The display driver IC is mainly responsible for driving current or voltage, controlling the screen screen, and is an important part of the display panel imaging system. In recent years, the proportion of smart phone AMOLED panels has continued to increase, especially at the end of last year, folding screen mobile phones are selling hot, making the AMOLED smartphone market further grow in 2022, accounting for more than 40%. In this context, the AMOLED drive IC industry is also expected to usher in rapid growth.
AMOLED IC shipments increased rapidly, with a compound growth rate of 13.24%
In 2021, despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the lack of semiconductor cores, the global smartphone shipments still maintained 1.33 billion units, an increase of nearly 80 million units from 1.25 billion units in 2020. This has also led to the development of different types of display technologies. According to Jibang Consulting data, the demand for a-Si/IGZO LCD models in 2021 is still strong, and the proportion of LTPS LCD models has only slightly declined to 28% in the whole year; the proportion of LTPS LCD models has been compressed to a certain extent, and the proportion is expected to decrease to 33%. But the sum of the two still stands at 61 percent. Unlike LCD, which is under pressure to grow, the proportion of AMOLED mobile phone models has increased significantly, and the market proportion is expected to reach 39% in 2021.
What is more noteworthy is that since the end of last year, a round of folding screen mobile phone boom has emerged, which will further promote the market share of AMOLED models. Counterpoint data shows that from 2020 to 2022, the global folding screen mobile phone shipments are 2.8 million, 5.6 million and 17.2 million, respectively, and it is expected that the shipment of folding screen mobile phones in 2025 is expected to exceed 56 million units, and the CAGR will reach 82.06% in 2020-2025.
The driver chip is highly related to the display panel, and can be roughly divided into LCD driver chip, TDDI touch display integrated driver chip and OLED driver chip according to the type. With the transfer of smartphones to AMOLED, TDDI touch integration driver chips have gradually reduced their market share in small sizes such as smartphones, and have begun to develop into medium-size markets such as tablets and notebook computers. The development of AMOLED panels will effectively drive the increase in the market share of AMOLED driver chips. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, thanks to the rapid growth of AMOLED screens, AMOLED driver chip shipments have grown rapidly, and are expected to increase to 2.450 billion units by 2025, with a compound growth rate of 13.24% in the next 5 years. CINNO Research expects that the market size of AMOLED driver chips in China's market will grow from 900 million US dollars in 2021 to 3.3 billion US dollars in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of CAGR of 38%.
In fact, the current development of AMOLED and driver chips is mainly limited by insufficient production capacity. In the wave of core shortages in 2021, the display drive IC is the focus of the shortage, the gap between supply and demand in the second quarter was as high as 50%, and the shortage risk in 2022 still exists. According to the analysis of Qunzhi Consulting, the accelerated development of industries such as automobiles to digitalization and the Internet of Things, and the surge in demand for home in the post-epidemic era, have further amplified the risk of driving IC shortages. As the demand for AMOLED panels in smartphones, TVs and notebook computers maintains strong growth, the global supply and demand of AMOLED driver ICs will remain tight from 2021 to 2022. Shi Wei, general manager of Shenghe Microelectronics, also said: "A In fact, the global MOLED production capacity is still limited. Without a good resource or a good strategic fit, there will still be a strain on supply. ”
LCD shifted to AMOLED, and local chip manufacturers gained the opportunity
The increase in market demand may provide a favorable development opportunity for China's local AMOLED drive IC industry. In this regard, Liu Honghui, general manager of the OLED Division of Beijing Jichuang North Technology Co., Ltd., said that the AMOLED driver IC and the LCD have similarities in the principle of action, which are received through MIPI/SPI and other interfaces to receive data instructions sent by the main control chip, and the data is processed, converted into the electrical signal that can be received by the screen, and sent to the AMOLED display in accordance with a certain order and logical relationship, thus displaying a colorful picture. However, from the driving point of view, the AMOLED driver chip is current driven, while the LCD driver chip is voltage driven, the AMOLED pixel circuit is more complex, and the IC control signal is more complex. Taking optical display as an example, since AMOLED does not have a separate backlight, in order to achieve accurate AMOLED display and improve picture quality, AMOLED driver chip needs to carry out a variety of data processing and compensation. This puts forward higher requirements for signal accuracy, the complexity of the algorithm and the compensation ability of the algorithm.
At present, the folding screen is hot, and the flexible display performance advantages of AMOLED are highlighted, and higher requirements will be put forward for the driver IC. "The folding of the folding screen and the display switching of different states require the AMOLED driver IC to have the corresponding driving method and algorithm to support, for example, the cascade cascade algorithm of two chips should be used to support the folding screen." Based on this, the integration of AMOLED driver chips is also higher, and the design difficulty and process difficulty are also increasing, requiring higher process, better IC driving capability and power consumption level. Liu Honghui pointed out.
The change of technology provides an opportunity for related industries to reshuffle, and it is also a favorable opportunity for China's local chip manufacturers to cut into the supply chain. A few days ago, Honor released the folding screen mobile phone Magic V, its 7.9-inch flexible AMOLED display inner and outer screens are supplied by BOE, and the first 28nm driver IC in China is used, providing a favorable market environment for the local AMOLED driver IC. However, Shi Wei also stressed that local enterprises cannot only replace in form, but must truly achieve technological transcendence. Since there is a window period, giving the opportunity to enter, it is more that it should be done better in technology, of course, this is a long-term process.
From the perspective of the global AMOLED driver IC market share, South Korean companies are in a leading position, Samsung in 2020 with 50.4% crown, followed by Magnachip, Siliconworks, Anapass, the market share of 33.2%, 2.7%, 2.4% respectively.
The degree of integration has increased, and the mainstream process has shifted to 28nm
The development of AMOLED driver ICs also puts forward higher requirements in wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for local chip companies.
According to Liu Honghui's introduction, the current AMOLED panel industry is developing in the direction of large size, high image quality, low power consumption, etc., which will inevitably put forward higher requirements for driver ICs. Correspondingly, chip companies have also developed high Pin Count technology for large sizes, cascade technology for folding screens, and driving capabilities for 144Hz or even higher refresh rates. If you look at it from the perspective of product design, the integration of AMOLED driver ICs will become higher and higher, the chip size will be smaller and smaller, the power consumption will be lower and lower, and the requirements for the IC process and packaging test will be higher.
In general, the display driver IC is suitable for a wide range of processes, covering 28nm ~ 150nm process segment. Among them, the process node of the driver chip for notebook computers and TVs is 110~150nm, the process section of integrated TDDI such as LCD screen mobile phones and tablet computers is concentrated in 55nm~90nm, and the process section of AMOLED driver IC is more advanced 40nm. Since 12-inch fabs will open up more 28/22nm production capacity in the next few years, in order to reduce chip size and power consumption and obtain more wafer capacity, industry insiders believe that AMOLED driver IC design companies will shift from 40nm to 28/22nm production, which is likely to become a development trend.
In addition, as the size of the display driver chip is further reduced and the degree of integration is further improved, the requirements for packaging technology are also increasing. The bump manufacturing process combines glass-coated packaging (COG) or thin-film coated packaging (COF) with its multi-I/O, high density and other characteristics, and has become the mainstream of display driver chip packaging technology.
Whether it is process process or packaging and testing technology, it is an important component of the chip industry supply chain and is crucial for the development of AMOLED driver chips. "In recent years, the domestic integrated circuit industry chain has gradually improved, providing a good environment and support for the development of domestic chips. Wafer production technology in the deep ploughing for many years and finally in the past two years has been rapid development, based on the past two years of the situation, the wafer industry has been unprecedented development, advanced technology also covers 40nm and 28nm, for the AMOLED driver IC to provide process support, the domestic chip industry and display industry have provided a great boost. Liu Honghui pointed out. The improvement of the upstream supply chain provides a good development environment for China's local AMOLED driver ICs.