OLED Display Manufacturers Talk about the Development Status and Trend of Small and Medium Size LCD Raw Materials

In addition to liquid crystal materials, liquid crystal displays need glass substrates (conductive glass), color filters, polarizers, backlights, etc. Besides active and passive materials, auxiliary materials include orientation agents, sealants and gaskets. Of course, for TFT-LCD, it is necessary to fabricate TFT arrays on a glass substrate, which requires almost the same materials as the semiconductor industry. In addition, the cost components of different LCD materials are very different.

LCD Material: Still in the Middle and Low Grade

Major liquid crystal material manufacturers in the world: Germany MERCK, Japan CHISSO, DIC, China Eternal Huaqing. Among them, MERCK has the largest output, accounting for about 50% of the global total. There are factories in Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Sales in 2005 increased by 27% compared with the previous year.

The research on liquid crystal materials in China began in 1969. In 1987, liquid crystal materials were formally produced, which broke the long-term technological monopoly of Germany and Japan. Limited by many subjective and objective factors, there are only TN and STN type liquid crystal materials with medium and low barriers in our country at present, and most of the high-grade materials (mainly TFT materials) are still in the laboratory.

Four liquid crystal materials enterprises in China sold 223.5 tons of liquid crystal in 2005, including 180 tons of monomer and 44.35 tons of mixed liquid crystal, with sales of 731 million yuan. It increased 89.87% year on year. In recent years, all liquid crystal material manufacturers are committed to improving product quality, expanding varieties and improving product structure. In 2005, the most prominent export scale of LCD monomers was formed, among which Shijiazhuang Yongsheng Huaqing has the largest scale and the largest variety.

Substrate Glass: In the Initial Stage

At present, the main suppliers of substrate glass are Corning in the United States, Asahi Glass in Japan, NEG and NHTechnology in Japan. Four of them have almost monopolized the production and supply of glass in the whole industry. In Europe, Pilkington also supplies a small amount of TN and STN glass.

In recent years, driven by the rapid development of TFT-LCD industry, the demand for glass substrates has been in a period of rapid growth. In 2005, the global output reached more than 74 million square meters, an increase of 56.6% over the previous year.

The production of glass substrates in China is still in its infancy. According to reports, Ancai Gaoke announced in 2005 that it would invest 2.2 billion yuan to build a TFT substrate production line, aiming to produce 3 million square meters of glass substrate for 5G annually.

Rainbow recently announced an investment of 1.3 billion yuan to complete 5G and 5G TFT glass substrates in two phases. Among them, the first phase invested 800 million yuan, the main objective is to produce 750,000 square meters to 900,000 square meters of 5GTFT glass per year; the second phase is determined according to the algebra of actual domestic TFT investment in the future. However, these two projects are still in the stage of demonstration and declaration.

Henan Luobo Group, the actual start of production, completed the investment of RMB 260 million in the construction of CSTN thin plate glass production line, in May this year produced a thickness of 0.55mm CSTN glass substrate. It has been supplied to the market in batches.

Color Filter Membrane: Trend of Built-in Panel Enterprises

At present, all kinds of LCD, especially LCD TV, require more and more color, and at the same time, the pressure of cost reduction is also increasing. For this reason, color filter film production line is built in large TFT-LCD enterprises to reduce transportation and cost. This built-in CF has accounted for 50% of all CF production in 2005, and is expected to account for 60% in 2006.

In 2006, the world's three major color filter film manufacturers were: LPL accounted for 16.4%, built-in; relief printing accounted for 12.6%, professional; Samsung accounted for 11.4%, built-in.

At the same time, many enterprises have done a lot of work in improving raw materials, improving the optical properties of color films, improving production technology and reducing costs, among which transfer printing and inkjet technology deserve attention. Reportedly, Japan relief printing and Kwangmura printing cooperation, the development of transfer method, estimated that the cost can be reduced by 1/2, but the current production schedule is still unclear. DNP is introduced into inkjet. In fact, ink-jet technology has a low threshold, Sharp built-in six-generation color filters have been produced by ink-jet method, while Taiwanese business exhibition Maoguang Photoelectricity also cooperates with Taiwan Institute of Technology and Research, and its five-generation production line will also be produced by ink-jet method.

Another challenge for color filter technology is to use field Sequential Color technology to achieve color without color film. This technology has been developed for many years and has been applied only in very limited fields. But now things have changed. Samsung's first CFL (Color Filter Less) 32-inch LCD without filters was introduced at the 2005 FPD International 2005, which attracted much attention.

The panel uses RGB-LED backlight and OCB panel. The response speed is 5 ms, the resolution is 1366*768 pixels, the brightness is 500 cd/m2, the contrast is 1000:1, the opening rate is 78%, the color performance range is 110% of NTSC, the power consumption is 82 W, and the driving frequency is not published. Without using filters, the panel can cut costs by 20%. No specific data have been released on the number of LEDs used.

Transparent Electrodes: Developing into Independent Categories

As China is still an important production base of TN and STN-LCD, ITO conductive glass has developed into an independent industry category. At present, there are about 40 ITO conductive glass production lines in the mainland of China. The main manufacturers include solely foreign-owned enterprises, such as Suzhou Banyan, imported large-scale production line enterprises, such as Shenzhen Nanbo, Shenzhen Laibao, and domestic production line enterprises, such as Anhui Bengbu Huayi, Shenzhen South Asia, Anhui Wuhu Changxin, Jiangsu Jintan Kangdake, Shenzhen Haowei, etc.

According to incomplete statistics, China's actual output in 2005 has exceeded 10 million square meters. Not only can domestic demand be basically met, but also the proportion of exports has reached a certain level. At the same time, the technical level and product quality have been greatly improved.

Polarizers: Supply continues to be tight

In the world high-tech market, the demand for LCD panels has increased dramatically, and the demand for the quality and quantity of polarizers is also rising. In 2001, the global polarizer market was US$805 million; in 2002, driven by the growth of TFT-LCD demand, the polarizer market grew by 46%, with a total output value of US$1.173 billion; in 2006, it is expected to reach US$1.8 billion.

DisplaySearch estimates that the supply of polarizers will continue to be tight until 2008, according to the current expansion plans of raw material suppliers.

At present, the market share of Ridong Electrical Engineering, the largest polarizer market in the world, is about 40% to 50%, Sumitomo Chemistry is about 20%, Sanli is about 15%, and the rest are Rite and LG Chemistry. The production of polarizers in China is still in its infancy. The main manufacturers are Shenzhen Shenfang Lekai, Wenzhou Overseas Chinese Industry, Foshan Weida, etc. The products are narrow polarizers (500mm) for TN and STN. At present, we can not provide wide-band (1330mm) products.

The cost of polarizer's main raw materials accounts for 60% to 70% of the product's sales cost, and the TAC and PVA membranes account for 75% of the raw material cost.

Backlight System: Mainstream or CCFL

Backlight module mainly includes: light source (CCFL or LED), light guide, reflector, diffuser, frame and so on. At present, backlight CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) and LED (light emitting diode) are the most widely used in LCD.

The mainstream of backlight system is CCFL. There are dozens of companies producing CCFL backlight module, mostly from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have also moved in these two years. Half of the global backlight module production comes from Taiwan manufacturers, followed by Korea and Japan. Emperor Guang of Shenzhen is the first and largest mainland company to do so. There are few enterprises producing cold cathode fluorescent lamp tubes, the largest in the mainland is Nanking Languang, and only four in the world are HORISON (Japan), SANKEN (Japan), Jinfu Electric Machinery (Korea) and Weili League (Taiwan).

At present, besides LED, there are FFL (Flat Fluorescent Lamp), OLED and carbon nanotubes, which are mature alternative light sources for CCFL. Although the latter two technologies have been developed, they have not yet reached the stage of mature application.

As a backlight, LED has attracted more and more attention. It has been widely used in small displays such as mobile phones, and is expanding towards desktop PC displays, portable PCs and LCD TV. Although there are OLED products on the market now, its randomness and super-thinness are better than LED, but its service life, color and other aspects are not as good as LED, so LED is still the best choice of LCD backlight.