Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A
An innovative light source module that opens a new era for LCDs
Product Features
What is Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V?
Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V is a completely new LCD light source module that combines essential characteristics for performance:
・High Brightness
・Low Power Consumption
・High Image Quality
The white LED based light source module enables local dimming while maintaining high brightness and uniformity, all in a thin and lightweight package.
This LCD light source module is the fruition of Nichia's in-house white LED and optical technology, and will change the way LCD displays are perceived.
What is Nichia Light Cluster™ Type A?
Nichia Light Cluster™ Type A is a product that uses the technology of the Type V and has been developed for automotive LCDs.
Since the features of Type A are similar to those of Type V, the following sections will cover both of them together.
Conventional LCD Backlight Technologies and Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A
The mainstream backlights for LCDs have been "Edge Type" and "Direct Type" which had many characteristics that needed to be improved on such as local dimming, contrast, and power consumption. Backlights using "Mini LEDs" have improved those characteristics; however, Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A have taken it a step further.
As shown in the chart below, Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A have exceeded the other backlight technologies for these five core aspects of displays.
Table 1. Features of Backlight Technologies
| Edge Type | Direct Type | Mini LEDs | Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
LEDs are arranged in a |
Many large-sized LED |
Many small LED chips are |
Mini LEDs taken one step |
|
| Thickness | A | C | B | A |
| High Brightness1 |
C | B | B | A |
| Local Dimming |
- | C | B | A |
| High Contrast |
D | C | B | A |
| Low Power Consumption |
D | C | B | A |
1 Compared at the same input power
In the following sections, Nichia will introduce the features of this product, focusing on high brightness, low power consumption, and high image quality, which are the essential performance requirements for displays, mainly by comparing it with the Mini LEDs2.
2 This Mini LED was made by Nichia just for internal test purposes.
Main Features of Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A
High Brightness
- ✓ 1000+ nits
- ✓ Outdoor Visibility
Low Power Consumption
- ✓ 12% more efficient than conventional Mini LEDs
- ✓ Long Battery Life
High Image Quality
- ✓ Suppressed Halos
- ✓ Darker Grayscales are Visible
Unique Optical Design
The biggest difference between Mini LEDs and Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A are their optical designs. The light of Mini LEDs is scattered widely, but the light of this product is directed upwards by reflecting and collecting the light within its proprietary optical structure. As shown in the figure below, this unique optical design is one of the key characteristics to enable high luminance, low power consumption, and high image quality.
Figure 1. Light Pattern due to the Different Optical Designs (Side View/Top View)
1. High Brightness
As shown in Figure 2, this product has a higher luminance than Mini LEDs at the same power. This is due to the optical design described above, creating a steeper optical profile and directing the light where it is needed.
Mini LEDs has a broader optical profile, causing the light to scatter to unwanted areas.
Figure 2. Difference in Luminance at the Same Power
2. Low Power Consumption
Figure 3 compares the appearances and optical profiles of one zone3 against Mini LEDs when illuminated at the same peak brightness.
Compared to Mini LEDs, this product is able to reduce wasted light (the flashing purple area) since the optical profile is steeper, contributing to lower power consumptions in devices such as laptop PCs.
3 The area allotted to a single illuminating unit.
Figure 3. An Image of One zone Illuminated and its Optical Profile at the Same Peak Luminance
3. High Image Quality
Suppressed Halos4
The aforementioned characteristics of Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A reduce light leakages to neighboring zones, allowing partial illuminations while maintaining high contrast. Therefore, images will have less halos, higher contrast, and darker areas will be more visible when compared against conventional Mini LEDs (Figure 4).
4 Halo: A dim, blurred luminescence created by excess light leakage.
Figure 4. The Unique Optical Design Suppresses Halos and Achieves High Contrast
High Luminance Uniformity and Mura5 Reduction
Nichia's proprietary Multi-Luminous Structure™ (Figure 5) creates a large number of luminous points on the substrate surface with a small number of LED chips, all while reducing mura (Figures 6 and 7).
5 Mura: A term used to refer to unevenness and inconsistency.
Figure 5. Multi-Luminous Structure™
Figure 6. Difference in Number of LEDs
Figure 7. Difference in Number of Luminous Points
No Yellow Rings or Blue Edges
Figure 8. How White Light is Created
Yellow Ring and Blue Edge phenomena are seen in LCDs with Mini LEDs, due to the combination of blue LEDs + color conversion sheet to make white light.
These issues are not seen with Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A since they use white LEDs.
Figure 9. Image of a Yellow Ring
Figure 10. Image of Blue Edge
Nichia Light Cluster™ Type V/Type A are completely new light source modules for LCDs that combine the essential characteristics of a display (i.e. high brightness, low power consumption, and high image quality) with the functionality of a thin and lightweight display. This is achieved by the proprietary optical design and white LED technology that Nichia has developed over the years. Nichia expects that these products' key characteristics, which are different from those of conventional light sources, will contribute to the realization of new and unprecedented display designs.
These are custom-made products. For more details, contact Nichia's sales representatives or click the link below.
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