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Jiwei Network reported that recently, at CES, BMW released the world's first color-changing concept car completely wrapped in electronic paper, which triggered a boom in the market's attention to electronic paper.
It is understood that the downstream application areas of electronic paper include e-readers, retail signage electronic price tags, etc., although from the perspective of application scenarios, it is still relatively niche, but the development momentum is relatively rapid. To this end, many domestic enterprises have begun to engage in electronic paper-related business.
Small and beautiful, the electronic paper industry is developing rapidly
In recent years, with the deployment of 5G, big data and AIoT, including changes in living habits such as education and work, e-paper technology has been significantly developed, its technology has been continuously recognized, and application scenarios have been continuously expanded.
According to the data, electronic paper is a display that coats the electronic ink on a layer of plastic film, which can be attached to the thin film transistor (TFT/PET/FPC and other materials) circuit, and is controlled by the drive IC to form a pixel graphic.
Under the bistable technology, even if there is no power supply, the electronic paper screen screen will not disappear, its display can still be sustained, only in the replacement of the screen will consume power, and does not consume power when the screen is still, compared with other display products have excellent power saving performance.
Under the reflective display technology, it does not emit light itself, relying on natural light reflection imaging, the brighter the ambient light source, the more clearly visible the electronic paper.
It is precisely because of the above advantages that the electronic price tags used by e-readers and supermarkets represented by kindles have become a larger application scenario for electronic paper.
"In general, the application scenarios of electronic paper are mainly electronic price tags, e-readers, wearables and electronic table cards in shopping malls. At present, it has been widely used in China, and under the vigorous promotion of domestic enterprises such as Helitai, new retailers such as Hema Fresh and Wal-Mart are used in Chaozhong. Some insiders told the author.
With the development of the Internet and e-commerce, "new retail" has also risen rapidly around the world. As the key link between people, goods, fields and networks, electronic paper price tags have ushered in a leaping growth opportunity.
Gan Fengyuan, general manager of Yuantai Technology, said that under the epidemic, the advantages of electronic shelf labels are highlighted. For example, in more than 200 physical stores, the price change through the electronic shelf label controlled by the central system only takes 3 hours, and if the label is replaced manually, it takes 2 weeks. In the shortage of manpower, retail channels can use manpower on replenishment, rather than replacing labels, so seeing that large U.S. channels including BestBuy, Walmart, etc. have begun to install electronic shelf labels, and the growth momentum in 2022 is promising.
An electronic paper module manufacturer told the author, "We have done this yield has been very high, basically 99.5% level, and the volume is very large, accounting for more than 50% of TFT's monthly shipments during peak periods." ”
The author understands that because electronic paper has the characteristics of paper-like display, and at the same time has the advantages of storage, mobility and convenience required for electronic products, it has been recognized by more and more markets. With the continuous expansion of market applications, its market size is also growing, and more and more companies see the opportunities in this market and start to layout.
The wind outlet is coming, and nearly 20 domestic enterprises have been laid out
Epaper Insight statistics show that the global electronic paper display module product market size in 2020 is about 800 million US dollars, while the electronic price tag, electronic paper reader and notepad market accounted for more than 95%. Epaper Insight predicts that the global electronic paper display module market will exceed $1.1 billion in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of more than 40%.
Although at present, the application scenario is still relatively niche relative to the mainstream display, but the industry growth rate can not be underestimated, this small and beautiful cake has caused many manufacturers to covet, nearly 20 domestic companies in the module, panel, terminal, chip, material field layout.
Not long ago, one of the main businesses of Qingyue Technology, which sprinted to the IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, was electronic paper modules. The company achieved mass production of electronic paper modules in the second half of 2020, and has formed a certain revenue scale. Downstream applications are currently mainly concentrated in the field of electronic price tags, and are expected to expand to digital currency, smart transportation and other industries in the future.
Previously, Leybold Hi-Tech said that the company has developed TFT-Array driver substrates and CF for color electronic paper displays, TFT-Array driver substrates for flexible electronic paper displays, flexible touch screen sensor films (SFM, etc.), flexible 3D fingerprint sensors, COF and other new materials or new products, and some products such as TFT and SFM for flexible electronic paper display have been industrialized.
In addition, Yuantai Technology and Guanjie Technology jointly launched a 25.3-inch four-color electronic paper signage; Helitai large-size electronic paper display module has mass production capabilities; the Akita microelectronic paper project is in the stage of sample development and reliability verification; Guangzhou Aoyi Electronics and Fuzhou Sifei launched repeatable printable electronic paper; Rockchip micro launched a chip RK3566 for electronic paper applications; and Changxin Technology currently has a layout in the electronic paper project.
Li Zhenghaoxin, chairman of Yuantai Technology, a leader in the electronic paper industry, said a few days ago that the new production capacity in 2022 has been contracted by customers, and customers have even prepaid deposits in order to grab production capacity.
The market research agency Lotu Technology previously expected that the overall market size of global electronic paper terminal products was expected to reach 72.3 billion US dollars in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 59%, and electronic paper is expected to enter the "fast lane" of growth.
It should also be noted that electronic paper technology has further been blessed by the policy outlet. On January 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology meeting mentioned that it is necessary to strengthen the forward-looking industrial layout of electronic paper, Micro-LED and other technologies.
Although the prospects of electronic paper are bright, there are also policies to add, and in the future, it may also open up market space in many fields such as smart medical care, smart education, smart office, digital signage, and auxiliary displays. However, from the current point of view, on the one hand, it is limited by the bottleneck of technology, multi-color, high definition and high resolution can not be achieved; on the other hand, the application scenario in addition to electronic price tags and readers need to be further expanded, and the cost and gross profit margin situation also needs to be effectively improved.