Industry Status and Trends of Large-Scale Light Guides in LCD Display

Large-size light guide plates are used more and more widely, not only in lighting LED energy-saving lamps, but also in ultra-thin light boxes, advertising light boxes and urban lighting projects. With the large-scale common use of LCD TVs and people's pursuit The demand for large screens, the application of large-size led light guides in liquid crystal display has been paid more and more attention. Through the continuous innovation and improvement of laser technology of Shenzhen Yingxing Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., large-sized light guide plates have begun to gain large on liquid crystal displays. The promotion and application of the scope reduces the cost, energy consumption, and enables the liquid crystal display to be popularized to ordinary people.

The word "light guide plate" comes from the translation of the English Light Guide Plate, which is produced for the matching liquid crystal display panel. Due to its non-self-luminous characteristics, liquid crystal displays require the brightness of the backlight module to appear. In the development of the backlight module, the light guide plates of key components also start to change with the demand of downstream products. The light guide plate is made of optical grade PMMA/MMA/PC, and then the light guide point is printed on the bottom surface of the light guide plate by UV screen printing technology using a high-tech material with extremely high reflectivity and no light absorption. The light from the backlight absorbed by the light guide plate stays on the surface of the light guide plate. When the light hits each light guide point, the reflected light will diffuse at various angles, and then the reflection condition is broken out from the front surface of the light guide plate. The light guide plate can be uniformly illuminated by various light guiding points of different sizes and sizes.

LED backlight trend leads to the development of large-size liquid crystal display light guides

At present, the new flat panel displays in the world mainly include LCD, PDP (plasma display) and OLED (organic light-emitting display), among which LCD is the most mature, most supported and widely used product type in the field of new flat panel display devices. . LCD will continue to be the mainstream of flat panel displays for the foreseeable period of time. Therefore, with the deep development of the electronic information industry and the continuous growth of demand for consumer electronic products, the global LCD market is in great demand and is expected to be in a high-speed development stage in the future. . The huge demand for LCD will inevitably lead to the rapid development of the upstream materials industry such as light guide plates.

Domestic and foreign companies are fully promoting LCD backlight LCD TVs. The rapid growth of scale has caused the shortage of upstream resources. Since the first quarter of 2010, LCD panel manufacturers have faced the dilemma of LED backlight-related components out of stock. Due to the shortage of main materials such as sapphire and light guide plate of LED backlight, the main push time of Sony and Sharp LED products in the Chinese market has been delayed. On the other hand, due to the edge-lit LED backlight module, the large-size thin light guide plate must be used. The output of the TV light guide plate is also limited due to the shortage of PMMA. Therefore, the light guide plate capacity can not be solved in a short time in a short time.
Specifically from the three main applications of desktop monitors, notebook computers and LCD TVs.

From the development of desktop monitors, the current new change is that LED backlights are gradually replacing CCFL backlights. Both backlights require a light guide panel for desktop LCD monitors. Therefore, the application of the light guide plate does not change for a relatively long period of time.

From the perspective of notebook computers, with the development of LED backlights and the development of light guide plate extrusion processes, extruded ultra-thin flat light guide plates have the tendency to replace injection-type wedge-shaped light guide plates, which may occupy the current light guide plates for notebook computers. market share. For the backlight module factory, the main difference of the LED backlight module in the structure is the change of the light guide plate. When using CCFL, due to the limitation of the lamp diameter of 1.8mm~4mm, the light-incident side of the light guide plate must be maintained at about 2.0mm, which becomes a wedge-shaped plate, which makes the notebook panel have no way to be made thin; however, LED is used. When used as a backlight, the thickness limit of the original light guide plate is no longer existed, and the thickness of the entire light guide plate can be made uniform and thin, so that the notebook can be satisfied with the lightness and thinness. Therefore, most of the current notebook computers have adopted LED backlights.

From the perspective of flat-panel TVs, LED LCD TVs, Internet TVs, and 3D TVs are the development trends in the coming period. The rise of LED LCD TVs will bring about a significant increase in the market capacity of the light guide panel. The application of network television has basically no influence on the liquid crystal display panel. The current technology of 3D TV is still immature and costly. For example, the price of a naked-eye 3D TV of TCL this year has reached 180,000 yuan. It is expected that it will take a long time to form a relatively mature market. In addition, the current [!--empirenews.page--]3D TV technology is based on the original flat-panel TV to add 3D display function, the specific composition of the LCD panel has not changed much, the light guide plate will still be obtained in 3D TV application.

As seen from the above, the application of the light guide plate will rise sharply with the development of the liquid crystal panel industry in the future. On the other hand, although the application of the light guide plate is on the rise, the production technology of the light guide plate itself may develop with the development of the liquid crystal industry technology. The development and technological advancement of LCD panel industry products mainly focus on cost and performance, and the light guide board industry is no exception. In order to reduce production costs, backlight manufacturers such as Shenzhen Yingxing Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. are developing and producing new light guide plates, reducing the use of optical films and reducing the cost of backlight modules. By forming a dense microstructure on the surface, for example, using a special molding technique (V-Cut), it is possible to reduce the use of a diffusion film and a prism sheet (each piece) to directly generate a stronger diffusion and brightening effect; A small amount of particulate material directly forms a bump or pit with diffusion (the former considers brightness; the latter considers uniformity).

Development status of global light guide plate industry for liquid crystal display

The light guide plate can be divided into extrusion, casting or injection from the production process. Generally, the former is mainly cut for the larger size of the Monitor and TV light guide plates, and the latter is formed by casting (shot). The process is applied to the NB light guide plate with high thickness requirements.

At present, the total market of PMMA (light guide plate raw materials) in Asia is about 750,000-800,000 tons/year, of which 200,000-220,000 tons/year is used for liquid crystal displays (including LCD TVs, personal computers and other electronic products). Light guide plate. In terms of production, Japan's Mitsubishi Rayon and Asahi Kasei's devices are currently producing MMA at full capacity, mainly to meet the production requirements of LCD TV light guide plates. In 2010, the 100,000 tons/year MMA project of Korea's Dashan and the Evonik Degussa's 100,000 tons/year project in Shanghai have also been completed, and most of the products are digested by the local market. Japan's Sumitomo Chemical and 璐彩特国际 Singapore MMA project will also complete the expansion plan by the end of this year. Mitsubishi Rayon and Asahi Kasei will also complete their expansion projects by the end of 2011, with an additional capacity of 160,000 tons/year.

At present, the light guide plates for large-size LCD panels are mainly used for desktop liquid crystal displays and LED liquid crystal TVs. According to relevant statistics, in 2010, the global large-size light guide plates shipped 186,600 tons, and the demand for global light guide plates is expected to be 7.6% in the future. The compound growth rate will increase to 512,200 tons in 2016 (mainly based on the density and size of the light guide plate, the market capacity of the light guide plate measured by weight.

Light guide plate market demand is strong

According to estimates, by 2013, the global backlight module industry will reach 31.17 billion US dollars, with an average annual compound growth rate of 10.3%. With the increasing number of manufacturers of backlight modules in China and the increasing scale, the proportion of China's backlight module production in global production will continue to expand. It is expected that by 2013, the industry scale of China's backlight module will reach 147.95 billion. Yuan, the compound annual growth rate reached 19.6%. This has also led to the rapid development of the Chinese light guide plate industry.

At the same time, in early 2009, LED LCD TVs appeared in the home appliance market and quickly entered the consumer's field of vision. In 2010, under the vigorous promotion of domestic and foreign manufacturers, the market share of LED backlight LCD TVs has been rising. In the first half of 2010, the penetration rate of LED backlight LCD TVs increased from 3.7% in January to 10.6% in June, and the retail penetration increased from 9% to 19.6%, showing explosive growth. By 2010, it is standard to equip the upper and lower sides with LEDs, but this can cut costs by 30%.

According to a research report by research firm Display Search, LED LCD TVs will greatly replace CCFL LCD TVs. By 2016, 84% of the total LCD TV shipments will use LEDs, and LED panel shipments will reach 221 million. At the same time, due to the application of side-source light source technology, the demand for light guide plates will increase year-on-year.

Main manufacturers of light guides

At present, global light guide board manufacturers mainly distribute Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where the liquid crystal panel industry is developed. The light guide plate enterprises in Taiwan are mainly subsidiaries of LCD panel manufacturers, such as Chimei Electronics and subsidiary companies of Fujing Industrial.

In mainland China, the large-size liquid crystal light guide plate industry is also developing continuously. Mainland enterprises have begun to enter and steadily expand their market share. The domestic enterprise Yingxing Optoelectronics currently has a monthly production capacity of more than 2,000 tons of light guide plates, and its production capacity ranks fourth in the world.

Chi Mei Industrial Co., Ltd. - Chi Mei Industrial was founded in Taiwan in 1959, mainly producing and selling PMMA, ABS, PS petrochemical products. In recent years, Chimei Industrial has undergone a comprehensive transformation to exploit its advantages in traditional petrochemical products to develop and produce extruded light guide plates for use in backlight module factories. It is mainly used by its subsidiary Chimei Electronics and AU Optronics. At present, Chimei Industrial Market has the world's largest market share. One.