The LCD material market is monopolized by Germany and Japan

Liquid crystals are divided into single crystals and mixed crystals. Any single crystal cannot be directly used for display. The formula for liquid crystal display materials requires mixing 10 to 20 different single crystals, which we call mixed crystals.

Single crystal is an essential material for mixed crystal production. Mixed crystal manufacturers produce a portion of single crystals themselves, while the rest are produced by professional single crystal manufacturers. Compared to mixed crystals, single crystals have lower added value, and the production focus has shifted to China. Domestic manufacturers of single crystals mainly include Yantai Wanrun, Xi'an Ruilian, Shanghai Kangpeng, etc.

The technology monopoly of mixed crystal is strong, with Merck from Germany, Chisso from Japan, and DIC from Japan occupying 96% of the market share. The main companies engaged in mixed crystal materials in China are Chengzhi Yonghua and Tsinghua Yawang. Their products are mainly used in the low-end market, accounting for about 70% of low-end products.

The glass substrate market is evenly divided between the United States and Japan, and mainland manufacturers are catching up

Glass substrate is a high-performance glass and one of the most important raw materials in the upstream of the TFT-LCD panel industry. It is also one of the most expensive raw materials for transportation. The reason why LCD displays occupy such an important position in the industry chain is that their resolution, transparency, weight, viewing angle, and other properties are closely related to the performance of the glass substrate. Each TFT-LCD panel requires two glass substrates of the same size, which are respectively used as thin film transistor substrates (TFT substrates) and color filter substrates (CF substrates).

In recent years, the prosperity of the TFT-LCD industry has continued to improve, with shipment areas reaching new highs. The market demand for glass substrates is also increasing day by day. Due to high investment barriers and high technological risks, overseas glass substrate companies have long tightly blocked core technologies, resulting in domestic panel companies mainly relying on imports to solve the problem of glass substrate sources.

The nearly 20 billion US dollars in global profits are mainly divided among four manufacturers, with Corning (including Samsung Corning joint venture) accounting for about half of the global market, Japan's Asahi Glass and Electric Glass accounting for 25.8% and 19.6% respectively, and Anhalt accounting for 3.6%.

Accelerated localization of polarizing film replacement

The polarizing film market is mainly monopolized by Japanese and Korean companies, with LG Chem from South Korea holding a market share of 27%, TEPCO from Japan holding 26%, and Sumitomo Chemical holding 24%.

The main raw materials for polarizing film upstream, TAC film and PVA film, are firmly controlled by Japanese companies. Fuji of Japan holds over 60% of the market share in TAC film, while KONICA occupies about 20% of the market. Kuarary holds over 70% of the PVA film market in Japan.

At present, polarizing film products for TFT-LCD in China are still in the early stages of development. The current production capacity of polarizing film for TFT is about 12 million square meters, and the domestic supply rate is about 10%. There is huge room for domestic substitution in the future. The main manufacturers are Shengbo Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of Shenzhen Textile, and Sanlipu.

Since 2012, the proportion of China's polarizer production capacity to the global total production capacity has gradually increased. In 2012, the proportion was around 4.3%, and by 2015, it had risen to 8.8%. The decreasing proportion of global production capacity occupied by the world's three largest polarizer manufacturers indicates that domestic polarizer manufacturers are accelerating their substitution, which will further reduce the upstream raw material costs of mainland panel manufacturers.

▲ Global Polarizing Film Market Share in 2016

Backlight module

It is the most expensive part of the display panel, accounting for more than 20% of the cost, but the technical difficulty is not high and it belongs to labor-intensive industries. The vast majority of backlight modules worldwide are produced in China.

However, about 60% of the cost of backlight modules comes from optical films, mainly including diffusion films, reflection films, brightness enhancement films, etc. Domestic progress in this area is still good, and the development speed is very fast. Ningbo Jizhi Technology, which focuses on the production of diffusion films, reflective films, and brightening films domestically, is also growing rapidly.

Kangde Xin, a domestic optical film manufacturer, is a leading force and one of the world's largest optical film manufacturers.

However, for more upstream materials, domestic production still needs to continue to work hard. The main raw material for the production of these optical films is optical base film. To produce optical films, optical base film must be purchased. Currently, more than 80% of the global production capacity in optical base film is from Mitsubishi Resin, Toray, Teijin, DuPont, Kelon, etc SKC、 It is monopolized by several giants such as Toyo Textile. Domestic manufacturers include LeKai Group, Kangde Xin, Yuxing Shares, Nanyang Technology (Dongxu Cheng Chemical), and so on.

Panel automation equipment

Taiwanese panel equipment manufacturers mainly focus on LCD panel post-processing equipment and testing equipment. The manufacturing of LCD panels is mainly divided into three stages: the front-end Array process, the back-end Cell packaging process, and the back-end Module module process.

The first two stages of the process are technically difficult, and currently Japan, South Korea, and the United States still dominate the market; At present, panel equipment manufacturers in Taiwan have basically achieved independent production in the later stage of equipment and have a trend of expanding to the middle and front ends. In addition, the detection equipment runs through the entire panel production line, and Taiwanese equipment manufacturers have achieved layout in all three stages of the process.

▲ LCD display panel process and equipment used

▲ Major panel equipment manufacturers and products in Taiwan

The perspective of mainland panel equipment manufacturers and Taiwanese equipment manufacturers is similar, starting from the later stage module manufacturing equipment and testing equipment.

At present, the rapidly developing enterprises of panel equipment manufacturers in mainland China include: leading domestic precision testing electronics specializing in panel equipment testing, as well as major suppliers of module process equipment in the later stage, such as Xinsanli (a subsidiary of Zhiyun Co., Ltd.), Liande Equipment, Shenkeda and Jiyin Technology (a subsidiary of Zhengye Technology), Taiyuan Fenghua (not listed), etc.

▲ Main panel equipment manufacturers and product information in Chinese Mainland

OLED will become the mainstream display technology of the future

Due to the continuous development of small-sized OLED technology, the yield rate is constantly improving, the cost is gradually decreasing, and the production capacity is gradually being released. As a result, there has been a trend of OLED replacement in mobile applications. At present, LCD is still the mainstay on the TV side, and the representatives of high-end TVs in the market are OLED and quantum dots. The promotion manufacturers of quantum dots mainly include Samsung, Sony, TCL and other manufacturers, while OLED is promoted by LG, followed by Changhong, Konka and others.

Quantum dot technology is still in development, and existing quantum dot TVs still rely on LCD liquid crystal panels, using blue LED as the backlight source. After reacting with the nanoparticles in the quantum dot material medium, it emits a pixel three color light source, improving the low color gamut of traditional LCD liquid crystal TVs and greatly enhancing brightness, even comparable to OLED TVs. However, the essence of quantum dots is still optimized LCDs that require backlighting and cannot be made into flexible displays, which is a "compromise" technology. With the emergence of QLED, quantum dot technology will also develop towards self luminescence in the future.

▲ Comparison of LCD and OLED display panel manufacturing processes

Choosing a brand new car LCD TV is the biggest wish of every customer, but currently there are a large number of car LCD TVs produced using second-hand refurbished screens in the market, with extremely low prices and no guarantee of product quality. Here are some methods to distinguish between old and new LCD screens:

A、 The current mainstream screen sizes are 15 inches (4:3), 17 inches (4:3), and 19 inches (16:9 widescreen). If other sizes are available and the price is particularly low, attention should be paid to the quality of the screen.

B、 Pay special attention to the brightness, whether it is too low or too high. Currently, the brightness of 15 inches is between 250-400, 17 inches is between 250-500, and 19 inches is between 300-550. If it's too low, it's definitely an old screen; if it's too high, it could be a refurbished screen. It's no secret to add old screens and light tubes now. For old screens that have been retrofitted with fluorescent tubes, some monochrome images can be played, and the phenomenon of light leakage can be observed.

C、 Looking at the interface, if the current car LCD TV still has an analog interface, there is no need to choose it. The LVDS digital interface was already a mainstream interface as early as 3 years ago.

Do not touch!

The biggest taboo when using an LCD monitor is touching the LCD panel.

The surface of the LCD panel has a special coating, which can prevent reflection and increase the viewing effect. Although manufacturers have strengthened both the panel itself and the coating nowadays, they still cannot resist the "stinky problem" of some people - they are accustomed to touching the LCD screen with their hands, and there is a certain amount of corrosive grease on their hands, which can slightly corrode the coating of the panel. Over time, it can cause permanent damage to the panel. This type of damaged panel will have a mottled feeling during use.

In addition, some people like to press the panel with their hands, which they find very interesting. This is definitely a bad habit, as it can lead to bad spots and dark spots, which are permanent damages that cannot be repaired!

Some of the monitors we use for work have been severely damaged, at least they are for public use. You must take good care of your own belongings!

Cleaning instructions!

There are many methods circulating online for cleaning LCD displays, among which the most outrageous is to use some degreased cotton dipped in anhydrous alcohol or specialized cleaning agents to wipe. If you use specialized cleaning agents, it's okay. If you use alcohol, it's just killing you because alcohol can corrode the coating!

In general, it is not possible to connect to a computer unless the computer has an AV output interface. Generally, car displays have more AV interfaces, and there are also a few that can be connected to a computer, but the price is expensive. Connecting to a regular camera and a reversing image camera is sufficient.