Another "Shangganling" of Huawei! Why did you choose to acquire the organic light-emitting diode driver chip?

Smart things (WeChat official account: zhidxcom)

Author | Xu Shan

Edit | Peng Yun

It has been ten months since the United States banned Huawei chips from supplying, and Huawei chips have made new moves. This time, Huawei "aimed" at the screen driver chip and quickly recruited troops to prepare to "win" the driver chip of the recently hot organic light-emitting diode screen.

Recently, a number of media reported that the organic light-emitting diode driver chip developed by Huawei Hisilicon has completed trial production. The organic light-emitting diode driver chip adopts 40nm or 28nm process technology and is expected to be officially delivered to the supplier by the end of this year. At present, the chip samples have been sent to BOE, Huawei, Glory and other manufacturers for testing.

According to the prediction of Omdia research institute, Korean enterprises will occupy 90% of the global OEM market of smart phone organic light-emitting diode chips in 2020. Domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chips basically rely on imports. In 20 19, BOE purchased more than 6 billion yuan of screen driver chips, of which domestic chips accounted for less than 5%.

In fact, at the end of 20 19, Huawei Hisilicon's first organic light-emitting diode driver chip has been successfully rolled out. In August 2020, relevant people broke the news that Huawei was forming a team in the field of display driver chips and component products.

In August 2020, digital bloggers broke the news that Huawei set up a screen driver chip team.

According to relevant sources, although the organic light-emitting diode driver chip independently developed by Huawei Hisilicon has achieved trial production, how to achieve mass production is still a difficult problem. This kind of organic light emitting diode driver chip faces difficulties in obtaining the manufacturing and packaging capabilities of 40nm or 28nm process and the test support of high-end chips.

What is the "charm" of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) driver chip as Huawei's new direction of conquest? What makes domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chip manufacturers stumble? When can China get rid of its dependence on imported OLED driver chips? With these questions, we try to find the answer by observing the dynamics of the organic light-emitting diode driver chip industry.

In order to explain why the OLED driver chip is important, we need to know the OLED screen first. Whether it is iPhone 12 or Xiaomi TV at home, most flagship smart display devices on the market are basically equipped with organic light-emitting diode screens.

According to the report of market research organization UBI Research, in 2020, the shipment of organic light-emitting diode displays reached 578 million pieces, and the total revenue reached 32.68 billion dollars. At the same time, in the first half of 20021,global mobile phone manufacturers * * * launched 122 OLED smartphones.

The difference between organic light-emitting diode screen and liquid crystal screen (source: organic light-emitting diode information network)

Different from the previous generation LCD screen, the organic light-emitting diode screen mainly affects the imaging quality of the display screen by controlling the change of power supply. The key part of controlling power supply is the organic light-emitting diode driver chip attached to the organic light-emitting diode screen.

Schematic diagram of organic light-emitting diode driver chip (source: network)

The OLED driver chip mainly includes two functions: driving and control. The driving function mainly means that the organic light-emitting diode driving chip determines which pixels on the organic light-emitting diode screen emit light by driving the movement of electrons. The higher the resolution of the OLED screen, the more electrons the OLED driver chip needs to drive and the more pixels it forms. The control function means that the OLED driver chip will also control the transmission of video and image information or data according to the specific requirements of the manufacturer.

In short, the OLED driver chip will determine the resolution and interface type of the OLED screen, and also determine which scenes the OLED screen can be used in.

There are many parameters of OLED driver chip, which are mainly divided into three categories: display index, driving index and integrated function index.

Among them, the display index of OLED driver chip refers to the parameters that can directly display the screen performance of OLED, such as display buffer (image switching speed), display color scale (color brightness, color number) and so on. The driving index of organic light-emitting diode driving chip mainly refers to controlling the voltage intensity of organic light-emitting diode screen; The comprehensive performance index is the relevant requirement of organic light-emitting diode driver chip for video image data transmission and processing.

It can be seen that a small OLED driver chip has become the "central brain" of the whole OLED screen, which affects the display effect of the whole screen in many ways.

South Korean manufacturers have been "ahead of domestic manufacturers" for nearly 10 years in organic light-emitting diode driver chip technology.

In 20 12, Samsung announced the development of organic light-emitting diode screens, and then jointly released the world's first commercial OLED TV with LG at the International Consumer Electronics Show in 20 13.

The world's first commercial OLED TV

Because foreign manufacturers started early in the technology and patents of organic light-emitting diode driver chips, a large number of patents and technology monopoly they applied for also hindered the R&D process of domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chips to some extent.

At present, the organic light-emitting diode driver chip is still the main core technology mastered by Korean companies such as Samsung and LG. With the deepening of cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises, domestic manufacturers have gradually matured in the technology of organic light-emitting diode driver chips. For example, Zhongying Electronics, Giddens and other companies have started mass production of organic light-emitting diode driver chips, but at present, domestic self-developed organic light-emitting diode driver chips are mainly used in some low-end products.

It is reported that Huawei Hisilicon's OLED driver chip will adopt 40 nm or 28 nm process technology.

This is a "subtle" technology. As Huawei is still shrouded in the haze of the U.S. chip ban, it is estimated that this organic light-emitting diode chip to be mass-produced will adopt a completely domestic production line to avoid the limitations of American technology and equipment. This is what domestic chip foundry enterprises have the ability to do.

This may be one of the reasons why Huawei took the lead in choosing to conquer the organic light-emitting diode driver chip.

SMIC is the most powerful chip foundry in China at present. Yesterday, Huawei released a dynamic version of the new machine nova 8 SE. The Kirin 7 10A chip on this mobile phone is made by SMIC 14nm process.

The world's leading supplier of organic light-emitting diode driver chips (photo source letter intelligence)

Liang Mengsong, CEO of SMIC, once said that SMIC's technologies such as "28nm, 14nm, 12nm, N+ 1" have all entered mass production, and the development of 7nm technology has also been completed, so it can enter risk mass production immediately in April next year. This means that the domestic chip foundry industry can support the OEM of organic light-emitting diode driver chips.

But this does not mean that the organic light-emitting diode driver chips developed by domestic manufacturers can be mass-produced.

In fact, because different products need different sizes of OLED screens, and each OLED driver chip needs to be customized, chip foundries can't mass-produce and have low profits, so many foundries are reluctant to take orders.

In addition, according to industry sources, there is no organic light-emitting diode driver chip in China. As early as 20 16, companies such as Tang Zhi Control and Easy Thinking developed domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chips. However, because the domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chip is not mature enough in design, manufacturers dare not use it in high-end products.

Not only that, according to the latest news report, Huawei HiSilicon's self-developed organic light-emitting diode driver chip faces difficulties in obtaining 40nm process sealing and testing capability and high-end chip testing support.

At present, South Korea's Samsung is not only the head player in the field of OLED driver chip design, but also accounts for half of the global OEM market for OLED drivers. MagnaChip on the Korean Peninsula also accounts for nearly 40% of the global OEM market for OLED drivers.

Magna Semiconductor official website

As an independent supplier of OLED display driver chips, Magna Semiconductor has been benefiting from long-term cooperation with Samsung and Apple, the world's top OLED display manufacturers. In the past 10 years, Magna Semiconductor has shipped more than 400 million OLED driver chips, and applied for the patent layout related to the design and manufacture of OLED display drivers.

Previously, Magna Semiconductor announced its financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2020, its revenue was $654.38+$42.9 million, and its annual revenue was $5,076,5438+$ million. The company said that its quarterly revenue reached a record $80.4 million, up 65,438+09% year-on-year. In 2020, Magna Semiconductor's business income on organic light-emitting diode driver chips reached $284.6 million.

In March this year, Magna Semiconductor announced that it agreed to be acquired by Lu Zhi Capital, a private equity investment company in China, at a purchase price of $29 per share, or about $654.38+04 billion.

YJ King, CEO of Magna Semiconductor, said: "This transaction is in the best interests of all stakeholders such as our shareholders, customers and employees, and it will be an excellent opportunity to accelerate our 3.0 growth strategy. Lu Zhi Capital has profound professional knowledge and is our ideal partner. We look forward to working with them to plan the company's next development plan. "

Magna Semiconductor said that Lu Zhi Capital will cooperate with Magna's management team to make the company a real leader in the semiconductor industry, and help Magna develop internationally through the investment authorization and global network of Lu Zhi Capital.

However, the acquisition was subsequently blocked by South Korea and the United States, and the South Korean government even added display-driven technology to the national core technology revision (draft) overnight. The National Security Review Bureau of the United States subsequently intervened, believing that the acquisition would threaten the technological status of the United States. At present, the acquisition has not yet landed. If Lu Zhi Capital successfully acquires Magna Semiconductor, the development of domestic OLED driver chips may accelerate.

As an important part of OLED screen, OLED driver chip affects the display, color brightness and image data transmission of OLED screen.

Because Samsung, LG and other foreign manufacturers have been ahead of domestic players in the research and development of OLED screens for nearly 10 years, there is a big gap between domestic OLED driver chips and foreign manufacturers in technology and chip performance.

It is reported that at present, the technical difficulties of domestic organic light-emitting diode driver chips mainly focus on manufacturing and sealing and testing. Although domestic chip foundries, such as SMIC, have been able to achieve the 40nm process required for driving organic light-emitting diodes, it is still difficult to make breakthrough progress due to technical maturity and difficulty in mass production.