Author | Yun Peng
Zhidong reported on May 15 that SID International Display Week, a professional event in the global display field, was held in San Jose, California, USA, and Chinese display giant TCL Huaxing participated in the exhibition with a series of blockbuster technologies and products, including printing OLED technology, which is quite concerned in the industry.
This time, TCL Huaxing has shown more than 40 blockbuster cutting-edge display products from mobile phones, tablets to laptops, MNT, vehicles, TVs, and medical treatment, half of which are said to be "the world's first". It is understood that behind these products are TCL Huaxing's self-developed HVA, HFS, MLED, MLCD, as well as independent innovation of printed OLED, flexible OLED and other display technologies.
Judging from the situation of the exhibition site, many exhibits have also attracted a lot of exhibitors at home and abroad, the booth is very lively, as one of the representatives of China's display giants, TCL Huaxing, has undoubtedly become a business card of China's display technology on SID.
During the exhibition, Zhao Jun, CEO of TCL Huaxing, delivered a keynote speech. In the early stage of the exhibition, Zhidong and a few industry media had an in-depth exchange with Zhao Jun, and had an in-depth discussion on TCL Huaxing's strategic layout, development process and exclusive advantages in printing OLED technology, related milestones and the development of the next generation of printing QLED technology, and also had a further understanding of the star products of the exhibition.
▲ Zhao Jun, CEO of TCL Huaxing
1. Printing OLED has become a key starting point, focusing on the field of medium size, and overcoming the technical problems of key materials will be rewarded with 1 million US dollars
At present, OLED, as a new generation of display technology, has attracted much attention in recent years, and its penetration rate in various sizes and fields is also increasing rapidly, becoming an important growth point of the display industry.
In his keynote speech "Beyond Pixel: Innovative Display Leads the Future", Zhao Jun mentioned that the current market is constantly undergoing structural changes, and OLED has entered a period of opportunity for sustained and rapid growth. In addition to continuing to promote FMM-OLED technology, TCL Huaxing is also actively exploring other OLED technology solutions.
Printed OLED is one of TCL Huaxing's exclusive advantages in the field of OLED. In the exchange with Zhao Jun, we learned that at present, TCL Huaxing printing OLED technology has made further breakthroughs in comprehensive performance such as image quality, power consumption, and life, and its technical performance has reached the current mainstream display technology level, and it has inherent advantages in cost, flexible production, and future potential.
At present, TCL Huaxing printing OLED technology promotion focus is mainly in the field of medium-sized displays, such as commercial displays, e-sports displays, notebook displays, as well as medical, automotive, industrial control and other differentiated products, which can be extended to tablets, mobile phones and other fields in the future.
As a supplement to printed OLED technology and the next stage of planning, TCL Huaxing is increasing the research and development of printing QD-EL technology.
It is worth mentioning that in order to overcome the current problem of blue light material life in printing QD-EL technology, TCL Huaxing officially released the "Blue Star Project" (Blue Star Project), which will award a bonus of 1 million US dollars to outstanding contributors.
Recently, driven by Apple, the medium-sized OLED market has continued to receive high attention and has become one of the main new battlefields for giants.
Zhao Jun mentioned that at present, the number and proportion of OLED applications in the medium-sized field are still relatively small, and it seems that it is worth paying attention to the application of OLED in high-end notebooks and its application in high-end vehicles. OLED is used in millions of applications in laptops, tablets, and vehicles.
However, in terms of the total market size of tablets and laptops, the penetration rate of OLED is still low, referring to Omdia data, in 2023, the penetration rate of OLED laptops will be 2.3%, the penetration rate of OLED flat panel panels will be 1.5%, and the penetration rate of OLED vehicles will be 0.6%, with a large room for growth.
For medium-sized OLED, TCL Huaxing on the one hand uses the mature OLED production line t4 to cooperate with customers in OLED on high-end flagship products, and related product development is currently underway. On the other hand, TCL Huaxing will rely on the production line of printed OLED, launch the technical route of printed OLED led by TCL Huaxing, and push it into an important technical route of medium-sized OLED, which Zhao Jun called "two-legged walking".
In the field of other sizes of OLED, TCL Huaxing has a corresponding technical layout, such as the development of small and medium-sized products and wearable products through FMM-OLED technology, the development of low-power technology, under-screen camera, narrow bezel and other full-screen technology, flexible folding technology, etc.
2. Printed OLED has achieved a breakthrough of 240PPI in mass production, with 11 years of deep cultivation, and the number of available invention patents ranks first in the world
At this exhibition, TCL Huaxing displayed a 14" 2.8K printed Hybrid OLED display, which is said to be the representative product of TCL Huaxing printed OLED technology for the first time in the field of notebook computer display.
This product is manufactured using the printed OLED process, and the new Oxide compensation circuit design of TCL Huaxing has been carried out to achieve a technological breakthrough of 240PPI in the mass production grade. At the same time, it has both 2.8K high resolution and DCI-P3>99% wide color gamut, and the visual effect is more amazing. In addition, the 30-120Hz adaptive refresh rate allows the product to meet the needs of both gaming and professional creation, and has low power consumption attributes and longer battery life.
Having said all this, why is printed OLED so much hoped?
In terms of image quality, printed OLED technology adopts Real RGB pixel design, which is sharper and clearer in text display; In terms of power consumption, the efficiency of printed OLED materials has been accelerated, and the power consumption has continued to decrease, and it is expected to catch up with or even surpass the current mainstream evaporation OLED technology in the future.
In terms of life, printed OLED technology has more than 2-3 times advantages over traditional evaporation OLED in terms of opening rate, and the corresponding current density can be reduced, and the service life has certain advantages. It is understood that through continuous technology development, the life of printed OLED can catch up with the mainstream evaporation OLED technology.
It is understood that TCL Huaxing has been deeply engaged in the field of printed OLED for 11 years, and the number of available invention patents ranks first in the world.
Zhao Jun revealed in the exchange that TCL Huaxing has completed the installation of printed OLED equipment in Wuhan Huaxing, and is currently making relevant preparations before mass production, and all the progress is relatively smooth, and it is expected that small batches of printed OLED products will be realized within this year.
The first product of printed OLED mass production is likely to be high-end medical display products, and more and more different types of products will be introduced to the market in the future. For example, for the consumer market, TCL Huaxing's printed OLED high-end display may be the first to be industrialized next year, and then industrialized mass production will be carried out on notebook products.
3. The thinnest three-fold flexible screen is 472um, which can be switched in multiple forms, and the angle of view of the HVA giant screen is 178°
In addition to printed OLEDs, in the field of traditional FMM-OLED, TCL Huaxing also exhibited some dazzling products and technologies this time.
For example, the world's first 7.85" Tandem tri-fold flexible folding screen has become one of the focus products at the booth. This tri-fold flexible folding screen has a stepped design, with only 472μm at the thinnest part of the screen, and can be switched between "G-shaped" or "Z-shaped" folding methods when folded.
In addition, the product combines Tandem, LTPO, and PLP multiple low-power technologies, which further improves brightness, power consumption, and lifespan.
At present, OLED screens have long become the mainstream solution for smartphone displays, and the demand for OLED panels is increasing.
Zhao Jun mentioned in the exchange that TCL Huaxing is very optimistic about the prospects of folding screen mobile phones, and believes that folding mobile phones are the main innovation and growth points of product innovation and iteration in the field of smart phones.
It is understood that TCL Huaxing is actively deploying in Wuhan base to cope with the growth of demand for flexible OLED. TCL Huaxing has built a T4 production line focusing on folding screen flexible display panels. Thanks to the mass production of LTPO and other technologies, TCL Huaxing folding screen can provide a variety of options. Cutting-edge technologies such as LTPO, UTG ultra-thin glass cover, and teardrop-shaped ultra-small bending radius can be combined on demand.
In addition to folding screens, the vehicle market is also one of the important business growth points of screen companies in recent years. Zhao Jun mentioned in the exchange that the vehicle is the strategic growth point of TCL Huaxing, and it is also the focus of Huaxing's business. In the past few years, the automotive business has developed rapidly, and it will maintain a high growth rate in the next few years. In the past, the products were mainly central control, and now they include applications such as instruments, co-pilots and head-up displays, and TCL Huaxing has begun to cooperate with customers on specific products.
In the field of LCD display technology, TCL Huaxing mainly focuses on self-developed HVA and other technologies.
This time, TCL Huaxing displayed the 85" UD w-HVA Pro, which adopts TCL Huaxing w-HVA wide viewing angle technology to achieve a CESI viewing angle of 178°, which has received wide attention at the exhibition site.
The product has a resolution of 3840×2160, supports BT2020 92% high color gamut, 144Hz high refresh rate, and its screen has 1.4% low reflectivity, which can reduce the interference of external light sources.
It is understood that HVA refers to PSVA (Polymer Stabilized Vertical Alignment) technology, and the "H" is taken from the initial letter of "Huaxing". Compared to traditional VA technology, HVA technology improves microstructure design and manufacturing processes, simplifying the display infrastructure while improving contrast, refresh rate, curvature, and responsiveness.
Conclusion:Aiming at cutting-edge display technology, TCL Huaxing accelerates the Chinese screen to the world, and the AI blowout may bring new opportunities
In recent years, OLED displays, TVs and other products have gradually entered the consumer market, and Apple's new iPad Pro uses double-layer OLED panels, which has set off another round of "OLED boom" in the display industry. On the basis of the advantages of LCD technology, TCL Huaxing focuses on printing OLED, MLED and other next-generation display technologies, and has a considerable scale of R&D investment, and continues to narrow the gap with leading overseas giants.
At present, TCL Huaxing is based in Shenzhen, Wuhan, Huizhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, and India, with 9 panel production lines and 5 module bases, with an investment of more than 260 billion yuan. As of the third quarter of 2023, TCL Huaxing TV panel market has the world's largest share of 55-inch and 75-inch products, the world's largest market share of 8K high-end TV panels, the world's largest market share of e-sports displays, and the third largest LTPS mobile phone panel shipments in the world.
It is understood that at the SID2024 display event, TCL Huaxing's technical team was invited to publish dozens of papers at SID symposiums, which also became a good proof of TCL Huaxing's technical strength. At present, TCL Huaxing ranks 20th among global enterprises and 6th among Chinese enterprises in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2022 patent application list with 2,938 PCT international patent applications.
With the rapid development of AI technology, the mode of human-computer interaction will also change in the future, but the screen, as the core interface of human-computer interaction, will inevitably continue to play an important role for a long time, and display enterprises will also usher in a new round of growth opportunities.