At a time when the entire LED industry is facing a series of problems such as supply chain shortages and increased costs, the investment and development of Mini/Micro LED has not stopped.
According to relevant statistics from LEDinside, a total of 13 Mini/Micro LED related projects will be established in 2021, covering industrial chain equipment, materials, packaging and other links, including 5 projects of more than one billion level.
In terms of equipment, Zhiyun and Shenkeda have established Mini/Micro LED related projects in 2021.
In March 2021, Zhiyun Co., Ltd. issued an announcement that in order to promote the implementation of the Wuhan RD center construction project, it plans to invest 420 million yuan to build a pan-semiconductor automation equipment RD and production base project, which mainly develops and produces new display liquid crystal modules, OLED module production lines and Integrated circuit-related bonding machines, dispensing machines, laminating machines and other precision assembly core automation equipment.
It is understood that Zhiyun Co., Ltd. has completed the research and development of Mini LED related equipment. The first batch of equipment includes equipment such as bonding, dispensing, and attaching machines. The related equipment has been ordered and shipped. The main customers include Taiwan factories. Micro LED related equipment has also completed research and development, and will be available in batches in 2020, and will gradually expand the relevant market share in the future.
This Wuhan RD center construction project will focus on the development of OLED module equipment, Mini LED equipment and Micro LED equipment, and provide technical support for the research of semiconductor packaging and testing equipment.
In October 2021, Shenzhen Keda issued convertible bonds to unspecified objects to raise no more than 360 million yuan, of which 180 million yuan was used for the second-phase construction project of the intelligent manufacturing production base for flat panel display equipment in Huizhou. The products produced are mainly Mini/ Micro LED precision assembly and testing related equipment.
In terms of optoelectronic materials, in June 2021, Tunghsu Group signed a contract for the second phase project of Hunan Huaihua Optoelectronic New Materials Industrial Park, with a total investment of 2.5 billion, covering an area of 300 acres and a construction area of 54,713.12 square meters in the first phase. A MiniLED backplane and High-end electronic protective glass production line and supporting facilities. The construction area of the second phase is 73,420.72 square meters, which is mainly for the expansion of the first-phase production line and the improvement of production capacity.
In terms of driver chips, in January 2021, Fuman Electronics announced that it plans to raise funds of no more than 1.05 billion yuan through a non-public offering of shares, and invest in the construction of LED chips, 5G radio frequency chips and power management chip projects, as well as RD centers and other projects.
Among them, the RD center project intends to invest nearly 390 million yuan. One of the key RD directions of the project is to upgrade the Mini LED display driver chip package from high-pin QFN to BGA (above 104Pin), so as to realize the highly integrated design of LED display driver. .
In terms of packaging, in January 2021, the Jingtai Semiconductor Display Project with a total investment of 5.1 billion yuan was signed and settled in Pinghu Park, Zhangjiang Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology City. The project focuses on the production of Mini/Micro LED, and plans to invest in the construction of 3,500 Mini/Micro LED product production lines. The total land area of the project is 83.3 mu. After the completion of the project, the estimated annual output value is 10.8 billion yuan and the tax revenue is 794 million yuan.
In terms of light source modules, in August 2021, Longli Technology announced that it plans to issue stocks to specific objects to raise a total of no more than 1.002 billion yuan, which will be invested in the smart manufacturing base project of medium and large-sized Mini LED display modules and supplementary working capital.
It is understood that with a total investment of 850 million yuan, the project will build a domestic first-class backlight module industry base. The main products are medium and large-sized MiniLED display modules to better meet the future market demand for MiniLED backlight module products. The designed annual production capacity of the project is 2,620,800 pieces.
Recently, the project has been accepted by Shenzhen Stock Exchange. On March 15, Longli Technology announced that it plans to raise about 1 billion yuan from no more than 35 issuers to invest in the construction of the above-mentioned projects and supplement working capital.
Longli Technology said that the construction of this project will accelerate the realization of large-scale production of medium and large-sized Mini LED display modules, and improve Longli layout in the product line of medium and large-sized Mini LED display modules. It is understood that this is another investment of Longli Technology in Mini LED after raising 180 million yuan in 2020 (total investment of 256 million yuan for the project) to invest in expanding the production capacity of Mini LED display modules.
In addition, in November 2021, Luohuaxin signed a contract for the high-resolution full-color display Micro LED chip preparation technology project, and plans to invest 3.5 billion yuan to build a research and development and production base for Mini/Micro LED new display light sources and module products.
In terms of PCB, in March 2021, Xingsen Technology announced to invest 1.58 billion yuan in the second phase of the Yixing Silicon Valley printed circuit board project. After the project is put into production, it will add 80,000 square meters of high-end circuit board production capacity per month, mainly used in MiniLED, etc. field.
In terms of panels, in December 2021, TCL Technology invested in the expansion project of the 6th generation semiconductor new display device production line (t5).
In this expansion, Wuhan Huaxing will build a 6th-generation LTPS LCD display panel production line with a monthly production capacity of 45,000 pieces of 1500mm×1850mm glass panels. The production line adopts technologies such as Mini/Micro LED, LTPO, ultra-high-resolution LTPS, and touch screen (Touch Panel + active pen technology) to produce small and medium-sized high-end flagship displays such as high-end flagship vehicles, laptops, tablets, and VR display panels.
In addition to the above projects in the industrial chain, it is also worth noting that the third-generation semiconductor research and manufacturing center project of Guangdong Everbright Group was signed in Dongguan in December 2021, with a total project investment of not less than 15 billion yuan. According to reports, the project is mainly engaged in the industrialization of Mini/Micro LED display. It will build the only semiconductor project in China covering the entire industry chain of substrates, chips, and module packaging, and build an advanced semiconductor industry research and manufacturing center.
4 major projects put into production, 8 major projects started
In addition to 14 projects approved, according to LEDinside statistics, in 2021, a total of 12 Mini/Micro LED-related projects in China have been started and put into production, involving chips, packaging, panels and other links.
2021-2022 Mini/Micro LED Project
In terms of production projects, the most eye-catching is the Mini/Micro LED chip industrialization project of Sanan Optoelectronics in Hubei. It is understood that the investment in this project is 12 billion yuan, and it plans to build a research and development production base to produce three product series: Mini/Micro LED gallium nitride chips, Mini/Micro LED gallium arsenide chips, and 4K display packaging.
After the project reaches production, it will add 1.61 million gallium nitride Mini/Micro LED chips/year, 750,000 gallium arsenide Mini/Micro LED chips/year (both 4-inch equivalent) and 4K display packaging products 84,000 units/year production capacity. In September last year, Sanan Optoelectronics continued to raise 7.9 billion more to invest in the Mini/Micro LED chip industrialization project in Hubei.
On February 3, 2021, the main building of the first phase of the project was successfully capped; on March 16, the project substation delivered power as scheduled; on April 16, the project started trial production; in May, the project was officially put into operation.
It is reported that the key components produced by Sanan Optoelectronics will be supplied to optoelectronic information companies such as Tianma Microelectronics and Huaxing Optoelectronics in Optics Valley. In addition, as one of Samsung important suppliers, the Mini/Micro LED chips produced by the Hubei Sanan project may also be supplied to Samsung.
It is also worth noting that Sanan Optoelectronics revealed that since the beginning of the year, it has continued to receive purchase orders for Mini LED chips from a single important international customer, with a total amount exceeding 170 million yuan. LEDinside guesses that the big customer is Apple. It is speculated that the Hubei Sanan base may also supply Mini LED chips for Apple.
In terms of start-up projects, the project with the highest investment amount is the Mini/Micro LED new display device and module industrialization project of Xinying Optoelectronics located in Ezhou, Hubei Province, reaching 8 billion yuan. The project will land in April 2021 and officially start construction in July, covering an area of 300 acres and a construction area of 400,000 square meters. After completion, it will form a manufacturing base with a production capacity of 50,000KK/month for Mini/Micro LED new display devices, and will become the world largest production base for LED display devices.
3 new 1 billion Mini/Micro LED projects have been added since 2022
In 2021, LED companies have expanded Mini/Micro LED production capacity. In 2022, in order to cope with the continuous increase in Mini/Micro LED demand, the expansion heat will continue, and more Mini/Micro LED new projects may emerge. Up to now, there have been 3 contracts and projects of Mini/Micro LEDs with a value of more than 1 billion.
2021-2022 Mini/Micro LED Project
On January 7, Huacan Optoelectronics signed a contract for the new full-color Mini/Micro LED high-performance epitaxy and chip RD and production project with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan and landed in Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone. The planned construction period of the project is four years.
On February 21, Vogel Optoelectronics announced that it will build a glass-based Mini/Micro LED substrate production project. The project is located in Wager Science and Technology Park, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, with a total investment of 1.65 billion yuan. After the project is completed, it will achieve an annual output of 5.24 million square meters of glass-based Mini/Micro LED substrates.
On March 17, Zhaochi Co., Ltd. announced that it will invest in the construction of Mini LED chips and RGB small-pitch LED display modules in Nanchang High-tech Zone. The total investment of the project is expected to be 5 billion yuan.
Among them, the equipment investment is about 2.5 billion yuan. The project plans to purchase 52-cavity MOCVD equipment and corresponding capacity chips and supporting equipment for the production of gallium nitride Mini LED chips. At the same time, 300-500 small-pitch LED display modules using COB technology will be added. String. The project is expected to complete the equipment installation and commissioning and be officially put into operation in 2023.
The Mini/Micro LED layout has achieved initial results, and the demand is coming soon
From the project statistics, the investment scale of Mini/Micro LED projects will continue to grow in 2021, and many projects established in 2020 will also usher in construction and production in 2021, or ahead of the upcoming Mini/Micro LED demand in 2022. be prepared.
Entering 2022, three projects with a level of more than 1 billion have been established, and various regions have successively released development plans related to the new display industry, which may indicate that more companies will invest more in Mini/Micro LED projects this year.
As the new favorite of the LED industry, Mini/Micro LED has flourished thanks to the continuous deployment of various LED companies in the past three years, accelerating the expansion from the commercial market to the consumer market, and more and more Mini/Micro LED technology products appear. In front of us, the demand for Mini/Micro LED is escalating year by year.
At the CES 2022 exhibition, we saw the preliminary results of the development of Mini/Micro LED technology. Mini/Micro LED has begun to be widely used in electronic consumer products such as TVs, laptops, tablets, VR/AR wearable devices.
In particular, MiniLED has been favored by major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, TCL, and Sony in recent years, and is used as a display backlight source for electronic products. Therefore, MiniLED can accelerate its penetration into display products such as TVs, notebooks, and tablets in 2021. Among them, this is enough to see the expectations of terminal brands for new display technologies. However, the price of most products equipped with MiniLED technology is still high at present, and MiniLED can only be seen in high-end products.
On the other hand, although Micro LED is still in the stage of product development and adjustment due to technical bottlenecks such as mass transfer, with the rise of the Metaverse concept in 2021, Micro LED can be used for VR/AR wearable devices known as Metaverse entry-level terminals. The device has attracted much attention for bringing a more immersive metaverse experience.
Especially in AR glasses, manufacturers such as Vuzix, WaveOptics, Xiaomi, TCL Thunderbird and OPPO have introduced Micro LED micro-display technology and optical waveguide technology into their AR products.
Among them, Vuzix Micro LED AR smart glasses have been launched, and OPPO Air Glass will be officially launched in limited quantities in March; while WaveOptics, Xiaomi and TCL Thunderbird smart glasses and AR glasses are currently prototype products.
In addition to wearable devices, in the context of the Metaverse, large-screen application scenarios such as outdoor naked-eye 3D display and XR virtual shooting have also become an important direction for the implementation of Micro LED technology.
In terms of outdoor naked-eye 3D display, display companies such as Leyard, Unilumin Technology, Ledman Optoelectronics, Absen, Alto Electronics, and Lianjian Optoelectronics currently have naked-eye 3D projects all over the world, bringing shocking stereoscopic display. At the same time, it can also provide new publicity methods for brands and cities.
In terms of XR virtual shooting, Unilumin Technology subsidiaries such as Radio, Leyard, Absen, Alto Electronics and other companies have launched virtual studio solutions to provide immersive virtual scenes for film and television production, improve film and television production efficiency and save a lot of money cost.