LED is driving China's LCD backlight industry, erosion of sales of EL, the growth rate has exceeded the CCFL. In the energy-saving trend, LED backlighting has grown rapidly. In 10.2 inches of backlighting applications, LEDs are crowding out the market for CCFLs.
EL has lower brightness, shorter life, and is prone to signal interference. CCFL is cheaper than LED, especially in the large-size display, still competitive in the low-end market.
LED manufacturers in China and other regions are expanding their production capacity to avoid recurring supply shortages. Last year, global demand exceeded supply, and demand increased from 57 billion in 2008 to 63 billion. In 2009, sales revenue increased by 11%, from US$6.1 billion in 2008 to US$6.8 billion. The production level is very close to the capacity, and the capacity utilization rate of many manufacturers is close to 100%. According to market research company iSuppli, due to the possibility of significant increase in orders in the near future, this year's supply shortage may also occur.
To increase production, manufacturers are integrating chip and wafer production, packaging, and testing resources. Some manufacturers are strengthening vertical integration and optimizing the raw material procurement process, while at the same time tightening the introduction of new models.
On the whole, the heat is mainly concentrated in the domestic market, and overseas markets have only just begun to heat up. Asia and Europe, specifically Taiwan and Italy, are the main sales destinations.
Most of the companies surveyed had sales growth of about 5% in 2009, the same as in 2008. Some companies have very aggressive growth expectations and believe that the global economy will stabilize and orders will pick up. These manufacturers estimate that sales revenue is expected to increase by 20-50% this year.
Shenzhen Chuangren Technology Co., Ltd. is engaged in the production of liquid crystal modules and backlights. It is expected that sales will increase by 50% by the end of 2010. Its monthly production capacity is 800,000, and its current capacity utilization rate is 97%. According to Li Dong, general manager of the company, it is already planning to expand production capacity to meet potential demand growth.
Other companies will focus on improving the level of customization to better meet customer needs.
Opportunities in Large-Scale Applications China's LCD backlight industry mainly produces small and medium-sized products for consumer electronics applications. The LED side light and the LEDs installed at the bottom of the screen account for the majority. The latter has better light emission uniformity, while the former is more popular.
Red, blue, yellow, orange, yellow-green, and white diodes dominate. Household appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners, mobile phones and on-board equipment are the main application areas.
As the field of small and medium-sized LED backlights has basically matured, manufacturers believe that there will be no new development in the manufacturing process within a few years. R&D activities focus on customization, especially on the form factor, as well as color and brightness. In order to improve quality, manufacturers are increasingly using injection molded light guide plates, reducing the use of traditional printed light guide plates. This technology allows the production of light guide plates and dots at the same time, which can increase optical uniformity.
At the same time, more and more manufacturers are seizing the trend toward large-scale backlighting and actively increasing the output of LEDs and CCFLs for 10 inch and larger panel sizes. According to Displaybank, the global production of large panel backlights this year is expected to reach 590 million or 15.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 5.2 billion and 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, respectively. Displaybank further predicts that the compound annual growth rate for 2007-2013 will be 12%, and it will reach 770 million in 2013.
Although the cost is higher, the penetration rate of LED will increase. This is because people's influence on the mercury content has become more and more important, which has led to a slowdown in the acceptance rate of CCFLs. DisplaySearch estimates that LED-based large-screen backlight shipments will grow to 770 million by 2015, compared to 114 million in 2009. In 2011, the large LED backlight will exceed CCFL for the first time, and the penetration rate will reach 74% after two years.
Although the cost is higher, the penetration rate of LED will increase. This is because people's influence on the mercury content has become more and more important, which has led to a slowdown in the growth of CCFLs.
The strongest growth driver comes from laptops. By the end of 2010, 84% of laptops will have LED backlighting, and by the end of 2011 they will reach 95%. The LCD TV's LED backlight penetration rate will reach 20% annually, rising to 72% in 2015. During this period, shipments will increase from 36.5 million to 184.9 million.
Due to the large price difference, this transition has not been successful in the LCD monitor field. However, manufacturers believe that the Energy Star 5.0 standard was implemented in July 2009, suggesting that the CCFL will gradually withdraw from the market. They expect that LED sales will increase in the near future.
Although the outlook is very good, suppliers in mainland China face challenges and need to reduce management costs in order to maintain competitive prices and reduce the spread between LED and CCFL. Due to technical obstacles, only a few companies, including BOE, Shenzhen Diguang Electronics, Weizhi Electronics, and SHL, are currently mass producing both LED and CCFL backlights for large-scale applications. Old foreign companies and Taiwanese companies occupy this area, making it difficult for newcomers to enter.
BOE is one of the major players in the field of TFT LCD and backlighting and has four backlit production lines in Beijing, Suzhou and Xiamen. It invested 6 million US dollars to build a new factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. The plant is expected to produce 500,000 backlights per month, including 200,000 for 19-inch widescreens and 300,000 for 26-inch TVs. The LED backlight faces 1.5-3.5 inch portable product panels, 10.4-inch industrial monitors, 12.1-17 inch notebooks, and LCD monitor panels. A 32-47 inch backlight for television is under development.
About 70-80% of the output of Shenzhen Diguang Electronics is LED backlighting for 19, 22, 24, 26, 32, 42, 47 and 55 inch LCD monitors and TV panels. The thickness of these products is usually 7 to 13.3 mm. Weizhi Electronics has developed a series of backlights, including side-entry and bottom-emission.
TV manufacturers such as Hisense, TCL and Skyworth are also major suppliers of TFT LCDs and large screen backlights. Hisense established its own LED backlight production line in 2008. TCL Group is working with Taiwan Zhongqiang Optoelectronics to build a similar factory. Skyworth introduced such backlights for 37-inch and larger panels. Tsinghua Tongfang will invest about 9 million U.S. dollars in this area.
Small and strong industrial layout China has about 100 LCD backlighting companies, which are mainly distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian provinces, and are concentrated in cities such as Shenzhen, Dongguan, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Xiamen.
Major manufacturers include BOE, Diguang, Weizhi, SHL and Puray Optoelectronics. In the past three years, many manufacturers have expanded their product portfolio to include LED displays, light bulbs, packages, wafers, and chips.
SMEs basically use the same manufacturing process. Due to the relatively mature industry, their technical differences are not very obvious. Many companies employ 100 people and have a monthly capacity of 500,000 to 1 million. Manual assembly is performed in a class 1000 clean room and quality control tests are performed inside the factory. LGP Injection works primarily with OEM partners.
Taiwan, South Korea and Japan suppliers, including Zhongqiang, Radiant, and K-Bridge, which build factories in China, have intensified competition. However, these foreign-funded enterprises are currently focusing on notebooks, monitors and LCD TV backlighting, making the competition in the field of small-sized panel backlights more equitable.
The backlight accounts for 20-35% of the cost of the finished product of the liquid crystal display. The finished LCD also includes LGPs, optical films, and LED or CCFL light sources.
For small and medium-sized applications, almost all of the vendor's materials are purchased from suppliers in the Pearl River Delta region and Xiamen. As the supply of raw materials and costs are expected to remain stable, the prices of these backlights will remain at 0.30-0.40 USD.
Large backlight manufacturers source LEDs from Taiwan because of their high stability and uniformity. Due to the expected shortage of chips, many expect prices to increase slightly in the coming months. The price of a large LED backlight is 60-100 dollars higher than CCFL.
LED energy-saving advantages and performance stability have made LED a mainstream industry in Hong Kong, although local suppliers are still supplying EL and CCFL.
Most backlights are used for small and medium displays, for portable electronic products such as GPS, handheld game players, DVD players, mobile phones, and 10-14 inch monitors. Also used for instrumentation, machinery, and automotive dashboards. Some large companies are targeting LCD TVs and 15-inch and above screens.
Product development centers around improving drive circuitry, reducing costs, improving brightness, and reducing size. In addition to manufacturing, some suppliers can also provide design and device integration assembly services.
The industry includes optoelectronics specialists that offer a range of LED models, including backlighting. Diodes come in different colors, sizes, and shapes. Typical diagonal dimensions are 1.8, 2, 3.5, and 4.4 inches, but 1.6-inch ultra-thin light guides are also available, with a thickness of only 0.3 to 0.5 mm.
For monochrome applications such as gauges and character displays, yellow, green, red, blue, orange, and white are popular. The LEDs used in cell phones and digital cameras usually contain two or three colors.
EL still has some markets in the entry-level segment, with the advantage of lower costs. Due to the adverse impact on the environment, CCFL continues to shrink. EL also has a variety of colors. CCFL is used for keyboards and switches, as well as lighting for large advertising displays and signs. Some Hong Kong suppliers that do not have manufacturing capabilities have purchased surplus inventory from mainland factories or used second-hand backlights for export.
Toyo LED Electronics Ltd has introduced white, yellow, orange, blue, and yellow-green LEDs in standard sizes 70x19, 76x44, 83x46, 85x30, 89x35, and 104x29mm with a thickness of 1.2 to 5.5mm. It also accepts special sizes and shapes. Special orders for colors and colors.
Tatt Shing Metal Work Mfy supplies EL backlights with metal pins, connectors and inverters, many with optional flash or dimming effects. The main application is the keyboard and diaphragm Switch.
Taiwan: Production focuses on LEDs CCFL and LED are the only two types of LCD light sources available from Taiwan suppliers. LED meets the needs of a new generation of ultra-thin consumer electronics products and consumes less power, so it is dominant in production. The price difference between these two technologies continues to shrink, further increasing the acceptance of LEDs.
At the same time, due to the fierce price competition among mainland manufacturers, the number of CCFL manufacturers in Taiwan has been decreasing, and currently there are less than 20 companies. There are more than 100 LED backlighting package design companies and more than 40 manufacturers.
Taiwanese manufacturers continue to develop light bar collocation and packaging. According to WitsView, in the aspect of light bars, the new architecture adopts a short-side single-side light output, which can effectively avoid the occurrence of hot spots in the light emitting areas compared to the existing long-side one-side or two-side light designs. The introduction of the new design has the opportunity to reduce the spread between LED and CCFL backlight modules from the current $10 to $6.
Further improvements in the light guide plate can achieve brightness uniformity without using too many diodes. This year, the supplier will introduce more modules that use four light bars on both sides of the light design to replace the existing four light bars on the four sides of the light structure, directly saving one-third of the cost of the light source.
The light source accounts for more than half of the total cost of the LED TV backlight module, and the new design can reduce its cost by 20%. These products are mainly for LCD TVs and have been in production in Taiwan since the first quarter of 2010.
EL has lower brightness, shorter life, and is prone to signal interference. CCFL is cheaper than LED, especially in the large-size display, still competitive in the low-end market.
LED manufacturers in China and other regions are expanding their production capacity to avoid recurring supply shortages. Last year, global demand exceeded supply, and demand increased from 57 billion in 2008 to 63 billion. In 2009, sales revenue increased by 11%, from US$6.1 billion in 2008 to US$6.8 billion. The production level is very close to the capacity, and the capacity utilization rate of many manufacturers is close to 100%. According to market research company iSuppli, due to the possibility of significant increase in orders in the near future, this year's supply shortage may also occur.
To increase production, manufacturers are integrating chip and wafer production, packaging, and testing resources. Some manufacturers are strengthening vertical integration and optimizing the raw material procurement process, while at the same time tightening the introduction of new models.
On the whole, the heat is mainly concentrated in the domestic market, and overseas markets have only just begun to heat up. Asia and Europe, specifically Taiwan and Italy, are the main sales destinations.
Most of the companies surveyed had sales growth of about 5% in 2009, the same as in 2008. Some companies have very aggressive growth expectations and believe that the global economy will stabilize and orders will pick up. These manufacturers estimate that sales revenue is expected to increase by 20-50% this year.
Shenzhen Chuangren Technology Co., Ltd. is engaged in the production of liquid crystal modules and backlights. It is expected that sales will increase by 50% by the end of 2010. Its monthly production capacity is 800,000, and its current capacity utilization rate is 97%. According to Li Dong, general manager of the company, it is already planning to expand production capacity to meet potential demand growth.
Other companies will focus on improving the level of customization to better meet customer needs.
Opportunities in Large-Scale Applications China's LCD backlight industry mainly produces small and medium-sized products for consumer electronics applications. The LED side light and the LEDs installed at the bottom of the screen account for the majority. The latter has better light emission uniformity, while the former is more popular.
Red, blue, yellow, orange, yellow-green, and white diodes dominate. Household appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners, mobile phones and on-board equipment are the main application areas.
As the field of small and medium-sized LED backlights has basically matured, manufacturers believe that there will be no new development in the manufacturing process within a few years. R&D activities focus on customization, especially on the form factor, as well as color and brightness. In order to improve quality, manufacturers are increasingly using injection molded light guide plates, reducing the use of traditional printed light guide plates. This technology allows the production of light guide plates and dots at the same time, which can increase optical uniformity.
At the same time, more and more manufacturers are seizing the trend toward large-scale backlighting and actively increasing the output of LEDs and CCFLs for 10 inch and larger panel sizes. According to Displaybank, the global production of large panel backlights this year is expected to reach 590 million or 15.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 5.2 billion and 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, respectively. Displaybank further predicts that the compound annual growth rate for 2007-2013 will be 12%, and it will reach 770 million in 2013.
Although the cost is higher, the penetration rate of LED will increase. This is because people's influence on the mercury content has become more and more important, which has led to a slowdown in the acceptance rate of CCFLs. DisplaySearch estimates that LED-based large-screen backlight shipments will grow to 770 million by 2015, compared to 114 million in 2009. In 2011, the large LED backlight will exceed CCFL for the first time, and the penetration rate will reach 74% after two years.
Although the cost is higher, the penetration rate of LED will increase. This is because people's influence on the mercury content has become more and more important, which has led to a slowdown in the growth of CCFLs.
The strongest growth driver comes from laptops. By the end of 2010, 84% of laptops will have LED backlighting, and by the end of 2011 they will reach 95%. The LCD TV's LED backlight penetration rate will reach 20% annually, rising to 72% in 2015. During this period, shipments will increase from 36.5 million to 184.9 million.
Due to the large price difference, this transition has not been successful in the LCD monitor field. However, manufacturers believe that the Energy Star 5.0 standard was implemented in July 2009, suggesting that the CCFL will gradually withdraw from the market. They expect that LED sales will increase in the near future.
Although the outlook is very good, suppliers in mainland China face challenges and need to reduce management costs in order to maintain competitive prices and reduce the spread between LED and CCFL. Due to technical obstacles, only a few companies, including BOE, Shenzhen Diguang Electronics, Weizhi Electronics, and SHL, are currently mass producing both LED and CCFL backlights for large-scale applications. Old foreign companies and Taiwanese companies occupy this area, making it difficult for newcomers to enter.
BOE is one of the major players in the field of TFT LCD and backlighting and has four backlit production lines in Beijing, Suzhou and Xiamen. It invested 6 million US dollars to build a new factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. The plant is expected to produce 500,000 backlights per month, including 200,000 for 19-inch widescreens and 300,000 for 26-inch TVs. The LED backlight faces 1.5-3.5 inch portable product panels, 10.4-inch industrial monitors, 12.1-17 inch notebooks, and LCD monitor panels. A 32-47 inch backlight for television is under development.
About 70-80% of the output of Shenzhen Diguang Electronics is LED backlighting for 19, 22, 24, 26, 32, 42, 47 and 55 inch LCD monitors and TV panels. The thickness of these products is usually 7 to 13.3 mm. Weizhi Electronics has developed a series of backlights, including side-entry and bottom-emission.
TV manufacturers such as Hisense, TCL and Skyworth are also major suppliers of TFT LCDs and large screen backlights. Hisense established its own LED backlight production line in 2008. TCL Group is working with Taiwan Zhongqiang Optoelectronics to build a similar factory. Skyworth introduced such backlights for 37-inch and larger panels. Tsinghua Tongfang will invest about 9 million U.S. dollars in this area.
Small and strong industrial layout China has about 100 LCD backlighting companies, which are mainly distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian provinces, and are concentrated in cities such as Shenzhen, Dongguan, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Xiamen.
Major manufacturers include BOE, Diguang, Weizhi, SHL and Puray Optoelectronics. In the past three years, many manufacturers have expanded their product portfolio to include LED displays, light bulbs, packages, wafers, and chips.
SMEs basically use the same manufacturing process. Due to the relatively mature industry, their technical differences are not very obvious. Many companies employ 100 people and have a monthly capacity of 500,000 to 1 million. Manual assembly is performed in a class 1000 clean room and quality control tests are performed inside the factory. LGP Injection works primarily with OEM partners.
Taiwan, South Korea and Japan suppliers, including Zhongqiang, Radiant, and K-Bridge, which build factories in China, have intensified competition. However, these foreign-funded enterprises are currently focusing on notebooks, monitors and LCD TV backlighting, making the competition in the field of small-sized panel backlights more equitable.
The backlight accounts for 20-35% of the cost of the finished product of the liquid crystal display. The finished LCD also includes LGPs, optical films, and LED or CCFL light sources.
For small and medium-sized applications, almost all of the vendor's materials are purchased from suppliers in the Pearl River Delta region and Xiamen. As the supply of raw materials and costs are expected to remain stable, the prices of these backlights will remain at 0.30-0.40 USD.
Large backlight manufacturers source LEDs from Taiwan because of their high stability and uniformity. Due to the expected shortage of chips, many expect prices to increase slightly in the coming months. The price of a large LED backlight is 60-100 dollars higher than CCFL.
LED energy-saving advantages and performance stability have made LED a mainstream industry in Hong Kong, although local suppliers are still supplying EL and CCFL.
Most backlights are used for small and medium displays, for portable electronic products such as GPS, handheld game players, DVD players, mobile phones, and 10-14 inch monitors. Also used for instrumentation, machinery, and automotive dashboards. Some large companies are targeting LCD TVs and 15-inch and above screens.
Product development centers around improving drive circuitry, reducing costs, improving brightness, and reducing size. In addition to manufacturing, some suppliers can also provide design and device integration assembly services.
The industry includes optoelectronics specialists that offer a range of LED models, including backlighting. Diodes come in different colors, sizes, and shapes. Typical diagonal dimensions are 1.8, 2, 3.5, and 4.4 inches, but 1.6-inch ultra-thin light guides are also available, with a thickness of only 0.3 to 0.5 mm.
For monochrome applications such as gauges and character displays, yellow, green, red, blue, orange, and white are popular. The LEDs used in cell phones and digital cameras usually contain two or three colors.
EL still has some markets in the entry-level segment, with the advantage of lower costs. Due to the adverse impact on the environment, CCFL continues to shrink. EL also has a variety of colors. CCFL is used for keyboards and switches, as well as lighting for large advertising displays and signs. Some Hong Kong suppliers that do not have manufacturing capabilities have purchased surplus inventory from mainland factories or used second-hand backlights for export.
Toyo LED Electronics Ltd has introduced white, yellow, orange, blue, and yellow-green LEDs in standard sizes 70x19, 76x44, 83x46, 85x30, 89x35, and 104x29mm with a thickness of 1.2 to 5.5mm. It also accepts special sizes and shapes. Special orders for colors and colors.
Tatt Shing Metal Work Mfy supplies EL backlights with metal pins, connectors and inverters, many with optional flash or dimming effects. The main application is the keyboard and diaphragm Switch.
Taiwan: Production focuses on LEDs CCFL and LED are the only two types of LCD light sources available from Taiwan suppliers. LED meets the needs of a new generation of ultra-thin consumer electronics products and consumes less power, so it is dominant in production. The price difference between these two technologies continues to shrink, further increasing the acceptance of LEDs.
At the same time, due to the fierce price competition among mainland manufacturers, the number of CCFL manufacturers in Taiwan has been decreasing, and currently there are less than 20 companies. There are more than 100 LED backlighting package design companies and more than 40 manufacturers.
Taiwanese manufacturers continue to develop light bar collocation and packaging. According to WitsView, in the aspect of light bars, the new architecture adopts a short-side single-side light output, which can effectively avoid the occurrence of hot spots in the light emitting areas compared to the existing long-side one-side or two-side light designs. The introduction of the new design has the opportunity to reduce the spread between LED and CCFL backlight modules from the current $10 to $6.
Further improvements in the light guide plate can achieve brightness uniformity without using too many diodes. This year, the supplier will introduce more modules that use four light bars on both sides of the light design to replace the existing four light bars on the four sides of the light structure, directly saving one-third of the cost of the light source.
The light source accounts for more than half of the total cost of the LED TV backlight module, and the new design can reduce its cost by 20%. These products are mainly for LCD TVs and have been in production in Taiwan since the first quarter of 2010.
Tengqiang Electronics Co.Ltd , http://www.xingdaele.com