful display effect in different materials buildings. And in the future, the addition of Micro LED technology, the applications of LED transparent display will be further expanded.

Micro LED will be the new partner of transparent screen products in the future.

Micro LED transparent screen and conventional LED transparent screen products are not the same. Conventional LED transparent screen is the innovative application of the light bar screen, while the Micro LED transparent screen uses a smaller size, higher brightness, lower power consumption, longer life, shorter response time Micro LED chip, and equipped with a glass substrate. With the support of high transparency of glass substrate and high quality display performance of Micro LED, LED transparent screen can take into account the transparency and high-definition display effect, and the future development prospect is more worthy of expectation.

Today, AUO, Samsung, Pegasus, neptunium and other display manufacturers have entered the Micro LED transparent screen track, expanding LED transparent products from public transport, commercial applications to the car display, consumer electronics and other fields.
AUO: AUO's Micro LED Transparent Display is said to be used in retail stores, public transport, in-vehicle displays and consumer electronics. Recently, Lenovo announced the ThinkBook Transparent Display Lapto, a ThinkBook Transparent Display concept laptop featuring AUO's 17.3-inch Micro LED Transparent Display with a resolution of 720p and a brightness of 1,000nits.

Image Source: Lenovo

In the retail department store and public transport sectors, AUO released a 60-inch Micro LED screen last year. In January of the same year, AUO joined hands with the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) and the Shipbuilding Centre to introduce the latest Micro LED transparent displays in the Kaohsiung Ya Wan Smart Ferry, expanding the business opportunities for the development of LED transparent screens in the rail economy and smart transport.

In the field of in-vehicle displays, AUO has released several sizes of products, including 60-inch transparent Micro LED display series, 30-inch transparent Micro LED displays, highly transparent Micro LED interactive transparent smart windows, 13.5-inch 163PPI transparent Micro LED displays, and 17.3-inch Micro LED transparent displays.

Highly Transparent Micro LED Interactive Transparent Smart Car Window (Image Source: AUO)

Pegasus: Pegasus has released a variety of Micro LED transparent automotive display products, including the industry's first transparent Micro LED display with reflectivity as low as 4% and transmittance of 65% or more; the world's first 8.75-inch Micro LED display with >70% transparency; and the 9.38-inch Micro LED adjustable transparent screen. Pegasus demonstrated the perfect compatibility of Micro LED transparent screen with automobiles.

Micro LED in-vehicle transparent screen with reflectivity as low as 4% (Image Source: Pegasus)

9.38 inch Micro LED Adjustable Transparency Screen (Image credit: Pegasus)

PlayNitride: PlayNitride is also promoting the development of Micro LED transparent display technology. In August last year, PlayNitride, together with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Dream Animation, released a Micro LED transparent display with "extreme transparency" and "high brightness", which was introduced into the deep-sea fish specimen display area of the Xpark Aquarium in Taoyuan.

In the field of car display, neptunium had revealed last year that the company's Micro LED transparent car display in sample mode has been shipped in small quantities, and it is expected that the car display business will take about two or three years to grow.

SAMSUNG: Samsung is bringing Micro LED technology from the large-size commercial display and TV space to the transparent screen space. It brought the world's first transparent Micro LED screen to CES 2024 earlier this year, including three Micro LED displays with different levels of transparency, two of which feature tinted glass and the other transparent glass with a bezel-less design.

Samsung Micro LED Transparent Screen

Summary

Nowadays, LED transparent screen has been used in all kinds of commercial and public places, through the combination of virtual and display, adding charm to the building and opening up an innovative medium for information and art dissemination.

In the future, in the application of Micro LED technology, LED transparent screen development will get new life, especially in the car display application. Although Micro LED technology is not yet mature, but manufacturers are actively promoting Micro LED transparent screen "on board" process.

According to TrendForce Global LED Display Market Report 2024, the LED transparent screen market is expected to grow to $141 million in 2023, a 4% increase. In the future, driven by the market demand of retail department stores, creative tourism and other markets, as well as the introduction of Micro LED transparent display technology, there is a chance that the LED transparent screen market size will reach $238 million in 2027, with a CAGR of 12% from 2022 to 2027.

Meanwhile, TrendForce points out that in the future, Micro LED transparent screens will be used for external advertising and internal information display in smart cars. It is expected that Micro LED transparent displays will be introduced into the automotive market in 2026-2027, with European, American and Japanese car factory taking the lead in using them as AR-HUDs or window displays.