News from December 21, Beijing time, focusing on the future shows that TCL Technology strives to be the leader. In the future display technology, TCL Technology (000100.SZ) will accelerate the layout. On June 19, 2020, TCL China Star, a subsidiary of TCL Technology, signed an investment agreement with JOLED of Japan to invest 30 billion yen (approximately 2 billion yuan) in JOLED. The two parties are also in the field of IJP-OLED (inkjet printing OLED) Carry out in-depth technical cooperation. In addition, TCL Huaxing and Sanan Semiconductor signed a contract in Shenzhen and announced a joint investment of 300 million yuan to establish a joint laboratory with independent legal personality, focusing on the research and development of Micro-LED technology.
Nowadays, whether it is a strategic cooperation with Sanan Optoelectronics or JOLED, it reflects the clearer and clearer blueprint of TCL Technology in the next-generation display layout. TCL Technology Chairman Li Dongsheng once said that TCL attaches great importance to the technological development and industry trends in the next generation of new display fields, and will continue to invest in and actively promote new technology routes such as OLED/QLED and Micro-LED for flexible printing.
In the plan of TCL Technology, there are two technologies and process routes that can be seen in the next 5-10 years in the medium and large-size semiconductor display industry. To Micro-LED.
From Mini-LED to Micro LED Panel Technology Path
In March 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and China Central Radio and Television jointly issued the ``Ultra HD Video Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)''. , 8K TV penetrates the market. The industry generally believes that this plan will further boost market demand for Micro-LED display technology.
As a new generation of display technology with great development prospects, Micro-LED essentially refers to the structural design of LEDs to be thinned, arrayed, and miniaturized, with low power consumption, high brightness, high color saturation, small size, and response. Many advantages such as short time and long service life.
Compared with the current popular OLED technology used in high-end displays, the contrast and color gamut of Micro-LED are comparable to those of OLED, but the viewing angle can be higher; at the same time, compared to LCD and OLED, Micro-LED is better. Save energy consumption; the current distillation process makes OLED have certain limitations in large size, but Micro-LED can be infinitely expanded in size; from the perspective of material composition and structure, Micro-LED is much simpler than TFT-LCD and OLED.
Micro-LED can perfectly present the three primary colors of RGB.As an ideal display technology, there are still many technical problems to be overcome in terms of massive transfer, epitaxial wafers, driver ICs, backplanes, inspection and maintenance, etc., and mass production technology has not yet Mature. Therefore, as a transitional solution from small-pitch LEDs to Micro-LEDs, Mini-LED technology has become the best choice for current panel manufacturers.
As a leading company in the early deployment of Mini LED and Micro LED technologies, TCL Huaxing has achieved first-mover advantages and has achieved many results. In August last year, TCL Huaxing launched the world's first Mini-LED on TFT-based MLED Star Obsidian product. It is the world's first Mini-LED array product driven by a-Si, and it is now ready for mass production.
As early as at the CES exhibition in January 2019, TCL Huaxing also jointly launched the world's first 3.3-inch AM Micro-LED display based on IGZO-TFT glass substrate with its partners. In November of the same year, at the 21st High-tech Fair, TCL Huaxing exhibited another 4-inch Micro-LED sample.
Mini-LED is a transitional technology solution after all, and Micro-LED technology is the future. In cooperation with San'an Semiconductor, TCL Huaxing aims to develop mass-produced Micro-LED display technology in a three-year period. The key problem in engineering technology is to accelerate the trial production and application of Micro-LED, and realize a comprehensive ecological layout from new display materials, processes, equipment, production line programs to independent intellectual property rights.
Inkjet printing display panel technology path
In addition to Micro LED technology, TCL Technology is on the other side of the layout of inkjet printing OLED technology, striving to achieve full coverage of next-generation display technologies of different sizes.
TCL Technology believes that the next generation of display technology that may come sooner in the future is inkjet printing OLED technology, and industrial mass production may be achieved in the next two or three years. Compared with the vapor-deposited large-screen AMOLED technology used by Korean companies, inkjet printing has better performance and display quality, while efficiency and cost have also been greatly improved.
This technology has several major advantages: First, it greatly reduces material consumption, and the material utilization rate can reach more than 90%; second, the production process is greatly simplified and does not need to be carried out in a vacuum environment, which greatly reduces equipment investment and process costs ; The third is that this technology can be produced on flexible substrates.
Li Dongsheng once said that inkjet printing OLED technology will become a new generation of display technology on large screens in the future. With the development of this technology and equipment, in addition to Chinese companies, more and more international companies have stepped into this field. Therefore, regardless of equipment, technology, and materials, it may reach the level of industrial production in the next one or two years.
In recent years, TCL Technology has always maintained a keen sense of smell in the tuyere of printing and display technology, and has an earlier layout in this field. Guangdong Juhua, a subsidiary of TCL Huaxing, is the only R&D platform in China that has the qualifications of a national printing-level flexible display innovation center. At the same time, Huarui Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of TCL Huaxing, has made major breakthroughs in the fields of new OLED key materials and quantum dot electroluminescent materials in recent years.
At present, how to develop corresponding new OLED light-emitting materials is still a challenge in inkjet printing OLED technology. This time, TCL Technology went to JOLED, a strategic investment and technical cooperation company. The R&D strength of curling and other related technologies is at the forefront of the industry.
Through the cooperation with JOLED, on the one hand, TCL Technology can reduce the comprehensive investment and technical cost of new displays, and promote the industrialized mass production of printed OLEDs in the next two to three years from the entire equipment, materials, processes, and products. On the other hand, this cooperation will also help TCL Technology accelerate the construction of ecological alliances in key links of the display industry chain to influence and lead the development trend of future display technology.
In the future, TCL Technology will continue to increase its investment in new display technologies and processes, and coordinate with strategic partners to lay out upstream core materials and equipment fields that restrict the development of new technologies, in order to achieve a comprehensive lead in efficiency, products, technology and ecology, and strive for the next Become a global leader in a wave of shows.
