Toray plans to expand its sales of the OLED materials business to double its current value in the fiscal year 2022 (April 2022 to March 2023), approximately 30 billion yen (approximately RMB 1.98 billion). Toray plans to expand its product lineup by entering the luminescent material market to achieve this goal.
The main product is photosensitive polyimide
Toray Electronic Information Materials Division (including display materials) sales for fiscal year 2019 are 67.7 billion yen (approximately RMB 4.468 billion), of which display materials account for about 30%. In the past, Toray's main product direction was in liquid crystal and plasma display screen materials, but now it has to turn to OLED and promote business expansion.
Today, the main product of OLED materials is photosensitive polyimide (Polyimide), which is used as a pixel separation layer and a planarization layer material, and accounts for more than half of sales. This material already has industry standards. In the future, Toray strives to expand its business by expanding its product lineup.
Cooperate with Idemitsu Kosan to develop luminescent materials
One of Toray's focus areas in the future is the luminescent material market. Because the scale of this market is much larger than the photosensitive polyimide market that Toray is currently participating in, and the technology trend has been changing, Toray believes that although it has entered the market later, there is still enough Space can expand market share and continue to increase efforts in this regard.
In terms of specific measures in the field of luminescent materials, in November 2019, we cooperated with Idemitsu Kosei Co., Ltd. to develop OLED materials using thermally active delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials and red fluorescent materials. At the same time, it was announced that the luminous efficiency has reached 46cd/A, the highest level in the world, and it is close to practical use. Nowadays, phosphorescent materials are mostly used in red light-emitting materials, however, the cost caused by the use of rare metals is high, and the color purity is low. Therefore, it is expected that newly developed materials can overcome these problems.
Expect to be used on large-size TV
In addition, the materials in the direction of Touch Sensor Panel (using photosensitive silver paste) are also one of Toray's business to be expanded in the future. Because the resistance is lower than traditional ITO electrodes, it can be used on Metal Mesh electrodes to make large-size displays with high visibility that are difficult for the naked eye to recognize the electrodes. In addition, when forming the Metal Mesh electrode, wiring can also be formed together, the process is simple.
At present, the main direction of the OLED material business is in small and medium-sized display screens such as smartphones, and expanding the application of large-size TV sets has become an opportunity to expand business. Director of the Electronic Information Materials Division, Director Enomoto said, "The OLED material used in a TV is the usage of 100 mobile phones." Therefore, Toray looks forward to expanding the application of OLED in the TV market.