A few days ago, Shen Tianma (000050. SZ) and upstream and downstream partners established the Micro LED Ecosystem Alliance to accelerate the application of Micro LEDs in the field of in-vehicle displays. At present, the car display is mainly LCD-based, mature technology, high price social acceptance, but Shentianma has a "special love" for the Micro LED car screen with "very high technical requirements and very high investment", which has aroused widespread discussion in the industry.
The 11.6" rigid Micro LED display display on display at the Deep Pegasus Conference
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As we all know, as the ultimate LED display technology, Micro LED is placed on high hopes, the technology has high brightness, high reliability, low power consumption, low latency, high resolution, high color saturation and many other advantages, the scope of application is also very wide, can be used for various sizes of display products, including large size ultra-high-definition video wall, outdoor display, public display, small and medium-sized car and VR/AR, smart wearables and other electronic consumer goods field, is estimated to have trillion-level market demand. It is its huge development prospects that have attracted Samsung, Sony, Apple, Sanan, Leyard, TCL and other giants to layout, and Shentianma has established the Micro LED Ecological Alliance, whose goal is of course the entire new display market. However, the current Micro LED technology is not yet mature, the process, huge transfer and other technical problems to be solved, the most promising from the small and medium-sized size to achieve a breakthrough, and then take the lead into large-scale mass production. Shen Tianma's move actually confirms this situation, first through small size on-board display products and then gradually enter the field of large-size Micro LED.
In addition, the in-vehicle display market has a very broad prospect and is at the right time to develop. As a major automobile production and sales country in the world, China has maintained the "big brother" position of the world's first automobile production and sales for 13 consecutive years, with production and sales of 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units in 2021, respectively. According to the ministry of public security, the number of motor vehicles in the country will reach 395 million in 2021, of which 302 million are cars, exceeding the number of cars in the United States, which is known as a "mobile nation". Global Market Insights predicts that by 2025, the global automotive display market will double from the current $15 billion to $30 billion. In this way, the Micro LED car display market is a huge treasure market! Now China is vigorously developing new energy vehicles, the number of cars per car is still increasing, if you add the number of new cars in the world, the future prospects are very impressive! It is precisely to see such a broad development prospect that Shenzhen Tianma is also actively laying out the application field of Micro LED vehicle display, which is expected to be applied in 2025.
It is understood that Since the 1990s, Shenzhen Tianma has actively laid out the car display market, and its vehicle customer resources have covered major car manufacturers such as The Chinese, European, American, Japanese, and Korean systems, with a global international customer (Top24 Tier1) coverage rate of 92%, And a Chinese independent brand (Top10) coverage rate of 100%, while Shenzhen Tianma actively helps the display solution needs of the main power production models of new energy brand customers. This means that the promotion of Micro LED car screen by Shentianma will be a natural success.
Evolution of in-vehicle display technology
At present, the car display can be divided into four categories: instrument display (for displaying various information), head-up display (HUD, for projecting information onto the windshield), central control display (audio, navigator, air conditioning control and other information display), rear seat entertainment display (configured behind the front seat headrest display). The first three are front-loading car displays, and the latter is a kind of rear-loading vehicle-mounted displays.
At present, several major in-vehicle display technologies that have attracted market attention are: TFT-LCD, OLED, AMOLED, Mini/Micro LED. Because TFT-LCD technology is very mature and occupies the mainstream; OLED, AMOLED car display has some applications; and Mini/Micro LED is in an immature stage, and there is still a period of time before it is truly popularized. At present, there are enterprise layouts in various fields.
dashboard
As early as the 90s, the traditional dashboard was used in the car, with the advancement of display technology, the application scenario of the car display screen gradually developed from the traditional dashboard and the central control to the emerging car head-up display, high-definition large-screen display and so on. Traditional dashboards, central control screens, in-vehicle entertainment system terminals, etc. are facing the test of continuous enrichment, continuous upgrading and enhanced integration, and large-screen, high-definition, interactive, multi-screen, multi-form, etc. have become trends, and the on-board display technology has continuously jumped.
With the improvement of the industry's requirements for display quality, LCD is limited by its own structure and imaging principle, and some of its shortcomings are inevitably exposed. Because it cannot self-emit light, it is difficult to meet the existing high-contrast, HDR and other display effects of the car display.
BOE Precision 12.3-inch Mini LED backlit car display
Mini LED backlight based on LCD technology is characterized by high-definition display, long service life, and lower cost than OLED. Compared with Mini LED direct display technology, the Mini LED backlight process is relatively simple, the production difficulty is low, and it can be quickly put into production, which is very promising. At CES 2018, Innolux unveiled a 10.1-inch AM mini LED backlit car panel with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. At the beginning of 2020, the 15.6" FHD product developed by TCL Huaxing was mass-produced on BYD Han Automobile, which is the first car display product independently developed by TCL Huaxing and the first car display product that TCL Huaxing has entered the car display market.
OLED car display
OLED has higher transmittance than LCD, can also achieve night display, high outdoor contrast, flexible design, its application scenarios can be display on the car window, sunroof display, HUD display and so on. In the automotive sector, OEMs and suppliers are developing OLED technology.
AMOLED car display
The basic image quality of AMOLED is better than LCD, including readability in strong light environments (contrast, color gamut), nighttime readability, viewing angle, stability of image quality at high and low temperatures, response speed, and so on. However, automotive AMOLED also faces great technical challenges, the most critical of which is the life problem, and the reliability problem due to the el device life problem. At the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, Great Wall Motors grandly launched the concept car - Haval HB-02, which was the first time in China to display a car using AMOLED in-vehicle display system, which was also very cutting-edge at the time and attracted a lot of attention.
In order to meet the higher demand of the market, Lianjia Optoelectronics actively develops automotive Mini LED screens for automotive instruments. Shentianma, AUO, TCL Huaxing and other panel manufacturers have launched samples of micro LED screens for automobiles. Shen Tianma said that micro LED applications in the car will have more advantages, first of all, no bezel, the product can be modularized, creating more possibilities for special-shaped displays; secondly, high brightness, easy to reach 1000 nits; third, self-illumination, high reliability. However, at present, the cost of Micro LED is high, and the mass production process is still facing many challenges such as huge transfer and full color.
In the future, which technology will prevail? At present, it is not known, but it can be seen that LCD will be replaced by a part of the market in the future because of technical shortcomings. Mini/Micro LED advantages are the most obvious, but the technology is immature, the cost is higher, the current car price is getting cheaper and cheaper, the price of the screen is too high for ordinary consumers to consume, it is destined to be used in some high-end cars to meet the needs of high-end consumers. Other technologies, each with its own advantages, will occupy part of the market share.
Many companies have accelerated the layout of the in-vehicle display market
At present, the layout of the car display market enterprises are JDI, AUO, Innolux, Sharp, LGD, Shentianma, Sanan, HC Semitek, BOE, TCL Huaxing, Seoul Semiconductor, Longli, Dongshan Precision, Guoxing Optoelectronics, Leyard, Skyworth, Visionox, Huawei, etc. With the advent of the intelligent car revolution, more and more companies are optimistic about the automotive display market.
In September 2021, Longli Technology (300752. SZ) said on the investor interactive platform that it has achieved a breakthrough in the research and development of Mini LED backlight technology in the field of in-vehicle display, and has supplied new energy vehicle manufacturers and traditional automobile manufacturers.
On December 7, 2021, Leyard said on the investor interaction platform that in the future, after the company's Micro LED display technology matures and the cost falls, its application will be extended to the automotive field.
On January 5, 2022, Visionox actively laid out in the direction of Micro LED technology, and its subsidiary Chengdu Chenxian Optoelectronics has built a Pilot Line for Micro LED. In terms of the glass-based Micro LED technology route, the future will focus on the layout of in-vehicle display and other fields.
It is reported that Sanan Optoelectronics Company Mini/Micro LED is also widely used in car screens. Skyworth is also expanding its business in Mini LED in-vehicle display products.
HC Semitek will reduce the production capacity of low-end LED chips in 2020 and accelerate the layout of Mini/Micro LED displays and third-generation semiconductors. Its Mini LED backlight chip has covered end products such as vehicles.
Aoyang Shunchang's Mini LED backlight products have entered the small batch production stage of first-line module factories, mainly used in in-vehicle systems.
Guoxing Optoelectronics Micro LED product nStarI., using glass substrate process, full-color display, transparency of up to 60%, is expected to be applied in the field of automotive head-up display and other fields.
At 2022CES, Seoul Semiconductor exhibited the on-board micro display - WICOP mc: dustproof and moisture-proof WICOP mc micro display brightness of up to 5000 nits, which is eight times the brightness of existing LCD, can display clear information...
The layout of many enterprises also illustrates the charm of the LED car display market.
Editor's typography: Xia Yu, Yangzhou