2025-04-22
The pursuit of ultimate visual display has always been one of the goals of human technological development.
From the earliest television display technology to the later LCD and LED technologies, display technologies have been developing at a rapid pace. Nowadays, the more cutting-edge OLED display technology is gradually becoming a hot topic in the market. 5 Major Micro-display Technologies and Applications in 2025
Both Fast-LCD and OLED Microdisplay are widely used, such as in the screen displays of VR devices, mobile phones, tablets, and monitors. Moreover, both display information through the combination of pixels, and achieve various images by controlling the brightness and combination of red, yellow, and green sub-pixels.
However, there are still many differences between the two at the technical level, which makes them more suitable for different devices. Next, we have organized the information about Fast-LCD VS OLED Microdisplay for a comprehensive technical comparison.
The target weight of the whole machine with silicon-based OLED product is less than 150 grams, making it suitable for use as components of lighter VR devices. In contrast, Fast-LCD has a larger weight, and the weight of the whole machine of some products is 503 grams.
Silicon-based OLED is an active light-emitting device that does not require the use of Black matrix materials, resulting in a higher pixel aperture ratio. At the same resolution, there is no screen-door effect, and the clarity is significantly better than that of LCD.
On the contrary, Fast-LCD uses BM materials to absorb stray light, which inevitably brings performance disadvantages. After optical magnification, you can clearly see the black edges between the pixels, resulting in a decrease in display quality.
In terms of contrast, OLED Microdisplay has an irreplaceable advantage. It has an ultra-high contrast ratio and can display a completely black screen, making users feel more immersed when using VR devices. In contrast, the liquid crystal contrast of Fast-LCD is insufficient, and it cannot display a completely black screen, making it obvious that the image is "projected".
In addition, OLED Microdisplay can instantly turn pixels on and off, which means that there will be no motion blur when displaying dynamic game scenes or high-speed moving images. Although Fast-LCD is called "fast liquid crystal", due to the time required for the rotation of liquid crystal molecules, its response speed is relatively slower, making it not suitable for use in VR devices.
Since it is self-emissive, when displaying a black screen, the pixels of micro oled microdisplay can be completely turned off without emitting light, thus saving power. Assuming that the power consumption of a Fast-LCD in a full white screen is 100 units, the power consumption of a micro oled microdisplay in a full white screen may be 50 units, and the power consumption when displaying a black screen is negligible.
This means that the silicon-based OLED display can have a longer battery life when applied to wearable devices (it can be extended by about 30%-40%), and it can be used in outdoor scenarios.
In contrast, regardless of the content displayed, the pixels of Fast-LCD are always in working condition, so it consumes more energy and has a shorter battery life. Compared with silicon-based OLED, its battery power is consumed faster.
OLED-on-silicon has a very wide viewing angle. What does this mean? When you view the screen from different angles, the changes in color, contrast, and brightness are very small.
In contrast, Fast-LCD has a narrower viewing angle. When you deviate slightly from the front of the screen, the color of the image will show obvious color cast and the brightness will decrease.
The following are the data comparison and case evidence of the viewing angle of OLED-on-silicon and Fast-LCD:
Silicon-based OLED: It has a viewing angle of 170° - 180°. Within this viewing angle range, the color shift is less than 5%, and the change in contrast is within 10%. For example, the silicon-based OLED panel carried by the Epson BT-45CS series augmented reality smart glasses has a wide viewing angle of 34°, which can present a 120-inch image at a distance of 5 meters, and supports an image with a contrast ratio of 500,000:1 and a brightness of 1,000 cd/m².
In VR devices, such as the arpara AIO 5K VR all-in-one machine, which uses a silicon-based Micro-OLED screen, the 95° FOV can create a borderless surround view. When users experience VR scenarios with it, they can see a perfect image no matter how they turn their heads.
Fast-LCD: The viewing angle range is about 120° - 140°. When you view the display screen from a different angle, the color shift can reach 15% - 30%, and the brightness will decrease by 20% - 40%.
Lower manufacturing cost may be the most significant advantage of Fast-LCD. Firstly, its manufacturing process is relatively mature, resulting in low cost for large-scale production. Secondly, the overall cost of its raw materials is low. Therefore, Fast-LCD is mainly applied to some mid- and low-end products.
In the VR display field, according to the research and calculation of Sigmaintell, in 2022, the cost ratio of the Fast-LCD with Fresnel lens scheme, the Fast-LCD with pancake lens scheme, the Fast-LCD with Mini-LED backlight and pancake lens scheme, and the OLEDOS with pancake lens scheme is approximately 1:2.3:2.9:4.
In contrast, the manufacturing process of OLEDOS is relatively complex and requires high technical requirements, so the current manufacturing cost is relatively high. However, due to its irreplaceable performance, especially after the launch of Apple's wearable devices in the market, more manufacturers are starting to use it as an essential component for device production.
In addition, with the continuous iterative update of technology by some manufacturers, the production cost of some silicon-based OLED displays is constantly decreasing, and the yield rate remains at a very high level.
With its exclusive FSL technology, MOT provides global manufacturers with solutions that combine high performance, low power consumption and cost-effectiveness. MOT display technology: high-performance and low-cost micro-OLED solution
Contact：https://www.micro-oledtech.com/contact/
Compared with traditional display technologies such as LCD and LED displays, micro OLED displays will focus on the field of smart wearables, which is its irreplaceable advantage.Fast-LCD VS Silicon-based OLED: The pursuit of more ultimate display technology and the expansion of human vision are among the tireless technical pursuits of mankind. With the development of science and technology, the cost of silicon-based OLED is constantly decreasing, and the yield rate is gradually increasing, making it soon possible for it to enter thousands of households.
