On June 13, TCL Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Germany's Merck Group's OLED Division. The two parties will cooperate in ink jet printing materials, ink formulations, inkjet printing processes, etc.; Merck offers OLED inks for inkjet printing. In terms of materials and printing technology, Juhua (a subsidiary company controlled by TCL) provides a OLED R&D platform for printing, and finally realizes the industrialization of large-size, high-resolution printed OLED display panels. Color TV three male OLED strategic differentiation Skyworth machine, TCL R & D, Hisense swing!
According to the data, Merck is the third largest chemical company in Germany and the world's largest supplier of liquid crystal materials. It has 15 years of experience in the field of OLED material development.
The industry interpreted that the development of layout and printing OLED technology shows that TCL has entered the OLED field. At present, China's top five color TV brands Skyworth, Hisense, TCL, Changhong, Konka, only Hisense has not yet officially entered the OLED field, and the other four brands have all entered.
Color TV giant OLED strategy differentiation
Skyworth continues to exert its efforts on OLED TVs. The image of "China's first OLED brand" and "one of the world's top three OLEDs" has gradually become clear.
In the first half of this year, Skyworth has completely eliminated 2K OLED TVs, and all the Skyworth OLED TVs on the market are 4K ultra high-definition TV products. Color TV three male OLED strategic differentiation Skyworth machine, TCL R & D, Hisense swing!
At the 2015 CES conference, participants stopped in front of Skyworth's 65-inch 4K OLED TV
It is reported that Skyworth will also launch a "cheap version" of OLED TVs during the year, the price is approaching the peer 4K ultra-high-definition LCD TV, will undoubtedly form high-end LCD Taishan top pressure situation.
This year, Skyworth OLED TV sales target is 100,000 units; last year, Skyworth sold 20,000 OLED TVs.
It is expected that at the end of this year at the latest, early next year, Skyworth OLED TV will form three series and six models, covering the three major mainstream sizes of 55, 65 and 77, becoming the first domestic company to achieve full serialization of OLED products.
TCL seeks to achieve a breakthrough in R&D
As one of the mainstream color TV companies in China, TCL has entered the OLED field from the R&D level in an attempt to achieve a curve overtaking. Allegedly, TCL has started cooperation with a number of materials and equipment suppliers such as DuPont, Sumitomo, Nissan Chemicals, and Kateeva.
Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Group, said that at present, the use of vacuum evaporation process to manufacture large-size OLED TV panels, low yield, high cost, TCL hopes to use three to five years to achieve a breakthrough in print display technology, and greatly reduce the large-size OLED panel Cost, "In the future we will make television screens like Indian newspapers."
In the face of the rapid rise of the OLED market, Hisense followed Samsung's swing.
The close relationship between Skyworth and LGD is quite similar. Hisense TV strategy has obvious traces of Samsung. In recent years, Samsung's sway in OLED strategy has directly affected Hisense's attitude towards OLED.
The difference is that Samsung has an absolute global leading position in small-sized OLEDs and continues to make efforts. Hisense does not enter the small-size OLED field and its OLED layout is blank.
It is reported that since 2015, Skyworth has continued to exert its efforts on the OLED market, causing unprecedented huge market and even psychological pressure on Hisense. The frontline sales staff of Hisense TV continuously asked top executives to make decisions as soon as possible to enter the OLED field. “The sales volume of OLEDs has grown rapidly and high-level officials must address this issue.â€
Hisense management's enthusiasm for OLED has a soft spot for laser television. According to media reports, in 2015, China sold a total of 2,200 sets of all kinds of laser televisions. In China, a large market of 48 million TV sets, this number is completely negligible. There are indications that Hisense has intended to weaken laser television.
What is a printed OLED?
Li Dongsheng hopes that “the future will be like making a television screen like an Indian newspaper.†So, what exactly is a printed OLED? How is it different from the current OLED TVs on the market? This is a topic of public interest.
Print display technology originated in printed electronics technology. Printed electronics, that is, electronics based on printing principles, is the science and technology for manufacturing electronic devices and systems using traditional printing technologies.
Printing OLED technology is a technology that uses printing equipment to produce OLED displays. In theory, it can improve the utilization of materials and production efficiency, reduce manufacturing costs, and increase production capacity. Color TV three male OLED strategic differentiation Skyworth machine, TCL R & D, Hisense swing!
Printing OLED technology
OLED printing technology is divided into inkjet printing and screen printing. Taking ink jet printing OLED as an example, the ink jet printing apparatus has several printing heads, each printing head is equipped with several micro nozzles, and the red, green and blue luminescent material solutions are respectively accurately deposited in the isolation column grooves of the ITO glass substrate. After evaporation of the solvent, a nano-thin layer is formed to constitute a luminescent pixel.
Regarding the development prospects of printed OLEDs, TCL believes that this technology is an effective way to solve the high cost of OLEDs and realize large-size panels.
From a technical point of view, replacing the vacuum evaporation process with a print display technology to produce large-size OLEDs can effectively solve the problems of expensive vacuum evaporation process equipment, high material consumption, and low yield. According to TCL, replacing the vacuum evaporation process with a print display enables a flexible, coilable production process.
However, professionals reminded that printing OLED technology is still in the primary stage of research and development. There is still a long way to go from the laboratory. “The printing OLED also has a problem of yield,†and it is not appropriate to hold high expectations for this technology.
Changhong and Konka "are only occupying positions and do not exert force"
Speaking of OLED, we cannot but say Changhong and Konka, both of which are also companies that entered the field of OLED machines earlier.
However, we have found that the OLED strategies of the two companies are both radical and conservative. Radical refers to entering the field earlier, and conservative refers to the follow-up product weakness and lack of action.
At present, TCL and Hisense still have no OLED products.
Hisense had released information earlier this year intending to launch transparent OLED TVs in the second half of the year, but because of its strategy ally Samsung OLED strategy swayed.
In the Chinese market, OLED was in a situation of Skyworth's "a ride away from the dust," even though its strategic ally, LG, lags far behind.
OLED was identified by Skyworth as a strategic product, bearing the glory and dream of its “China TV Leaderâ€. Some people pointed out that: Hisense self-proclaimed "the first brand of China's color TV", in fact, refers to the era of LCD; in the upcoming OLED era, the city changed the king flag, Skyworth is the king.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the printing display technology. First of all, the accurate expression of "printing display technology" should be "printed OLED display technology." Do not remove the four letters of O, L, E and D without authorization. It is not rigorous. of. In other words, the printed display products still belong to the OLED category and are not yet another new display technology. Do not mislead the public. Secondly, no matter the printing process or the vacuum evaporation process, it belongs to the production process of manufacturing OLED panels. It is not a strategy but a tactic. It is like we decided to go to Guangzhou from Guangzhou. I choose to fly and you choose to take a high-speed rail and realize different paths. . Once again, I personally believe that the printing and display technology is still in the initial stages of development. There are at least 3-5 years from the launch of the product, and 3-5 years are enough for the vacuum evaporation process. Currently, using this technology to produce OLED panels, the yield rate has reached more than 80%. After 3-5 years, it will further increase to more than 95%. The cost and market price are expected to decrease by 70% on the current basis. Therefore, in the end, whether the printing process and the evaporation process are more competitive, it is still not an absolute conclusion.