Transmissive LCD requires a backlight source that is always on. Traditionally, backlight unit has been built on edge-emitting LEDs, a lightguide plate and a dedicated set of optical films to reflect and manipulate the light for maximized uniformity and brightness. This setup falls short in competing with OLED in terms of CR. OLEDs can deliver true blacks in areas where OLED emitters are switched off, but an LCD with traditional BLU always leaks some light and the resulting black always is a bit of a gray. To compete with this, a new backlight technology called mini LED has emerged with high speed in recent years. Mini LEDs, sitting directly behind the screen, allow for accurate local dimming of the backlight for delivering ultimate black levels, and the achievable luminance levels for the highest peak brightness of the display can beat those of the OLEDs. This is in great value e.g., in automotive applications where both high CR and luminance level are the absolute key qualities. For the mini-LED to conquer more market e.g., in portable devices such as tablets, notebooks, even smartphones, the mini-LED backlight units must be built thin, and the number of LEDs must not be too high to keep the cost level reasonable.
Nanocomp’s micro-optical films serve the purpose of making mini LED BLU bright, uniform and thin. For instance, a combination of microlens arrays (MLA) with freeform micro-optical structures works efficiently in distributing, collimating and recycling the light in a desired manner to implement a highly efficient mini LED BLU.