With the country’s further call for energy conservation and emission reduction and the advent of the green and low-carbon era, environmentally friendly and efficient display products are becoming more and more popular with the public. For display products, low power consumption, high quality, low harmful substance content, and long service life will become the trend of market development, and display products using LED backlights have emerged.
Since 2008, LED backlight has gradually entered industrialization and its market share has continued to expand. From its initial application in mobile phones and notebook computers to now in monitors and LCD TVs, LED backlight products continue to emerge, and their market share continues to increase. Some predict that the LED backlight market will reach US$1.4 billion by 2013, accounting for 74% of the entire display market.
Application of LED backlight in display devices
Compared with traditional CCFL cold cathode tubes, LED backlight has obvious advantages. The first is energy saving. The photoelectric efficiency of cold cathode tubes is around 60lm/W, while the efficiency of current commercial LEDs has reached twice this value, and samples in the laboratory can even double this value. Secondly, LED will bring about huge changes in the mechanical structure design of backlight sources. Because LEDs are small in size and have good light directionality, the thickness of the light guide plate in traditional backlights can be greatly reduced, and the light guide plate can even be eliminated. In addition, mercury in cold cathode lamps is a substance that is costly and harmful to the environment. From an environmental perspective, it is inevitable that LEDs will gradually replace cold cathode lamps.
Based on the application of backlight display products in the market, we can analyze the domestic and foreign market patterns, recent performance, and current problems.
1. There is a huge gap in scale between domestic and foreign backlight companies
According to statistics, there were previously about 100 LCD backlight companies in China, mainly located in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Fujian provinces, concentrated in cities such as Shenzhen, Dongguan, Suzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen. Compared with the size of the global backlight market, the overall scale of Chinese LED backlight companies is small. Especially in terms of originality and communication and interaction of high-end technologies, they are unable to compete with international giants. LG and Samsung account for almost half of the backlight display products.
Data shows that almost all LED TV panels in China are imported, some of which are opencell models, but backlight modules are still purchased through designated means. Judging from the source of LED panel supply in mainland China, taking the first quarter of 2010 as an example, the main suppliers came from LG Display, AMLCD, AUO, and CPT, and most of the CPT supplies were small-sized. From the perspective of global LED panel output value, Japanese manufacturers are currently the market leaders, while Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers are actively expanding their output value. From this point of view, the LEDTV panel industry market concentration is very high, and the future competitive landscape of the LED TV market is mainly limited by the resource allocation of manufacturers.
2. The recent market performance is not as good as expected
According to the latest forecast data, the global penetration rate of LED backlight LCD monitors in 2011 was about 39.7%, which was not as good as expected. However, it is estimated that the global penetration rate of LED backlit LCD monitors will increase significantly to 72% in 2012, the penetration rate will increase to 95% in 2013, and the penetration rate may reach more than 99% in 2014. The annual shipment penetration rate of LED-backlit LCD TVs is about 41.6%, which is also lower than expected at the beginning of the year. However, it is estimated that the shipment penetration rate of LED-backlit TVs will reach 68% in 2012, increase to 90% in 2013, and is estimated to reach 98% in 2014. 2011
WitsView believes that the reason why the shipment penetration rate of LED-backlit TVs and LED-backlit LCD monitors in 2011 was lower than expected (it was originally estimated to be 50%-60%, but actually only about 40%) is mainly due to the poor global economic outlook, which has led to weak terminal demand and the dominance of low-priced products. In the past, there was still a significant price difference between LED backlight and CCFL backlight models, which suppressed the sales of LED backlight models. In addition, in the first half of 2011, various brand manufacturers still have a lot of inventory of CCFL backlight models that have yet to be digested. This is also one of the main factors affecting the sales performance of LED backlight models in 2011.
3. The technology still needs to be improved, and overcapacity highlights
Although LED backlights are still promising in replacing traditional CCFL cold cathode tubes, there are still many problems in the LED backlight market.
First of all, as far as the product itself is concerned, through comparison with CCFL, it is found that the technical bottleneck of LED backlight has not been effectively broken. In addition, there are also problems such as high cost and poor consistency. In addition, the widely popular LED backlight module is not without its shortcomings. The problem of power consumption is still an important issue that LED backlight modules must overcome. Due to the use of more LEDs, in addition to increased power consumption, it also leads to the problem of temperature rise.
Secondly, the characteristics of overcapacity and insufficient demand are highlighted in this year’s LED backlight market. On the one hand, the launch of a large number of MOCVDs has led to the rapid expansion of backlight production capacity. According to statistics, the current global backlight demand can be completely satisfied with the production capacity of more than 300 MOCVD units. However, excessive production equipment has caused the originally hot backlight market to slowly move towards a surplus stage, and the market is almost saturated. On the other hand, affected by the European debt crisis and the domestic economic situation, as well as the advancement of backlight technology, the demand for LED backlight application products has dropped sharply, and the overall market has been sluggish.
Future development trends of LED backlight display products
The application of LED backlight in display devices mainly reflects the organic combination of LED and LCD. Therefore, the future development direction cannot be separated from several keywords: low cost, high quality, modularization, large size, and direct type. Taken together, it means that LED backlight display products will develop more and more towards people's expected goals with the continuous advancement of technology and gradually occupy the market.
1. Module design, cost reduction, growth prospects are still promising
Market research company IMS Research predicts that the number of semiconductors used in backlight applications may increase by 50% in the next six years, which will increase the pressure on cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) technology. In terms of market, LED backlight shows a new development trend: in order to stimulate the sales of LED backlight products, the design of LED backlight modules are developing in the direction of low cost and reduced brightness, making the LED backlight TV in 2011 The mainstream backlight design has changed from the original side-lit specification to the direct-lit specification (thick direct-lit LED backlight module design, commonly known as fat machine). As the cost of LED backlight models decreases, it is expected to accelerate the replacement of CCFL cold cathode tube backlight models. It is estimated that by 2012, the global shipment penetration rate of LED backlight TVs and LED backlight LCD monitors will reach 60%-70%.
We take the 32-inch model as an example. It adopts a thickened direct-lit LED backlight design structure. The number of LEDs used can be reduced from the original 80 to 35 in one go. In addition, the direct-lit backlight design does not require the use of expensive light guide plates. , only a diffusion plate (or even a flat-panel diffusion version) can be used. Therefore, the material cost of the backlight module can be closer to the CCFL model (the estimated difference is only about 7 US dollars). It is expected to have significant benefits in increasing the sales proportion of LED backlight TVs.
As the shipment penetration rate of LED backlight TVs and LCD monitors increases rapidly, WitsView believes that the supply of CCFL lamps will gradually converge and decrease. Coupled with the rising prices of phosphors, the upstream material for CCFL lamps, it is expected that some CCFL suppliers will gradually fade out of the market. Looking at this cycle, if the supply of CCFL decreases, it will speed up supply chain manufacturers' switch to LED backlight models. From this point of view, the growth prospects of LED backlight display products are still promising.
2. Development will shift from expansion to slowing down
According to the performance of the market, some experts predict that this year to next year will be the year of digestion of LED backlight production capacity, and the growth will not be great and will tend to develop relatively slowly. Experts therefore suggest that the backlight market should grow steadily and moderately, and not be too hasty.
With the global economic recovery slowing down, it is not surprising that the LED backlight market experienced weak market demand in the first half of this year after experiencing rapid growth last year. At the same time, the rapid growth of the LED backlight market last year itself did not meet market expectations. The rapid growth has overdrawn the growth momentum of the future LED backlight market to a certain extent.
3. Medium and large sizes are the latest market to compete for.
According to research by Wang Fei of the Shenzhen Ruifeng Optoelectronics R&D Center, in the LED downstream field, the fastest growing domestic markets this year are the backlight market and the lighting market. The medium and large size backlight market will grow rapidly in the past two years, and the penetration rate of notebook computers and LCD TVs will accelerate. The market demand for medium and large size backlights is expected to maintain a compound growth rate of more than 60% from 2011 to 2013.
With the development of technology, LED brightness and photoelectric efficiency have been improved. As a result, IMS Research expects that the number of LEDs required for specific backlight applications will decrease, making it more cost-effective to use LEDs as backlight sources for large displays.
IMS points out that LED backlights have served as small displays for many portable applications for several years, and are now increasingly used in larger products such as notebook computers and LCD TVs. With the development of LED backlight applications in LCD TVs and brand manufacturers actively launching LCD TV products with LED backlights, and some new LCD monitors also catching up with the LED backlight trend, medium and large-sized LED backlight products have gained significant momentum and become the new favorite in the market.
While large-size LED backlights are gradually maturing, small and medium-sized LED backlights are at risk of being replaced by OLEDs in the display field. Because from the perspective of energy consumption, TFT-LCD with color film has the disadvantage of low backlight utilization and is inconsistent with the theme of green products. However, the current small and medium-sized OLED active light-emitting technology has great market prospects.
4. RGB direct backlight has become a technological trend
Currently, LED backlight materials are mainly divided into two types: white LED backlight and RGB-LED backlight. The biggest feature of white LED is that it is energy-saving and environmentally friendly. It can use fewer LED lights to achieve the same picture brightness. Moreover, by injecting light from the side edge of the LCD panel, it can greatly reduce the thickness of the TV body, making the body lighter, thinner and more beautiful. The biggest feature of RGB-LED is that it can present a wider range of color levels, making the reds more delicate, the greens more verdant, and the blacks deeper. This is why flagship LED-backlit TVs make high-end players addicted. At the same time, RGB-LED backlight combined with regional drive control technology can effectively reduce the real-time power consumption of LCD TVs and save more power.
At present, the mainstream backlight technologies include: low-power technology, thin and light technology, and backlight color management technology. LED backlight technology is constantly moving towards the goal of low cost and high quality based on various technologies. The technological trend to meet this goal is that LED backlight TV technology will also transition from edge-lit technology to direct-lit white LED backlit TVs and even RGB direct-lit backlights in line with consumer demand and market acceptance.
5. LED and CCFL hybrid technology may appear
As LED backlights become increasingly popular, IMS Research predicts that the growth of the CCFL market will stagnate. However, CCFL technology still has room for development. In 2011, major brand companies on the market still have certain CCFL products. Researchers believe that manufacturers will launch more complex products to cater to the new development trend of the market, so price pressure will remain high. In addition, IMS Research researchers anticipate the emergence of innovative hybrid technologies that combine the two.
The development direction of LED backlights is lower power consumption and cost, higher light efficiency, longer life, brighter, thinner and lighter. With the advancement of micromachining, microelectronics and materials technology, more new LED backlight sources for LCDs will inevitably be released in the above development direction.
Throughout the development history of LED backlight applications in display devices, market demand has gone from strong to weak. LED backlights, which have experienced madness and enjoyed brilliance, are gradually slowing down and becoming rational at the same time. The author believes that this weak stage will help companies adjust their product structure and also bring disguised opportunities to the maturity of the LED backlight market. Domestic enterprises should see such a market prospect and current situation, effectively integrate their own resources, give full play to the parallel momentum of the three carriages of backlight, lighting, and display, and share the bright prospects of the LED industry just around the corner.
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