At present, borderless mobile phones with curved screens and full screens have already spread across the global market. At the heart of these uniquely shaped electronic products is a cicada-thin flexible OLED panel.
Many people do not understand that, to manufacture such panels, more than ten layers of micron-level protective films are required, and before 2017, no manufacturer in China could produce such protective films.
Today, in the WHHC Optoelectronic Materials Technology Corporation Industrial Park, a number of internationally advanced production lines of meter-level flexible OLED panel protective film are running, with a monthly production capacity of 1.2 million square meters of protective film for mainstream mobile phones such as Huawei Mate X and P30 pro. screen production. "It can be said that flexible OLED screens can be localized in large quantities, with a contribution from WHHC."
Dr.Xiao, CTO of WHHC, conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2015, together with experts in the field of polymer materials, he established a start-up company in the United States, specializing in electronic screen protection film materials.
In early 2016, WHHC was established in China.
Many Chinese companies are looking for protective films to support the production of flexible OLED panels. At this time, Samsung and other foreign electronic product companies began to launch curved screen mobile phones with flexible OELD screens around the world. Leading manufacturers, including BOE, are also trying to localize such panels.
According to Wang Jianfang, Dean of the School of Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an expert in optical materials, the raw materials of flexible OLED panels are organic molecular materials, which have the advantages of bright colors and good extensibility, but also have the characteristics of high temperature resistance and easy damage. Therefore, in the production and processing process of the panel, from the installation of electronic components to the drilling of holes to leave a space for the camera, a protective film must be attached to it for operation support and protection.
R&D breakthrough to become the only manufacturer of flexible screen protective film
In 2017, WHHC's R&D team successfully developed a protective film for flexible OLED panels. "High degree of fit, moderate hardness and softness, and a clean protective film can significantly improve the yield of OLED flexible screen production.
In October 2017, BOE's B7 factory was put into production in Chengdu, and flexible OLED panels entered the era of localization. During the same period, WHHC launched a sample of flexible OLED panel protective film with independent property rights. Measured by the key parameter of the protective film – peeling force, the peeling force of the samples they produced was 2.8 kg/25 mm, which was already higher than the factory standard of 2 kg/25 mm by foreign manufacturers in the same period. This kind of film not only has good adhesion to flexible screens, but also has better peeling purity after processing, which is more suitable for flexible screen processing.
In April 2018, the flexible screen protective film production line achieved commercial production.
In September 2019, the flexible screen protective film produced by WHHC passed the test of China's leading OLED panel manufacturer BOE, and in November of the same year, mass production was implemented and entered the OLED panel industry chain, becoming China's largest domestic flexible OLED screen production. Since then, it has become one of the few companies in China that produces sub-micron flexible screen protective films.