Recently, according to South Korean media reports, BOE's first batch of on-cell OLED panels will be shipped to Huawei. This is the first domestic screen manufacturer to supply on-cell OLED to Huawei. In addition to BOE, two domestic panel manufacturers, Huaxing Optoelectronics and Visionox, are also producing on-cell OLED panels. In fact, On-Cell OLED displays are commonly found in large screen manufacturers such as Samsung. As early as the Galaxy S2, Samsung adopted On-Cell technology. As screens have become a breakthrough point in terminal product innovation, terminal manufacturers are also upgrading their demand for screen technology. And screen manufacturers are also innovating screen shapes according to the needs of terminal manufacturers to promote the transformation of smart terminal products.
Flexible screen has become the key to terminal product innovation
On Cell refers to the method of embedding the touch screen between the color filter substrate of the display screen and the polarizer, that is, the touch sensor is equipped on the panel. Since the On-cell technology only needs to form a simple transparent electrode pattern between the color filter substrate and the polarizer, it is easy to ensure the yield. Although On-Cell packaging technology is simpler, yield is an issue. The commercialization of On-Cell's OLED panels by BOE this time represents another important step that BOE has made in catching up with OLED technology.
With the advent of the 5G era, the value of future smart terminals lies in the realization of ubiquitous information display, and flexible screens can rely on their own bendable form to meet the needs of the new era.
Especially the mobile phone "replacement wave" brought about by the commercialization of 5G, the penetration rate of flexible panel mobile phones is rising rapidly. According to the research organization Omdia's "Smartphone Display Panel Market Tracking Report", with the trend of 5G smart phones adopting flexible AMOLED, in 2020, the shipment of flexible AMOLED for smart phones is expected to be 238 million, an increase of 51% from 2019.
In the past two years, 5G+ flexible screens have gradually become the "standard configuration" of high-end models of mainstream brands. Recently, Samsung released the latest flexible screen folding phone Galaxy Z Flip, which uses Samsung's ultra-thin flexible glass technology to make the screen thinner and smoother. Domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi have also purchased ultra-thin flexible screens for the production of ultra-large curvature products such as folding screens and surround screens.
In fact, what 5G brings is not only the upgrade of mobile phone terminal display, but also in the fields of wearable devices, TVs, and vehicles, with the blessing of 5G technology, it brings a very large market space for flexible panels. The senior executives of domestic flexible display manufacturer Rouyu Technology once stated in public that in the 5G era of Internet of Everything, flexible displays will become basic equipment.
The rise of domestic flexible panel display industry is at the time
In fact, in the face of a considerable market scale, domestic display panel manufacturers have already made efforts to deploy flexible OLED production lines in order to preempt the market in the future. Industry experts predict that by 2023, the total production capacity of OLED panels in mainland China will account for nearly 46%. By then, China will successfully replace South Korea as the world's largest OLED panel supplier.
The main plant of the domestic panel leader BOE Chongqing's 6th generation AMOLED (flexible) production line project was topped off in July this year and entered the countdown to production. It is reported that the production line project is independently designed, developed and constructed by BOE, and will adopt the world's leading active organic electroluminescence AMOLED technology for flexible display production.
In addition, according to Langfang Daily, the domestic OLED panel manufacturer Visionox’s first G6 full-flex AMOLED production line with independent intellectual property rights has achieved single product KK-level delivery, and the delivered flexible AMOLED screen is equipped with On-Cell TP technology, which is Visionox In order to meet the demand of domestic end customers for high-end flexible screens, mass delivery. In addition, the flexible display international standard jointly developed by Visionox and Samsung has recently entered the final draft of the international standard and will be released soon. This is not only the first time that China and South Korea have jointly formulated an international standard for flexible display, but also won the international voice for the development of my country's display industry, and played a strong role in promoting the domestic flexible panel display industry.
Not only BOE and Visionox, but also up-and-coming panel companies such as Rouyu Technology and China Star Optoelectronics are also expanding their new track.
In March this year, Rouyu Technology launched the third generation of flexible screens. It is reported that the new product has greatly improved in terms of the number of bending, reliability, and contrast. In addition, Royole Technology also announced a strategic cooperation with ZTE to provide ZTE with flexible display technology solutions. At the beginning of this year, China Star Optoelectronics officially announced on the official Weibo, Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics 6-generation flexible AMOLED production line mass production and shipment, this is the first domestic production line of the same kind that focuses on folding displays.
Although in recent years, under the influence of government policy encouragement, continuous investment of industrial capital, and increasing demand in terminal applications, my country's new display industrialization has accelerated significantly, and major domestic manufacturers have successively built AMOLED production lines and have already achieved shipments. However, overall, global AMOLED production capacity is still mainly concentrated in South Korean companies such as Samsung and LG. Well-known domestic smart phone brands rely heavily on Korean companies' AMOLED production capacity, and OLED panels have huge import substitution space.
