"Everyone knows that this is a new and difficult road, with no precedent and no reference." On December 23, 2021, a video titled "Our Motto" went viral online. This is a 2022 brand feature film created by Konka, and the video is based on the daily work of the scientific research staff of Konka Chongqing Optoelectronic Technology Research Institute as the background, vividly restoring Konka's layout of the whole industry chain in the semiconductor industry.
When it comes to the entire semiconductor industry, in recent years, it can be described as a changeable situation, and the domestic industrial chain has not solved the problem of "lack of cores and few screens". Since last year, in order to solve the long-standing "card neck" problem, the state has vigorously embarked on the layout of the semiconductor industry, at the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly said that the relevant departments will do "should give, can give to the full", and the tax department has also introduced preferential tax policies for the industry. In this regard, most industry insiders said that in 2021, China's chip industry will achieve great breakthroughs and development.
The "three leading positions" in the field
The reason why the chip is important is because it can be described as the throat of the development of manufacturing. Under the wave of informatization, digitization and intelligence, from people's daily familiar mobile phones, home appliances, computers, cars, to power grids, robots, medical instruments, etc., the use and demand for chips are becoming more and more extensive, and at the same time, the industry has higher requirements for chip technology.
Looking back on this year, the keywords around the chip industry are "lack of core tide", "price increase tide", "change tide" and "technology tide", which further verifies that the road to the development of the chip industry is full of bumps and hardships.
It is precisely because of this "dilemma" that Konka, a star company that is well known for its television and home appliances, has resolutely stepped into the semiconductor industry and taken semiconductors and new display technologies as new targets. For Konka, this is an opportunity for a new era, but what lies ahead is a new round of challenges.
It is precisely because it has been betting in the industry for a long time, at present, Konka Group has been the "three leading" companies in the global Micro LED field: leading the promotion of related industrial layout; from display chips to terminal business, the layout of the whole link leads the industry; investment ranks among the best, last year, Chongqing Konka Optoelectronic Research Institute project was jointly led by the group and Chongqing Bishan District, spending 30 billion yuan. This all shows Konka's determination in the new round of change.
Harvest the $10 billion market
In the above video, a long group of shots highlights a small white board on which engineers go through a daily alteration. The engineer said, "This is our secret weapon, and we have a lot of patents born here." ”
It is reported that the huge transfer technology is a key link to promote the commercial use of Micro LED. However, at present, Micro LED still has a bottleneck in the huge transfer technology, and at the same time, due to the limitations of panel output, the speed and yield of the huge transfer, the current cost of this technology is still high, and it still needs a certain amount of time to precipitate.
However, talking about konka's choice of Micro LED track, it can be said that the potential is unlimited, which is expected to break the limitations of OLED and completely replace the application of LCD. In the face of business opportunities, Micro LEDs can create more possibilities. Ping An Securities believes that it can replace LCD and OLED as panel displays, and can also be used for AR, VR and wearable device screens, outdoor reality versions, HMDs, HUDs, taillights, projectors, etc. According to LEDinside estimates, the future potential market size of Micro-LED can reach 30-40 billion US dollars, which has attracted a new wave of layouts from Apple, Sony and some Taiwan factories.
After several years of deep cultivation, Chongqing Konka Optoelectronic Technology Research Institute has formed technical achievements. In the Micro LED bottleneck huge transfer technology, the institute has independently built epitaxial wafer production line, chip production line and huge transfer production line, vigorously promote the research and development and production progress of Mini/Micro LED; with the core breakthrough blessing, Konka Research Institute has 800 patent applications so far, including 140 PCT patents, 73 US proposals, and 169 authorized patents.
At the same time, in the presentation of technical achievements, in May 2020, Konka was invited by the Xinhua News Agency client to use the MicroLED large screen to conduct a live broadcast of the "two sessions"; in December, the MicroLED large screen appeared at the Migu Music Festival, testing the water for the first time to apply entertainment to commercial applications. In the same month, Konka also released the world's first MicroLED watch. Micro LED end applications cover more and more scenarios.
In any case, the front of this track is bound to be bumpy, but even so, we must unswervingly move forward. As mentioned in the video, "In this world, there are always some beliefs that are firm, guiding us forward, giving us strength, and we write our beliefs into a sentence and write our motto." ”