Recently, the list of winners (personnel) of science and technology awards was announced at the 2019 Anhui Science and Technology Award Conference. The "G6 (compatible with G5.5) LTPS glass substrate development and industrialization project" completed by HBDX Glass Technology Group and its subsidiaries won the first prize of the provincial science and technology progress award. This project breaks the technological monopoly of foreign companies in this field, marking the HBDX Group's successful product transformation and upgrading, and also marking another breakthrough in China's key display material production technology.
Low Temperature Poly-silicon (LTPS) display technology is a new generation of thin-film transistor display technology. The biggest difference from traditional technology is that the response speed is faster, and it has the advantages of high brightness, high resolution and low power consumption. Mainly used in high-definition, low-power, narrow-frame high-end screen manufacturing.
HBDX's LTPS glass substrate products have been supplied to downstream customers in large quantities to achieve localized substitution. Its quality and performance are at the same level as similar products in the United States and Japan. It is expected to greatly reduce the procurement costs of local panel companies and increase bargaining in China in related fields. The hidden cost-reduction amount brought by the capability reaches more than 100 million yuan per year, which has a significant effect on maintaining industry independence and promoting industry development.
OLED is the development trend of the display industry, and the market advantage of LTPS lies in its high degree of matching with OLED.
The arrangement of polysilicon molecular structure in grains is orderly and directional, and its electron mobility is faster (200 to 300 times) than that of chaotically arranged amorphous silicon. At the same time, OLED is driven by electric current, which has more stringent requirements on the conductivity of the substrate, so only LTPS materials can be properly matched with it.
In recent years, the continuous investment of many leading companies has jointly promoted the accelerated development of the OLED market. At present, the era of 5G+AIot has arrived, and the huge market space for LTPS glass substrates is increasingly emerging. According to the prediction of authoritative research institutions, by 2021, mainland China will have 16 G6&G5.5 LTPS-LCD/LTPS-AMOLED panel factories. The demand for LTPS glass substrates will reach 900,000 pieces/month, and upstream material suppliers such as HBDX will also Ushering in market opportunities.
The localization of LTPS glass technology is only one of HBDX's representative achievements in breaking the international technology monopoly many times.
The panel industry is a typical "three high" (high-tech, high-input, high-barrier) industry. Related technologies have been controlled by foreign manufacturers for a long time, and local companies are subject to varying degrees of restraint in all aspects of the industrial chain. In the upstream of the panel industry chain, the core raw material field represented by the liquid crystal glass substrate is particularly true. Prior to localization, the liquid crystal glass substrates accounted for 60% to 70% of the raw material costs of panel companies. The local panel industry faced not only high costs, but also the danger of being "stuck" at any time.
By 2011, after several years of research and development, HBDX put into production my country's first production line of liquid crystal glass substrates with completely independent intellectual property rights to achieve localized supply. Subsequently, Dongxu successively built more than 20 production lines, completed the entire generation coverage, and lowered its market price by 60% to 80%, saving costs for domestic downstream enterprises by more than 200 billion yuan. In one fell swoop to reverse the global display industry pattern while developing into China's first, the world's fourth largest manufacturer of liquid crystal glass substrates.
After successfully filling the gap in the domestic industry, HBDX has never slowed down the rate of innovation. In the era of smart phones, the market demand for touch protection glass has grown significantly, and its production technology has also been monopolized by foreign countries. Through 8 years of technical research, the company independently developed and launched one of the HBDX star products-"King Panda" series cover glass, which is the first high-aluminum protective glass product specially manufactured for intelligent touch terminals in China, which is well received by the market , The market share ranks first in the country and the top three in the world.
Relying on its strong scientific research strength, HBDX has broken the international technology monopoly many times, filled the domestic gap, fundamentally ensured the safety of the national display industry, and opened a large import substitution for domestic brands with high cost performance. Space has promoted the restructuring of global related industries.
After hard work, in early 2019, HBDX Group's "Substrate Project" and "Cover Project" won the first and second prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award issued by the State Council, respectively, and has a flat panel display national engineering laboratory.
High frequency technology iteration is an important feature of the optoelectronic display industry. In recent years, new technologies and new concepts such as folding and flexible display have emerged one after another, and the uncertainty brought about by the Sino-US trade dispute, local companies can only achieve sustainable development by accelerating the pace of research and development, and truly standing at the heights of the industry and the market.
To this end, the Group adjusted its strategy and placed its focus on the main business of optoelectronic display. The data shows that in 2019, HBDX R&D expenses were 1.209 billion yuan, an increase of 26.99% year-on-year, in order to enhance core competitiveness.
In the next 5 years, HBDX will continue to strengthen scientific research on the basis of tamping the glass substrate business, and deploy new OLED carrier glass, high-end cover glass original film, optical film, and neutral high boron medical glass. Material field. At the same time, the company will also extend its business to anti-glare (AG) glass substrates, automotive 3D cover glass, mobile terminal cover glass and smart home appliance cover glass to further consolidate its dominant position in my country's flat panel display industry.