Jiweiwang News Since the beginning of this year, despite the continued downturn in the display industry, MLED technology still has high expectations, and big moves in the industry have continued. Hisense Vision and BOE have invested heavily in upstream LED chip companies Qianzhao Optoelectronics and Huacan Optoelectronics. While seizing the "chip" opportunity, they are also pursuing business layout across the entire industry chain.
Industry insiders pointed out that MLED has a profound role in reinforcing the industrial chain of the TFT-LCD industry. Actively deploying MLED chips can extend the life cycle of the TFT-LCD industry and also enhance the long-term competitiveness of panel manufacturers. At the same time, as more supply chain manufacturers form alliances, the industrialization process of Micro LED is expected to accelerate.
MLED is highly sought after by the market
MLED is a new display technology that has attracted much attention in the industry. Driven by the continuous promotion of consumption upgrades, MLED technology has gradually become an important technological development direction in the backlight and display fields with its advantages such as high image quality, wide color gamut, fixed-point drive, high response speed, and excellent stability. It is expected to explode in commercial display markets such as conference rooms, education, shopping malls, and cinemas.
According to predictions by professional consulting organizations, the MLED industry has good prospects and is developing rapidly. The global market size is expected to exceed 330 billion yuan in 2030, including 180 billion yuan for MLED direct display, 120 billion yuan for MLED backlight, and more than 35 billion yuan for Micro LED.
Chen Xuecheng, senior analyst of display technology at Qunzhi Consulting, pointed out that MLED is mainly divided into Mini LED and Micro LED. At present, Mini LED technology is relatively mature, while Micro LED is still in the early stage of the technology life cycle, and there are still many technical bottlenecks in commercialization.
Currently, Mini LED backlight has been successfully used in automotive displays, tablets, laptops, TVs, monitors, VR and other fields, showing huge development potential. Despite the downturn in the display market this year, the Mini LED backlit TV, tablet, monitor, and notebook computer markets still maintain rapid growth.
Data show that in 2022, the shipments of MiniLED panels for tablets, laptops, and monitors are expected to reach 9.7 million units, 5 million units, and 65,000 units respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 80%, 150%, and 27% respectively. Mini LED backlight TV shipments are expected to reach 3.8 million units, with a market share of nearly 2% and a year-on-year growth of more than 140%.
CITIC Securities stated that in the medium to long term, as the technology matures and costs decline, Mini LED continues to penetrate into the mid-to-high-end field and is expected to usher in an explosive period. It is expected that by 2024, the penetration rate of Mini backlight laptops/Pads/e-sports displays is expected to reach 20%/10%/18% respectively.
At present, although MLED products are still in the early stages of increasing penetration, with policy support and guidance from giants, Mini-LED can be expected to increase in volume in the future. Of course, domestic manufacturers will not miss such an imaginative market.
In recent years, domestic manufacturers have invested heavily in the Mini/Micro LED field. Upstream chip companies in the Mini/Micro LED industry chain include Sanan Optoelectronics, Huacan Optoelectronics, Qianzhao Optoelectronics, etc. Midstream packaging and testing manufacturers include Nationstar Optoelectronics, Ruifeng Optoelectronics, Zhaochi Co., Ltd., equipment manufacturers Han's Laser, Northern Huachuang, China Micro Semiconductor, Xinyichang, as well as panel manufacturers such as BOE, TCL CSOT, and Visionox.
Industry insiders told the author, "After recent years of development, the current Mini-LED backlight industry chain LCD has gradually matured, and the localization rate of materials/equipment is still relatively high. As far as LED chips are concerned, most of them are domestic, and there is still some overseas production capacity."
Four major camps are forming
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At present, major terminal brands such as Samsung, LG, and TCL are constantly launching Mini LED products, and Mini LED commercial use has become relatively common. Therefore, the layout of Micro LED by major display manufacturers has attracted more attention.
Looking at the MLED industry as a whole, the three core technologies are Mini/Micro LED epitaxy/chip technology, active drive backplane technology and high-speed/mass transfer technology. They play a decisive role in key process optimization and product development iteration. Mastering the three core technologies is crucial for industry enterprises to establish technological competition barriers.
As a certain direction of display technology, Mini/Micro LED has attracted much attention. So, how can companies ensure technological leadership in the Mini/Micro LED era surrounded by powerful enemies? Obviously, as the technological "highland" in the display field, chips are a link that cannot be ignored.
Integration is a good way, so BOE plans to control Huacan Optoelectronics. Not long ago, BOE planned to subscribe for A shares issued by Huacan Optoelectronics to specific targets with self-raised funds of no more than 2.1 billion yuan. After the subscription is completed, it will become the company's largest shareholder with a shareholding ratio of 23.08%, thus achieving control of Huacan Optoelectronics.
BOE pointed out that through this strategic investment in Huacan Optoelectronics, the company will realize the integration of the core links of the MLED industry chain, and then integrate its own advantageous resources accumulated in the packaging and application fields to completely open up the entire industry chain of substrate, epitaxy, chip, packaging and application.
In fact, this is not the first time BOE has invested in Mini/Micro LED chips. In March this year, Tianjin BOE Innovation Investment Co., Ltd., wholly owned by BOE, planned to participate in the private placement subscription of Qianzhao Optoelectronics for 468 million, but ultimately failed.
The private placement of Qianzhao Optoelectronics was finally successfully purchased by Hisense Video. Since then, Hisense Video has continued to increase its holdings of Qianzhao Optoelectronics' stocks. So far, Hisense Video has held 19.54% of Qianzhao Optoelectronics' shares. A person from Hisense Video Securities Department pointed out that MLED is a very important technology path in display and is also the company’s focus in the future.
In addition to BOE and Hisense, TCL CSOT formed a joint venture with Sanan Optoelectronics, which has ranked first in LED chip shipments in recent years, as early as 2020 to establish Xinying Display Technology, dedicated to Micro LED technology. The Micro LED production base jointly established by Leyard and Epistar has also officially entered mass production in 2020. As of the end of November this year, the company has signed nearly 400 million new Micro LED orders.
Currently, the development of the Micro LED industry has gradually formed four major camps, including "Fucai (Jingdian, Jingcheng, Lextar), AUO, Innolux", "BOE, Huacan Optoelectronics, BOE Pixey and BOE Crystal Core Technology", "CSOT Optoelectronics, Sanan Optoelectronics and Xinying Display", and "Hisense Video, Qianzhao Optoelectronics".
Regarding the phenomenon of display panel companies investing in chip companies, the Western Securities Research Report pointed out that "in the past year, there have been several similar actions by panel manufacturers to take equity stakes and bind MLED-related chip factories. In the context of the current rapid increase in Mini LED production yields and breakthroughs in Micro LED application and mass transfer technology, panel manufacturers choose to directly tie up with LED chip manufacturers, which is very helpful in accelerating the establishment of a complete MLED technology system and ecosystem."
The industrialization process has been significantly accelerated
In the past two years, with the joint efforts of leading domestic and foreign companies such as Sanan Optoelectronics, Huacan Optoelectronics, BOE, CSOT, and Samsung, various problems in Micro LED technology have been overcome one after another, and the industrialization process has been significantly accelerated.
At present, the Micro LED mass transfer equipment independently developed by Han's Laser has been put on sale, and the first batch of Micro LED mass transfer equipment from Hymox was successfully shipped and handed over to customers in September this year. In addition, equipment manufacturers such as De'Longhi Laser and Zhicube have also made good progress in the Micro LED field.
On the chip side, there is news that Sanan Optoelectronics will start producing 6-inch Micro LED wafers in the fourth quarter of this year. Currently, most manufacturers on the market use 4-inch Micro LED wafers for production and research and development. If the wafer size can be increased to 6 inches, it will be better for Sanan Optoelectronics to save manufacturing costs and facilitate better trial and error in Micro LED trial production.
The Micro LED mass transfer technology independently developed by Nationstar Optoelectronics is also in the small batch verification stage, and the current transfer rate and yield are steadily increasing. Its glass-based Micro LED technology focuses on high-end smart screens, car displays and smart watches; while silicon-based Micro LED technology focuses on the AR display field.
In terms of LED displays, Leyard's consumer-grade Micro LED TVs have been mass-produced and sold. As of the end of November this year, its new Micro LED orders were nearly 400 million yuan.
Panel companies have also made good progress. BOE has carried out a long-term and comprehensive technology and product research and development layout around Micro LED, including Micro LED chips, pixel devices, micro-display screens, mass transfer, etc. Among them, Micro LED chip products have passed the verification of many leading companies in terms of wavelength uniformity, performance, yield, etc., and have been continuously supplied in small batches.
The Micro LED pixel device was lit up on the screen in October this year, and is expected to be mass-produced on a small scale next year; the micro-display screen used for AR near-eye display uses the industry's more advanced wafer integration process, and has now also realized dynamic picture display on the sample screen. It said that the company's mass transfer technology was jointly developed with equipment manufacturers, and the yield rate continued to improve and the progress was smooth.
Visionox also stated that its joint-stock company Chengdu Chenxian has now built the first Micro-LED pilot line in mainland China that fully covers driver backplane, mass transfer, and modules. It has realized the lighting of 1.84-inch wearable and 12.7-inch TV splicing screen samples. The mass transfer yield has reached 99.95%, and it continues to advance towards mass production.
Although major companies are accelerating the research and development of Micro LED product technology, there is still some time before large-scale mass production. Lin Weihan, general manager of the Technology R&D Center of Konka Group, said that the industrialization of Micro LED must first achieve mass production of chips and continue to optimize performance; secondly, large-volume transfers need to be combined with repair to achieve mass production of products; thirdly, the production efficiency of Micro LED needs to be further improved under driving micro-current conditions; finally, the industrial ecology is still under construction, and hardware costs need to continue to decline.
Qian Zhilong, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Haimu Star, also said, "Currently, the cost of the Micro LED industry is still relatively high. When the cost comes down, it will be time to mass-produce equipment. It depends on the progress of technology." Shentianma pointed out that Micro LED is a cutting-edge technology that attracts a lot of attention and has broad application scenarios in the future, but it will take time for maturity and commercialization.
However, industry insiders told the author, "Although MicroLED currently has technical and cost issues that need to be overcome, with the high degree of integration of panel, chip, mass transfer and driver IC manufacturers, the mass production process of this product is expected to accelerate, and its application will gradually move from high-end commercial to civilian markets, and the market space will gradually open up."
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