The size of the screen to force the 2017 industrial chain for the preparation of OLED

The long-standing struggle between quantum dots and OLEDs has become increasingly entrenched. In 2016, the OLED camp continued to grow. The upstream BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics all made 100 billion yuan capital to enter the OLED industry. In particular, BOE has stopped investing in new LCD panel projects and has invested in OLED panel production lines in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province and Hefei, Anhui Province.

As a persistent adherent of OLED technology, Korean panel maker LGD has also spared no effort to develop, produce, and promote OLED technology, and plans to produce 2 million units in 2017. In terms of small screens, in order to increase the output of OLED screens, Samsung removed part of the LCD TV panel production line and converted it into an OLED screen production line. Accompanied by the news that the iPhone 8 will adopt a large area of ​​OLED screens, it is confirmed that the turning point of OLED is earlier than expected.

"The development of technology has far exceeded my expectations. In the past five years, the development trend of OLED has been on a diagonal line. OLED technology has matured and will replace LCD in the next two or three years." At the "2016 China OLED Display Industry Summit", Professor Deng Qingyun, a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and professor at the University of Rochester, who is hailed as the "Father of OLED," told this reporter that this time is expected to advance again.

What is the potential of OLED

The so-called OLED organic light-emitting diode, now, it is more and more people as "the next generation of display technology." Compared with the traditional LCD liquid crystal display, its biggest advantage lies in its self-luminous and flexible characteristics. From the physical characteristics, it makes electronic products thinner, more power-efficient, and flexible features make OLED Products are more imaginative on surfaces and wearables that are currently prevalent.

According to the data provided by Ovid Cloud, sales of OLED TVs in China in the first quarter increased by 149% year-on-year, increased by 187% in the second quarter, and 66% in the third quarter. Regardless of whether it is a manufacturer or a current consumption situation, mid-to-high end is the main market for OLED products. According to research, 40% of the middle class are willing to pay more than 50% of the price to purchase OLED TVs.

According to Wang Xiaoyu, deputy general manager of the Ove Cloud Network Tablet Display Industry Chain Research Department, OLED TVs can perform well in the Mainland mainly based on three reasons. The first is the call for policies such as the Chinese Manufacturing 2025 to provide a good environment for the development of the OLED industry. Second, from a technical point of view, in the past five years, the yield rate has been the focus of OLED controversy, but with the improvement of manufacturing process, the current 55-inch OLED panel yield has been increased to 85%. The more important point is that from the upstream panel makers to the downstream TV makers, the camp of OLED continues to expand. At present, TV brands such as Philips, Panasonic, Skyworth, Konka, and Changhong have all introduced OLED products.

However, industry insiders including Deng Qingyun also admitted that price is the biggest challenge for OLED product popularity. “From the perspective of cost structure, the current 55-inch OLED is 650 US dollars, LCD is 314 US dollars, and 55-inch is the most mature state. The larger size of the price difference will be even greater,” said Xie Qinyi, general manager of the IHS display department.

From the point of view of manufacturing processes, the backplane of the OLED has a higher degree of fineness, and the encapsulated organic light-emitting material is vulnerable to external air and water. The organic material is not easy to control the qualification rate and manufacturing efficiency in the evaporation process, and the yield rate is at the production cost. The loss caused by the aspect makes the cost increase.

This is also the direction of the technology improvement of panel makers including LGD. “If OLED prices can be reduced, OLED TVs will completely replace LCD TVs.” Deng Qingyun said.

Faster mobile market

Compared to the big screen market, the small screen market represented by mobile phones and wearable devices is more rapidly applied in OLED technology. Especially in the past three years, shipments of AMOLED panels have increased by leaps and bounds. According to data provided by IHS, AMOLED panel shipments in 2016 will reach 400 million units, an increase of approximately 39% year-on-year, including mobile phones. highest. "TV has less than one million pieces, most of which are OLEDs for mobile phones, of which Samsung has more than 300 million pieces," Xie Qinyi explained.

Price is the key factor. "The prices of OLEDs and LCDs in the mobile phone market are already approaching. Especially for 5-inch cell phone panels, their prices are similar. So people say that at similar prices, people are more inclined to OLED because they are lighter and thinner and they can The consumption is even lower,” Deng Qingyun told the First Financial reporter.

According to Xie Qinyi, taking the Samsung mobile phone as an example, the cost difference between the panel price of the flexible screen and the traditional screen is about 10 dollars, but the difference between the sales price of the terminal products is one or two hundred dollars, which provides mobile phone manufacturers with profitable space. At the same time, the yield of AMOLED reached 60%, and the 5-inch AMOLED yield rate reached 78%, which is comparable to LCD.

Currently, China’s mobile phone brands are also increasing their adoption of OLEDs. According to IHS data, China’s smart phone brands purchased about 50 million OLED smart phone displays in 2015. In 2016, the number of purchases exceeded 85 million, including flexible panels. .

“Although Samsung is still the absolute leader in the supply of OLED mobile phone panels and the reliability of panel quality, domestic panel makers have emerged, and some models have been upgraded from SecondSource to FirstSource.” Xie Qinyi said.

More imagination space

Although Apple did not expressly express, but from the perspective of the information on the upstream supply chain, next year Apple's mobile phone products will formally use OLED is basically a foregone conclusion, and the application of OLED materials also brings more rich imagination space for Apple products.

"In order to achieve a borderless effect, Apple will fully adopt AMOLED in the future. By the end of 2020, it will adopt AMOLED that can be folded." Xie Qinyi boldly assumed.

"At present, the size of the iPhone 6 is 4.7 inches, and the three 4.7 inches are arranged. The diagonal is exactly 7.9 inches. It is the size of the tablet. In the future, if the foldable AMOLED technology matures, the tablet and the mobile phone will become one. Users do not need to bring two products out."

Another imaginable space lies in the change of the working window. At present, Apple's work window is open to white, and AMOLED's greatest feature is not brightness, but dark contrast, if this feature is used, the future Apple product's work window becomes gray or black, the word is white or white, since Luminous technology makes such windows more contrast and more power efficient.

OLED TVs have begun commercial use, and the development of OLED mobile phones is in full swing. OLED commercialization of on-board vehicles is also in progress. For example, in automotive touch screens, the brightness of OLEDs is more advantageous due to the low brightness in the compartment. According to Xie Qinyi, at present, a Korean car manufacturer and a German car manufacturer will use OLEDs in 2018, which will also greatly increase OLED shipments, and will also lower the cost of OLEDs.

In Deng Qingyun's view, the challenges of the future OLED lies in two points, "the first to maintain the technical quality of OLED, and the second is to reduce the price."

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