Accelerate the conquest of the AMOLED market TCL Huaxing "Expansion + Technology" two-wheel drive

Under the influence of the new crown epidemic, the global smartphone market shipments are expected to decrease significantly, but the market penetration rate of AMOLED panels may rise against the trend this year. To this end, TCL Huaxing is accelerating its strategic location in the AMOLED panel market.

 

At present, the second and third phases of TCL Huaxing's 6th-generation flexible AMOLED production line (t4 project for short) are in full swing to expand production capacity and launch a "siege" battle in order to seize the AMOLED market faster. At the same time, TCL Huaxing is speeding up technological innovation and launching a "slightly" strategy with technological iterations in order to better manage the AMOLED market.

 

Launched a "siege" battle with production expansion to seize the AMOLED market faster

 

Omdia's latest data shows that global smartphone AMOLED panel shipments in 2020 are expected to grow from 471 million in 2019 to 513 million, which means that AMOLED panel market penetration will further increase.

 

Facing this rare market opportunity, TCL Huaxing accelerated the development of new production capacity. Not long ago, Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Technology (000100.SZ), said in an interview with the media that the second and third phases of the t4 project are in full swing and enter the plant decoration stage. The main equipment of the second phase of the project is expected to be installed in the factory in July, and the equipment of the third phase of the project will be delivered to be installed at the end of the year. The Wuhan Huaxing t4 project will reach full production in the second half of next year, and it is expected to have a capacity of 45K by 2021. According to media reports, TCL Technology increased its investment in the t4 project, increasing its investment from 35 billion yuan to 39 billion yuan.

 

TCL Huaxing has made full preparations for the new capacity of AMOLED. Recently, TCL Huaxing has signed an OLED technology license agreement and a material purchase agreement with Universal Display Co., Ltd., and Universal Display will provide Huaxing Optoelectronics with phosphorescent OLED materials for its display products.

 

At the same time, TCL Huaxing also accelerated the ramping speed of the first phase of the t4 project. From the day when the first phase of the t4 project was completed, TCL Huaxing regards increasing production capacity as its first goal. At the beginning of last year, after the t4 production line was lighted up and put into production, both the capacity and yield rate climbed beyond expectations. In less than a year, it completed the product lighting to mass production and shipment to customers, creating an industry recording. The t4 production line has achieved mass production at the end of last year.

 

In February when the epidemic was the most serious this year, TCL Huaxing adopted strict prevention and control measures to continue to ensure the safe production of the t4 production line and ensure that the t4 production line climbs as planned. In order to further accelerate the ramp-up speed of the first phase of the t4 project, on March 30, five days after the unblocking in Wuhan, a total of 403 engineers and technicians from Shenzhen Huaxing, Huizhou Huaxing, and Huaxian Optoelectronics immediately went to Wuhan to station the t4 project. On the production line, these technical backbones selected by TCL Huaxing in various places are responsible for solving the labor problems of Wuhan Huaxing and ensuring that the t4 project can complete the important task of capacity ramping as planned. At present, the t4 production line has gradually got rid of the impact of the epidemic and resumed normal production and operation. The production capacity in April exceeded the expected target.

 

TCL Technology predicts that by 2023, the 5-year compound growth rate (CAGR) of TCL Huaxing's small and medium-sized shipments will be 26%. TCL Huaxing expands AMOLED production capacity in order to occupy the market faster. It is reported that after the t4 production line is fully produced, it can achieve an annual output of 1.16 million square meters of AMOLED panels, which can meet 5% of the global demand for AMOLED smart phone panels.

 

Launch a "slightly" war with technology to better manage the AMOLED market

 

Fight in the front and govern in the rear. In addition to occupying the market faster, we must also manage the market better. To this end, TCL Huaxing has expanded its AMOLED production capacity while also speeding up technological innovation. It has exerted its utmost in AMOLED technology research and development to operate the market with technology.

 

Since the beginning of the year, several flexible OLED products released by TCL Huaxing are basically based on cutting-edge technologies such as curved screens and folding screens, which are closely related to the development path of the terminal market. From the popular curved screen last year to the popular folding screen this year, TCL Huaxing provides perfect solutions for terminal manufacturers.

 

At the same time, the t4 production line also has many leading advantages in the field of differentiated technologies, including cutting-edge products such as under-screen cameras, extremely narrow bezels, and foldables. It is understood that at present, TCL Technology is actively promoting cooperation with major global brand terminal manufacturers in these fields, and the prospects are promising.

 

For example, Motorola released the folding screen mobile phone Razr at the beginning of this year. Unlike the previous Huawei and Samsung, Motorola has changed the side folding design and adopted the top and bottom folding form, which perfectly reproduces the shape of Motorola mobile phones in the non-smart phone era. In order to unify tradition and trend, TCL Huaxing is one of the head suppliers of this mobile phone screen.

 

For another example, the Xiaomi Mi 10 series launched in February will be equipped with TCL Huaxing panels. This is the first time that Xiaomi has chosen to equip its flagship models with domestic panel manufacturers' products. The screen customized by TCL Huaxing for Xiaomi Mi 10 achieves a 90Hz refresh. The high-speed sampling rate and 180Hz high frame rate, full-process DC dimming and HDR10+ technologies are no longer inferior to the same types of products from Korean factories in terms of color gamut, contrast, viewing angle, screen brightness and other indicators.

 

One of the important reasons why Xiaomi Mi 10 has been widely praised after being put into the market is its excellent screen performance. This AMOLED screen provided by TCL Huaxing not only performs very well in terms of screen quality, but the blessing of hyperboloid and ultra-small openings also ensures the unity of performance and beauty.

 

It is reported that this AMOLED curved screen independently researched and developed by TCL Huaxing is the first AMOLED screen that has achieved localization, adopts a very small in-screen hole technology, and uses DOT (touch packaging integration) technology, which also marks TCL Huaxing became the second company to master On-Cell perforated screen technology after Samsung.

 

While keeping up with market trends, TCL Technology itself is also creating trends. The pixel arrangement of the screen, the camera under the screen, and the high-end subdivision technology of rollable and flexible are all the main directions of TCL Technology. Foldable and rollable are the true disruptive applications of OLED, and are also the core application for TCL Technology to seize the LCD market share.

 

In March, TCL Technology once demonstrated the "Cloud Rolling Screen"-with an automatic pull-out design, users can extend the 6.75-inch mobile phone screen horizontally to 7.8 inches with only one hand. This breakthrough innovative structure effectively avoids the crease problem of folding screen mobile phones and opens up a new development direction for the industry.

 

At the same time, there is also a three-fold screen concept mobile phone, which can realize the conversion of screen size from 6.65 inches to 10 inches. The three screen sizes can meet the needs of multiple use scenarios. More importantly, the launch of the three-fold screen mobile phone means TCL Huaxing has solved the industry problem of switching technology between inner folding and outer folding.