“For the printing OLED technology, TCL Huaxing has spent 11 years stopping research and development. So far, we believe that the printing OLED technology has matured, and it has reached a near production level in terms of image quality, cost consumption, and lifespan.” TCL Huaxing CEO Zhao Jun recently told Interface News.
Erzi learned that TCL Huaxing will stop testing the industrialization of printing OLEDs starting from 2023. Currently, it has fulfilled the installation of printing OLED equipment in Wuhan Huaxing and is stopping relevant preparations before quality production. All pauses have been relatively smooth.
“According to the original plan, we will fulfill a small batch of high-quality printed OLED products that are out of stock this year. The first product should be a high-end conditioning performance product, and there will be more and more products of different categories pushed to the mall in the future.” Zhao Jun said.
At present, the tributary technique of OLED is vapor deposition of OLED, which has lost its widespread application in the fields of mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. Printing OLED is a technique of printing data onto a substrate using inkjet printing techniques, and then creating OLED panels through drying, curing, and other processes. Compared to vacuum deposition of OLED, the cost can be significantly improved.
Starting from 2024, the out of stock quality of OLED display panels in tablet and laptop applications is expected to increase significantly. Apple has reached a mutual agreement with two performance technology giants, Samsung and LG, to produce an estimated 10 million OLED versions of the iPad Pro. Research firm Omdia speculates that OLED performance panels will increase to 72.3 million pieces by 2028, with a penetration rate of 14%.
In the context of the need to add more features to OLED display panels, panel giants led by BOE and Samsung have already begun repairing their 8th generation OLED production lines, and both sides will use vapor deposition techniques to stop delivery.
But TCL Huaxing has chosen to print OLED techniques and its main focus in the OLED field. It is reported that TCL Huaxing’s printing OLED technology has the highest number of discovered patents in the world.
After all, during the period when OLED technology dominated the mainstream, TCL Huaxing’s production capacity structure lagged behind Samsung, BOE, and LG. If we had to forcefully pursue it, the difficulty was self-evident. Therefore, by printing OLED, there is no hope of achieving lane changing overtaking, which is an opportunity that TCL Huaxing Action Global’s second largest performance panel enterprise must seize.
Zhao Jundao said, “The shopping mall is constantly undergoing structural changes, and OLED is entering a period of continuous and rapid growth opportunities. TCL Huaxing is looking forward to the structure, not only continuously promoting FMM OLED (evaporated OLED) technology, but also actively exploring other OLED technology plans to further improve product functionality and cost competitiveness.”.
Zhao Jun’s other OLED technology planning mainly focuses on printing OLED technology planning. Of course, his words also explain that panel manufacturers are not just betting on one technique. TCL Huaxing also has a vapor deposited OLED quality production line, and Samsung and BOE have stopped researching and developing printing OLED techniques.
At the 2024 SID Performance Week, TCL Huaxing also showcased the 14 “2.8K printed Hybrid OLED display screen, which is a representative product of TCL Huaxing’s OLED printing technology for the first time entering the field of laptop performance. It is equipped with TCL Huaxing’s new Oxide compensation circuit planning and printing OLED process, achieving a breakthrough in quality production of 240PPI.
However, TCL Huaxing Nian still has certain limitations in its ability to excel in printing OLEDs, with the biggest limitation being the lack of a highly competitive and productive next-generation delivery line.
“The line where TCL Huaxing stopped industrial testing is the 5.5th generation line, which is a lower generation line with limited production capacity. Its competitiveness in production capacity and cost is not enough to fully utilize the potential of printing OLEDs,” Zhao Jun said.
However, Zhao Jun also expressed that when the premise is mature, TCL Huaxing will make a decision plan for investment in the delivery line, and the final bottleneck of large-scale industrialization of printed OLED will be broken.