For a long time, how to successfully industrialize micro LED is the ultimate problem facing players all over the world.
As the ultimate display technology in the 2D era, micro LED has become an important track for global panel and chip manufacturers. With the increasing number of entrants, the micro LED industry chain has begun to take shape and the technical route is in full bloom. However, due to multiple factors such as high cost and immature core technology, it is still difficult to industrialize micro LED as a whole.
However, this does not affect the layout enthusiasm of head enterprises, because they are more and more convinced that micro LED is the future of display technology. At present, large manufacturers at home and abroad are continuously increasing R & D investment, hoping to seize the technological highland of micro led and strive to be the first manufacturer in large-scale mass production in the world.
Unlike OLED, global manufacturers are now basically on the same starting line on the track of micro led. for China, Konka Group has a comprehensive layout and leading scale in the field of micro led. From a global perspective, Konka has now squeezed into the micro LED head camp.
mass production is the “King”
Compared with LCD and OLED, micro LED display has many significant advantages such as self illumination, high brightness, large viewing angle, long service life, short response time and low power consumption. It is the ultimate display technology subverting the industry, and the industry prospect is generally recognized.
According to GGII, micro LED will be applied in mobile phone, VR, vehicle, flat panel display and other fields around 2022. By 2024, mobile phone and super large TV display will become the two largest markets for micro LED application. In 2024, China’s Micro LED market will reach 80 billion yuan.
Since 2016, micro LED technology has attracted outside attention. Enterprises in China’s panel, color TV, chip and packaging industries have entered the bureau one after another, including Sanan Optoelectronics Co.Ltd(600703) , Leyard Optoelectronic Co.Ltd(300296) , BOE, Huaxing optoelectronics, Focus Lightings Tech Co.Ltd(300708) , etc. Konka Group also identified the development direction of micro led earlier. in August 2019, Konka announced to invest 30 billion yuan in Bishan, Chongqing to build Konka Group semiconductor photoelectric Industrial Park. This huge investment was like a “thunder on the flat ground” at that time, which attracted widespread attention. In September, Konka Group announced to invest 1.5 billion yuan to establish Chongqing Konka semiconductor optoelectronics Research Institute with Chongqing Liangshan Industry Investment Co., Ltd., and take the Research Institute as the main body to invest no more than 2.55 billion yuan to purchase micro LED related machinery and equipment and carry out research, production and marketing of related products.
After Konka, major manufacturers have also increased their R & D investment in the field of micro led in the past two years. Everyone is eager to compete for the technological commanding heights. In this technical contest, “mass production” is the key to measure the outcome. At present, the industrialization of micro LED is also facing many technical challenges, such as large-scale, large-scale transfer, color scheme, glass based drive and so on. At the same time, the high cost brought by the high-tech threshold has also become an obstacle to the popularization of micro led.
Chinese enterprises are expected to surpass
Entrants are very clear that if micro led wants to be introduced to the market and popularized at a low cost, in the final analysis, it still needs the technology and industrial chain to be mature enough.
Globally, Micro LED giants include apple, SONY, Samsung and China Taiwan’s crystalline power and innovation. The Chinese mainland is represented by Konka Group and Leyard Optoelectronic Co.Ltd(300296) . In this brand-new display technology field, the strength of large factories is among the best.
According to a report released by yoled é veloppement in May this year, it is estimated that by the first quarter of 2021, more than US $5 billion had been used for R & D investment or M & A of micro led. These investments are mainly led by Chinese enterprises, followed by Korean enterprises. In 2019 and 2020, the patent application rate of global micro led increased exponentially.
Since 2019, Konka Group has been active in micro LED technology patents. Different from other manufacturers’ single point of force, Konka Group is the layout of the whole industrial chain from front-end R & D to terminal market application. Chongqing Konka semiconductor optoelectronic technology research institute has applied for nearly 700 patents one year after its establishment.
By December 2020, Konka has built a micro LED production line with full process R & D and small batch, and successfully launched 4K / 8K micro LED display and flexible micro LED display. The LED chip spacing of micro LED screen has also been innovatively reduced from 0.375 mm to 0.12 mm. Last December, Konka Group also took the lead in releasing the world’s first micro LED watch, aphaea watch.
Through continuous research on core technologies, Konka Group’s Micro led business scale has expanded rapidly and has been squeezed into the top camp of global micro led tracks. Under the leadership of Konka Group, Chinese enterprises are expected to surpass in the field of micro led.
In mid November this year, Konka disclosed that the hybrid massive transfer technology developed by the company has greatly improved the transfer efficiency and yield. In addition, the company’s Micro LED chip has completed small batch trial production.
(Daily Economic News)
