TCL300 Billion Yen Stake In JOLED Accelerate Printing OLED Technology Industrialization

However, there are still many difficulties in printing OLED panels from newspapers. Zhang Hong told reporters: "(Chinese manufacturers) at least 2 years from the actual realization of mass production."

Recently, TCL technology has occupied the headlines of OLED industry: its TCL company, Hua Xing, has invested 30 billion yen (about 2 billion yuan) into Japan's panel business JOLED.

"A few years ago, TCL Huaxing R & D team and Japan's OLED display panel company JOLED established contacts; in May last year, I met at the top of Silicon Valley and JOLED; in August, I visited the JOLED company in Japan, during which the expert teams of both sides rigorously demonstrated and discussed many times," said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL, on micro-blog. Cloud signing "to break the current time and space constraints, we will not slow down the way of technological development."

This is the latest move of TCL technology in the OLED industry. The key is that the two sides will carry out deep technical cooperation in the IJP-OLED (inkjet printing OLED) field.

The so-called printing OLED technology, simply refers to the OLED screen production as printed paper, at present, mainly aimed at television products and other large screen. Compared with the current evaporation technology, the new printing technology can greatly reduce the cost and achieve the mass production of large screen.

Zhang Hong, director of TV research department at Sigmaintell, told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter: "investing in JOLED will help enhance TCL's R & D capability in the new technology field, and accelerate its layout for the next generation of display technology, especially in large scale OLED products, which will occupy a certain first mover advantage and enhance the company's brand efficiency and overall competitiveness."

However, there are still many difficulties in printing OLED panels from newspapers. Zhang Hong told reporters: "(Chinese manufacturers) at least 2 years from the actual realization of mass production."

TCL's "printing" ambitions

TCL technology has entered the panel industry for a long time. In 2009, TCL Huaxing established and invested heavily in building multiple liquid crystal and flexible AMOLED production lines. And continue to invest in the next generation of new display areas, and promote flexible printing to display OLED/QLED, Micro-LED and other new display technology roadmap.

As early as in 2014, TCL aimed at printing and display technology, combined with Tianma microelectronics and other manufacturers, and South China University of Technology and other universities set up Guangdong Juhua printing display technology Co., Ltd., engaged in printing and flexible display technology development. At present, TCL has developed a 31 inch 4K printing H-QLED display, and has developed a 31 inch inkjet printing and winding flexible prototype.

Technology industrialization is inseparable from upstream and downstream cooperation. After the establishment of poly China company, TCL signed strategic cooperation agreements with DuPont, Merck, Sumitomo, Nissan, Kateeva and other enterprises in the United States. These partners will support the materials and process requirements of China in printing OLED technology development, and tailor R & D equipment for China.

In the meantime, TCL also invested in Kateeva, a large size inkjet equipment company. TCL Hua Xing had already had contact with JOLED very early, so that 3 years ago, she had heard that TCL would invest in JOLED. Now, TCL is finally holding hands with JOLED.

Cui Jilong, general manager of Beijing Di Xian, told reporters on twenty-first Century economic report that compared with BOE's multi-point layout of future technology, Huaxing has always been focusing on OLED. Printing OLED technology is still in the early stages of development, and there is basically no complete mass production achievement. In this case, the relatively advanced overseas enterprises on schedule are a good cooperation option, which can promote the industrialization of printing OLED.

Look at JOLED again. In 2015, JOLED was invested by SONY, Panasonic and Japan's industrial innovation organization (INCJ). The main purpose is to integrate the OLED departments of these leading enterprises, and focus on the development and production of printed OLED panels. Japanese companies have always been good at tackling technical problems. JOLED has the leading technology of OLED material printing and film forming, oxide semiconductor technology and flexible / winding technology.

According to public information, in 2017, JOLED launched the first printed OLED panel, with a size of 21.6 inches and a resolution of 4K, which was supplied to ASUS. In 2019, it built the world's first inkjet printing OLED panel production line -- G5.5. In the same year, JOLED invested 25 billion 500 million yen (about 1 billion 540 million yuan), and built a OLED post module processing plant in Chiba, Japan. It mainly produces 10 to 32 inches printed OLED display module, which is mainly used in automobile display and high-end display market. It is expected to mass production in 2020.

This also means that the JOLED printing OLED will usher in an important mass production stage this year on the basis of the factory in the US and Chiba. At this point, the investment of TCL is just in time. For JOLED, it also needs industrialization funds and market power.

Seize the upper reaches of Technology

Not long ago, Li Dongsheng said: "Japanese enterprises have long maintained the global absolute advantage in the field of semiconductor materials. Japan also has a number of long-term family focused enterprises specializing in the development of a specific technology field, with high technology content, leading position in the industry and small company size, which is very suitable for investment cooperation in mergers and acquisitions.

He suggested that the development of new domestic display industry could strengthen technical cooperation with countries such as Japan and Europe in the field of new display materials and equipment. The big backdrop is that the key materials and core equipment in China's panel industry still rely heavily on imports. For example, the domestic new display key luminescent materials occupy only about 5% of the domestic market share, and the localization rate of LCD and OLED core materials is only 47% and 17% respectively.

In recent years, domestic panel companies are also constantly improving the industrial chain, catching up with technology and enhancing the strength of semiconductor display. Especially for the industry's promising next generation display technology, OLED technology, manufacturers are actively taking advantage of the technology ladder, and investing in acquisitions is a powerful way to strengthen technology.

At present, in the aspect of large-size OLED, LGD of Korean LG's panel business is still on the dust. In small and medium size, Samsung's SDC occupies the leading position. Chen Jun, deputy general manager and chief analyst of QQ consulting, told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter: "at present, the OLED investment in the global large-size field is still dominated by Han factory, and the OLED technology investment around the large-size products will continue in the next few years. In the field of small and medium size, according to QQ consulting data, the global OLED panel demand in 2020 was about 520 million, an increase of about 16% over the same period, of which mainland shipments are estimated to be about 83 million shipments, an increase of about 91% over the same period last year.

China's BOE, TCL, Tianma microelectronics and other panel enterprises continue to exert their strength in the field of OLED, and print OLED has become one of the pieces of our layout. It is worth noting that printing OLED technology can be used not only in the production of OLED panels, but also in the production of future QDs panels, so the technology is also considered to be the core direction of large-size panels.

In addition to TCL and JOLED, Samsung, LG and BOE have introduced inkjet printing processes or started developing. For example, BOE invested in the printing OLED project in Hefei in 2017. In 2019, the 55 inch 4K OLED display with inkjet printing technology has been exhibited. Au photoelectric has established a R & D production line for inkjet printing OLED panels, initially aiming at large size products such as televisions and other products.

"SDC layout of the high generation OLED production line technology for printing OLED technology, is expected to usher in mass production in the second half of next year, but limited pre production capacity, process technology still has room for improvement." Zhang Hong introduced to reporters.

She also said: "for Chinese manufacturers, the reserves in talent and technology are still relatively scarce, and it will take at least 2 years to achieve mass production. The difficulties are mainly manifested in two aspects: first, the imperfect matching of upstream materials; the two is immature technology.