Samsung and LGD in the field of OLED panels, different strategies for the development of OLED, QLED, MicroLED
OLED panel technology is gradually emerging. In the field of OLED panel applications, Samsung and LGD have chosen different roads. Samsung focuses on the research and development of QLED quantum dot TV, while LG is chasing the large-size OLED panel market.
Samsung is now actively developing its QLED quantum dot TV and rallying the Chinese TV company TCL to form an alliance, hoping to take a different path from LGD's already dominant OLED TV panel. Why is it doing this?
In the 1990s, Samsung did not hesitate to build a TFT-LCD panel production line for seven consecutive years. By 1998, it won the position of the largest LCD panel manufacturer and remained in 2011. In 2012, LG surpassed Samsung to become the world's largest LCD panel manufacturer. Keep it up to now.
Both Samsung and LG recognize that with the entry of Chinese LCD panel manufacturers, the profit of TFT-LCD panels will inevitably decline, and the cost advantages of Chinese panel makers will lead to their unfavorable competitive position in the industry. OLED panel technology began to be developed around 2007, but the fields they chose were different. Samsung's OLED panels were mainly aimed at small and medium-sized electronic products such as smart phones, while LGD chose large-size electronic products such as TVs.
According to WitsView's data in 2016, LGD has a market share of nearly 90% in the large-size OLED panel market, while Samsung has a market share of over 90% in the small and medium-sized OLED panel market. At present, LGD's OLED panel business is still at a loss; Samsung's quarterly net profit has continued to hit a new high since the fourth quarter of last year. The highest profit for Samsung is the semiconductor business, followed by the OLED panel business.
The application of OLED panels to TVs is difficult to profit mainly because of the high production cost. The current price of 55-inch TFT-LCD TVs sold is as low as 2,299 yuan, while the same size of OLED TVs must be as low as 7,800 yuan, making it difficult to sell on a large scale. In contrast, because the screen size of electronic products such as smart phones is smaller, the price of single-chip OLED panels is lower, and the higher value of electronic products such as smart phones can withstand the higher cost brought by OLED panels, which makes Samsung a winner. .
The weakness of OLED panel technologyAll along, we all know that OLED panels have the characteristics of good color display, low power consumption, light weight and so on. In fact, the shortcomings of OLED panels are also obvious. The short life of OLED panels is a fatal flaw, and its lifetime is only about 5,000 hours less than half of that of traditional TFT-LCD TVs. The lifespan of three luminescent materials of OLEDs is different, which leads to the phenomenon of color cast or even burn-in after use. The production process of OLED panels is complicated, resulting in low production yield, and so on. These problems are all OLED panel manufacturers need to overcome.
These problems have appeared on Samsung's mobile phones and Apple's iPhoneX. However, Samsung has solved these technical problems better with years of efforts, but it cannot be completely avoided, and nowadays smartphones generally use two or three. In the year, the short-lived problem of OLED panels will not be too obvious for smartphones.
However, for TV, this problem is obviously bigger, because the use of home TV far exceeds the electronic products such as smart phones, and the short life of OLED panels has become its major weakness.
It is precisely because of these weaknesses of OLED panels that Samsung has chosen smart phones and other industries when it develops OLED panels, which reflects its forward-looking nature. LGD's OLED panels have chosen large-size electronic products such as TVs, which have caused losses. situation.
Of course, LGD has also realized this. It plans to invest $13.5 billion to rapidly expand small and medium-sized OLED panels. Apple, which started to introduce OLED panels on the iPhone this year, hopes that other manufacturers will compete with Samsung and invest 2.7 billion dollars in LGD.
Samsung has some considerations for the technical development of large-size panels. Nowadays, QLED quantum dot TV, which it is actively promoting, is one of them. What is puzzling is that it is also adding and developing MicroLED TV panel technology. Why?
Development of three technologies: OLED, QLED and MicroLEDThe rise of OLED panel technology has attracted the attention of Chinese panel companies. Currently, panel companies in mainland China have invested in R&D and construction lines. Small and medium-sized panel manufacturers and Huiguang, Junyu Technology, etc. first put into production of their AMOLED panels, but the production capacity is small, and the impact on the market is limited; the two major panel manufacturers in China, BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics, have attracted the most attention in the OLED panel industry.
BOE has started production of AMOLED panels in October this year, and it is said to have been supplied by Huawei. Now it is working hard to build a second AMOLED panel production line in Mianyang, Sichuan. It is expected to be put into production in 2019, and it is possible to contact with Apple in the future. Supply AMOLED panels.
Huaxing Optoelectronics has already reached a cooperation with Wuhan to build an AMOLED panel production line, which is expected to be put into production by 2020. After the large-scale production of OLED panels by Chinese panel manufacturers, the OLED panel industry will inevitably fall into price wars.
This should be one of the reasons why Samsung began to plan the development of QLED and MicroLED panel technology. QLED is a backlight using quantum dot material, which improves the sRGB color gamut coverage of the current TFT-LCD panel, can be closer to natural light, and has the advantages of strong stability, long life, and aging. Samsung hopes to use this technology to fight against it. Large-size OLED panels dominated by LGD. The author believes that MicroLED may be the long-term development direction of Samsung in panel technology.
MicroLED technology, namely LED miniaturization and matrixing technology. Refers to a high-density, small-size LED array integrated on a chip that can achieve nanometer scale, has a longer luminescence lifetime and higher brightness, and has better material stability and long life, effectively solving the OLED. "burning screen" problem.
Since Taiwan has lags behind South Korea in OLED panel technology, Taiwan’s AUO, Innolux and other panel companies are planning to implement overturning on the MicroLED, so they have a certain lead in technology. After the acquisition of LuxVue, Apple Also chose to cooperate with enterprises in Taiwan, Samsung recently reported that it has already dig a lot of MicroLED talents from Taiwan and is expected to show MicroLED TVs early next year.
For MicroLED technology, LGD is also highly concerned and invested. Perhaps after the development of MicroLED panel technology, Samsung and LGD will have the same goal. Of course, for this panel technology that is regarded as the future technology of the panel, China's panel companies are also highly concerned. BOE has said that it has started research and development, and hopes that China's panel companies will be able to keep up with Korean panel companies at that time.
SHENZHEN CHONDEKUAI TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD , https://www.szsiheyi.com