The OLED investment boom has swept the Chinese market

"Technology has matured, but there are still some problems in materials and equipment, which has become an obstacle to downplaying LCD." "The father of OLED" and Professor Deng Qingyun of the University of Rochester said that the first problem is the life of the OLED screen. Can display for a few minutes, now up to 1 million hours, but the deep blue OLED luminous efficiency is still low; in addition, the production cost is higher, the screen is larger and the cost is higher.

However, Deng Qingyun believes that the prospect of OLED is undoubted. "In the next 5 to 10 years, AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) with longer life, lower cost, higher pixel and 3D effect is expected to replace LCD's leading position. ”

Large-size TV panel into layout center of gravity

Recently, Samsung announced that it will invest 7 trillion won (about 620 million US dollars) in the construction of OLED production lines in 2012. It is reported that Samsung’s overall investment plan for TV business in 2012 was 47.8 trillion won (about 4.11 billion US dollars). This time, Samsung will invest 15% of its investment in OLED technology alone, including research and development of new technologies, as well as the purchase of production lines and labor. This has become the largest single project investment in the company over the years.

At the same time, following the announcement in December last year that it will acquire a 50% stake in Samsung LED Co., Ltd. from Samsung Electric, it is reported that Samsung Electronics plans to acquire all the shares of the joint venture Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd. (SMD). , SMD is included in the ranks of its wholly-owned subsidiaries. SMD is an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) manufacturing company jointly established by Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI. It has an absolute market advantage in the global OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) panel market.

According to the reporter, Samsung is currently the world's largest manufacturer of small and medium-sized OLED screen materials. They hope to expand the advantages to the manufacture of large-scale OLED panels in 2012. Samsung has announced that it will also be with LG in 2012. The OLED panel TV set was officially launched in half a year. On the other hand, Samsung is still investing in research and development of flexible OLED screens. Perhaps Samsung's efforts are accelerating the mass production and popularization of this new technology. From the current forecast, the fastest flexible OLED panel will begin in the second quarter of 2013. Promote to the market.

At present, the fastest progress on large-size panels is LG Corporation of South Korea. At the 2012 CES International Consumer Electronics Show, many color TV manufacturers have demonstrated OLED TVs, of which LG is showing a 55-inch large-screen OLED TV. It is understood that LG will begin mass production of 55-inch OLED panel TV in July 2012. The current release date and price are still unknown, but LG has said that “after mass production in July 2012, sales will be available in the third quarter of the second half of the year”.

Some market analysts said: "LG, Samsung as an internationally renowned color TV enterprise, the new display of OLED TV will definitely drive the full acceleration of OLED TV, and the future OLED TV market is worthy of attention and expectation."

However, for the short-term market prospects of OLED TV, a relevant person in charge from the Guangdong OLED Industry Alliance told the Gaogong LED reporter: "LED technology is different from OLED technology, and the concept is different. So it is not that LED TV is LED. The breakthrough of the industry, then OLED TV is also a breakthrough in the OLED industry. At present, the OLED TVs introduced by international manufacturers are still very few, and have not reached the level of popularity. Meanwhile, he also said that consumers are aware of this concept. And the acceptance of expensive prices will take a long time. At this stage, OLED TVs are costly and cannot be mass-produced. If they are to be popularized, they will take at least 15 years.

Taiwan AUO, which hopes to expand to large-size OLED panels, has been working hard in the panel manufacturing industry for many years. Although it does not produce its own brand of flat-panel TVs, it sells its panels to many well-known manufacturers, including Samsung. , Sony, and so on. Prior to this, AUO also received technical support from Japan's Idemitsu Kosan, which is actually a partner of LG. It provides about 33% of LG's OLED panel production materials and more than 2,000 patented OLED technologies. Even Sony and Panasonic have to cooperate with Idemitsu on OLED.

According to the plan, AUO hopes to start production from 4-5 inch OLED panels in the second quarter of 2012, and in 2013, launch next-generation OLED panels and even expand to large-size OLED flat-panel TV panels. "The price of OLED will not drop quickly. Now the demand for OLED is not big. If it can't be mass-produced, the cost of OLED will not fall." A person in the industry told reporters that before 2011, OLED mainly used fluorescent materials and materials. The cost is still 50% higher than LCD and the yield is 30% lower. However, since the beginning of 2012, some companies have begun to switch to phosphorescent materials. It is estimated that by 2016, the material cost of OLEDs can be 20% to 30% lower than that of LCDs, and the yield is equivalent. Therefore, only then will the price of the OLED panel be lower than that of the LCD and enter a large-scale practical stage. ”

Lighting or the next test target

According to the reporter, the advantage of the OLED panel is that it can emit light by itself, without a backlight, and is lighter and thinner. In some cases, OLED panels provide better color contrast and better energy savings. At present, OLED technology has been successfully applied to mobile phones and car audio displays.

Despite this, the application of OLEDs in the field of lighting has been at the research and development level. It is also widely believed in the industry that OLED lighting needs to reach the level of fluorescent lamps and is widely used. There are still many problems to be solved, including efficiency, life and production costs, and the cost should be a key factor restricting the popularity of OLED lighting.

"OLED as a surface light source, so the lighting effect will be more comfortable than the LED of the point source. The OLED is also lighter and thinner. It should be a superior next-generation lighting technology. However, the development of OLED lighting is late, and its luminous efficiency is backward. LED is about 3 years old, the cost should be reduced to the same level as the current LED, and it will take a long time." The relevant personage of the Guangdong OLED Industry Alliance told reporters.

According to the prediction made by the US Energy Agency in 2008, low-end OLED lighting products will wait until around 2018~2020, and high-end products may take longer to reach the LED level. Therefore, the next generation of lighting may be divided into two levels, one is the high-end OLED lighting market, and the other is widely used in the street lighting and general application LED lighting market.