LED Terminology

Ever since a well-known TV manufacturer started marketing LCD TVs with LED backlights as LED TV’s there has been confusion over LED terminology. The following is only a guide as no one seems to stick to terminology with 100% consistency:

  • MiniLED is most commonly used by the LCD TV industry to refer to a moderately high-resolution LED backlight to an LCD display designed to provide higher contrast. The LED video wall industry also refers to mini-LED for its higher resolution LED panels, for example, 0.6mm to around 1.0mm dot pitch seems to attract mini-LED descriptions.
  • MicroLED: From what I see on the Internet, so far Micro-LED only refers to direct-view LED displays (see next item) and is the next level of high resolution for LED. Competing with other TV display technologies Micro-LED will potentially be a direct challenger to LCD and OLED technologies.
  • Direct view LED, or as I have also seen it written, DVLED, refers to LED displays without an LCD in front. A distinction may arise that for large direct-view LED-based displays, the display is made up of many modules tiled to make a complete display. For mobile devices using a micro-LED, and as LED modules get larger, there may be a distinction between single module direct-view LED and tiled module versions.

Whether it is as a backlight technology or as a direct-view display, LED has clearly become the most significant display-related technology. That kind of volume is bound to produce continued development.

Structure of an LED TV panel showing the LCD front with an LED backlight
Structure of an LED TV panel showing the LCD front with an LED backlight