Recently, NBHC Electronic Materials Technology Group issued an announcement: China`s Fine Metal Mask (FMM) production line has been commissioned and officially started commercial production. Its successful mass production will directly break the market monopoly of foreign companies and achieve Localized substitution of this material.
"FMM is a key core material for OLED semiconductor displays. The market size is 6 billion yuan in 2019 and is expected to reach 10 billion yuan in 2022." Wu Bin, deputy general manager of NBHC, told us that in recent years, China's OLED industry has developed rapidly, and the amount of investment has been Over 500 billion yuan, OLED display technology is widely used in mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), notebook computers, automotive displays and TVs. However, because FMM is still monopolized by foreign companies, it has become a "bottleneck" material restricting the development of China's OLED display industry.
FMM is a metal sheet that is slightly wider than ordinary smartphone panels and thinner than paper. In the area corresponding to the size of the mobile phone display, it is necessary to etch millions of holes with semiconductor process equipment. The three primary colors of red, yellow and blue need to be deposited on the substrate densely, regularly and evenly through three different FMMs, so the quality of this mask directly determines the quality of the display. Wu Bin said that the holes on the FMM are not only small, but also well-arranged and irregular in shape, making it extremely difficult to produce. Even with the most sophisticated semiconductor process equipment, if there is no long-term, tens of thousands, billions of experiments and parameter accumulation, it is still impossible to produce a qualified FMM. He said: "We are committed to breaking the monopoly of foreign core technology, filling the domestic gap, and realizing localized substitution."
NBHC is the only high-tech enterprise in China that provides comprehensive solutions for the industrialization and process technology of fine metal masks (FMM) for OLED semiconductor displays. As a global semiconductor display leader,it brings together the global semiconductor display industry's leading operation team and the world's leading metal mask core technology team. In April 2020, the company's metal mask project successfully applied to the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "2020 Electronic Information Industry Technology Transformation Project", and was first recommended by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to be included in the key industry industry chain supply and demand docking platform.
Currently, the first phase of NBHC construction is completed. After the first production line with an investment of nearly 100 million yuan, the annual output can reach 300 million yuan. The company is constructed in three phases, with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan. After full production, the annual output value can reach 3.5 billion yuan, and the FMM produced will account for 40% of the market share.