lcd panel generations made in china

Flat-panel displays are thin panels of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying text, images, or video. Liquid crystal displays (LCD), OLED (organic light emitting diode) and microLED displays are not quite the same; since LCD uses a liquid crystal that reacts to an electric current blocking light or allowing it to pass through the panel, whereas OLED/microLED displays consist of electroluminescent organic/inorganic materials that generate light when a current is passed through the material. LCD, OLED and microLED displays are driven using LTPS, IGZO, LTPO, and A-Si TFT transistor technologies as their backplane using ITO to supply current to the transistors and in turn to the liquid crystal or electroluminescent material. Segment and passive OLED and LCD displays do not use a backplane but use indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conductive material, to pass current to the electroluminescent material or liquid crystal. In LCDs, there is an even layer of liquid crystal throughout the panel whereas an OLED display has the electroluminescent material only where it is meant to light up. OLEDs, LCDs and microLEDs can be made flexible and transparent, but LCDs require a backlight because they cannot emit light on their own like OLEDs and microLEDs.

Liquid-crystal display (or LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. They are usually made of glass but they can also be made out of plastic. Some manufacturers make transparent LCD panels and special sequential color segment LCDs that have higher than usual refresh rates and an RGB backlight. The backlight is synchronized with the display so that the colors will show up as needed. The list of LCD manufacturers:

Organic light emitting diode (or OLED displays) is a thin, flat panel made of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. OLED panels can also take the shape of a light panel, where red, green and blue light emitting materials are stacked to create a white light panel. OLED displays can also be made transparent and/or flexible and these transparent panels are available on the market and are widely used in smartphones with under-display optical fingerprint sensors. LCD and OLED displays are available in different shapes, the most prominent of which is a circular display, which is used in smartwatches. The list of OLED display manufacturers:

MicroLED displays is an emerging flat-panel display technology consisting of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. Like OLED, microLED offers infinite contrast ratio, but unlike OLED, microLED is immune to screen burn-in, and consumes less power while having higher light output, as it uses LEDs instead of organic electroluminescent materials, The list of MicroLED display manufacturers:

LCDs are made in a glass substrate. For OLED, the substrate can also be plastic. The size of the substrates are specified in generations, with each generation using a larger substrate. For example, a 4th generation substrate is larger in size than a 3rd generation substrate. A larger substrate allows for more panels to be cut from a single substrate, or for larger panels to be made, akin to increasing wafer sizes in the semiconductor industry.

"Samsung Display has halted local Gen-8 LCD lines: sources". THE ELEC, Korea Electronics Industry Media. August 16, 2019. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2019.

"TCL to Build World"s Largest Gen 11 LCD Panel Factory". www.businesswire.com. May 19, 2016. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.

"Panel Manufacturers Start to Operate Their New 8th Generation LCD Lines". 대한민국 IT포털의 중심! 이티뉴스. June 19, 2017. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019.

"TCL"s Panel Manufacturer CSOT Commences Production of High Generation Panel Modules". www.businesswire.com. June 14, 2018. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019.

"Samsung Display Considering Halting Some LCD Production Lines". 비즈니스코리아 - BusinessKorea. August 16, 2019. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2019.

Herald, The Korea (July 6, 2016). "Samsung Display accelerates transition from LCD to OLED". www.koreaherald.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.

"China"s BOE to have world"s largest TFT-LCD+AMOLED capacity in 2019". ihsmarkit.com. 2017-03-22. Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-17.

In recent time, China domestic companies like BOE have overtaken LCD manufacturers from Korea and Japan. For the first three quarters of 2020, China LCD companies shipped 97.01 million square meters TFT LCD. And China"s LCD display manufacturers expect to grab 70% global LCD panel shipments very soon.

BOE started LCD manufacturing in 1994, and has grown into the largest LCD manufacturers in the world. Who has the 1st generation 10.5 TFT LCD production line. BOE"s LCD products are widely used in areas like TV, monitor, mobile phone, laptop computer etc.

TianMa Microelectronics is a professional LCD and LCM manufacturer. The company owns generation 4.5 TFT LCD production lines, mainly focuses on making medium to small size LCD product. TianMa works on consult, design and manufacturing of LCD display. Its LCDs are used in medical, instrument, telecommunication and auto industries.

TCL CSOT (TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd), established in November, 2009. TCL has six LCD panel production lines commissioned, providing panels and modules for TV and mobile products. The products range from large, small & medium display panel and touch modules.

Established in 1996, Topway is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the design and manufacturing of industrial LCD module. Topway"s TFT LCD displays are known worldwide for their flexible use, reliable quality and reliable support. More than 20 years expertise coupled with longevity of LCD modules make Topway a trustworthy partner for decades. CMRC (market research institution belonged to Statistics China before) named Topway one of the top 10 LCD manufactures in China.

The Company engages in the R&D, manufacturing, and sale of LCD panels. It offers LCD panels for notebook computers, desktop computer monitors, LCD TV sets, vehicle-mounted IPC, consumer electronics products, mobile devices, tablet PCs, desktop PCs, and industrial displays.

► When the leading Korean players Samsung Display and LG Display exit LCD production, BOE will be the most significant player in the LCD market. Though OLED can replace the LCD, it will take years for it to be fully replaced.

► As foreign companies control evaporation material and machines, panel manufacturers seek a cheaper way to mass-produce OLED panels – inkjet printing.

When mainstream consumer electronics brands choose their device panels, the top three choices are Samsung Display, LG Display (LGD) and BOE (000725:SZ) – the first two from Korea and the third from China. From liquid-crystal displays (LCD) to active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED), display panel technology has been upgrading with bigger screen products.

From the early 1990s, LCDs appeared and replaced cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens, which enabled lighter and thinner display devices. Japanese electronics companies like JDI pioneered the panel technology upgrade while Samsung Display and LGD were nobodies in the field. Every technology upgrade or revolution is a chance for new players to disrupt the old paradigm.

The landscape was changed in 2001 when Korean players firstly made a breakthrough in the Gen 5 panel technology – the later the generation, the bigger the panel size. A large panel size allows display manufacturers to cut more display screens from one panel and create bigger-screen products. "The bigger the better" is a motto for panel makers as the cost can be controlled better and they can offer bigger-size products to satisfy the burgeoning middle-class" needs.

LCD panel makers have been striving to realize bigger-size products in the past four decades. The technology breakthrough of Gen 5 in 2002 made big-screen LCD TV available and it sent Samsung Display and LGD to the front row, squeezing the market share of Japanese panel makers.

The throne chair of LCD passed from Japanese companies to Korean enterprises – and now Chinese players are clinching it, replacing the Koreans. After twenty years of development, Chinese panel makers have mastered LCD panel technology and actively engage in large panel R&D projects. Mass production created a supply surplus that led to drops in LCD price. In May 2020, Samsung Display announced that it would shut down all LCD fabs in China and Korea but concentrate on quantum dot LCD (Samsung calls it QLED) production; LGD stated that it would close LCD TV panel fabs in Korea and focus on organic LED (OLED). Their retreats left BOE and China Stars to digest the LCD market share.

Consumer preference has been changing during the Korean fab"s recession: Bigger-or-not is fine but better image quality ranks first. While LCD needs the backlight to show colors and substrates for the liquid crystal layer, OLED enables lighter and flexible screens (curvy or foldable), higher resolution and improved color display. It itself can emit lights – no backlight or liquid layer is needed. With the above advantages, OLED has been replacing the less-profitable LCD screens.

Samsung Display has been the major screen supplier for high-end consumer electronics, like its own flagship cell phone products and Apple"s iPhone series. LGD dominated the large OLED TV market as it is the one that handles large-size OLED mass production. To further understand Korean panel makers" monopolizing position, it is worth mentioning fine metal mask (FMM), a critical part of the OLED RGB evaporation process – a process in OLED mass production that significantly affects the yield rate.

Prior to 2018, Samsung Display and DNP"s monopolistic supply contract prevented other panel fabs from acquiring quality FMM products as DNP bonded with Hitachi Metal, the "only" FMM material provider choice for OLED makers. After the contract expired, panel makers like BOE could purchase FFM from DNP for their OLED R&D and mass production. Except for FFM materials, vacuum evaporation equipment is dominated by Canon Tokki, a Japanese company. Its role in the OLED industry resembles that of ASML in the integrated circuit space. Canon Tokki"s annual production of vacuum evaporation equipment is fewer than ten and thereby limits the total production of OLED panels that rely on evaporation technology.

The shortage of equipment and scarcity of materials inspired panel fabs to explore substitute technology; they discovered that inkjet printing has the potential to be the thing to replace evaporation. Plus, evaporation could be applied to QLED panels as quantum dots are difficult to be vaporized. Inkjet printing prints materials (liquefied organic gas or quantum dots) to substrates, saving materials and breaking free from FMM"s size restriction. With the new tech, large-size OLED panels can theoretically be recognized with improved yield rate and cost-efficiency. However, the tech is at an early stage when inkjet printing precision could not meet panel manufacturers" requirements.

Display and LGD are using evaporation on their OLED products. To summarize, OLED currently adopts evaporation and QLED must go with inkjet printing, but evaporation is a more mature tech. Technology adoption will determine a different track for the company to pursue. With inkjet printing technology, players are at a similar starting point, which is a chance for all to run to the front – so it is for Chinese panel fabs. Certainly, panel production involves more technologies (like flexible panels) than evaporation or inkjet printing and only mastering all required technologies can help a company to compete at the same level.

Presently, Chinese panel fabs are investing heavily in OLED production while betting on QLED. BOE has four Gen 6 OLED product lines, four Gen 8.5 and one Gen 10.5 LCD lines; China Star, controlled by the major appliance titan TCL, has invested two Gen 6 OLED fabs and four large-size LCD product lines.

Remembering the last "regime change" that occurred in 2005 when Korean fabs overtook Japanese" place in the LCD market, the new phase of panel technology changed the outlook of the industry. Now, OLED or QLED could mark the perfect time for us to expect landscape change.

After Samsung Display and LGD ceding from LCD TV productions, the vacant market share will be digested by BOE, China Star and other LCD makers. Indeed, OLED and QLED have the potential to take over the LCD market in the future, but the process may take more than a decade. Korean companies took ten years from panel fab"s research on OLED to mass production of small- and medium-size OLED electronics. Yet, LCD screen cell phones are still available in the market.

LCD will not disappear until OLED/QLED"s cost control can compete with it. The low- to middle-end panel market still prefers cheap LCD devices and consumers are satisfied with LCD products – thicker but cheaper. BOE has been the largest TV panel maker since 2019. As estimated by Informa, BOE and China Star will hold a duopoly on the flat panel display market.

BOE"s performance seems to have ridden on a roller coaster ride in the past several years. Large-size panel mass production like Gen 8.5 and Gen 10.5 fabs helped BOE recognize the first place in production volume. On the other side, expanded large-size panel factories and expenses of OLED product lines are costly: BOE planned to spend CNY 176.24 billion (USD 25.92 billion) – more than Tibet"s 2019 GDP CNY 169.78 billion – on Chengdu and Mianyang"s Gen 6 AMOLED lines and Hefei and Wuhan"s Gen 10.5 LCD lines.

Except for making large-size TVs, bigger panels can cut out more display screens for smaller devices like laptops and cell phones, which are more profitable than TV products. On its first-half earnings concall, BOE said that it is shifting its production focus to cell phone and laptop products as they are more profitable than TV products. TV, IT and cell phone products counted for 30%, 44% and 33% of its productions respectively and the recent rising TV price may lead to an increased portion of TV products in the short term.

Except for outdoor large screens, TV is another driver that pushes panel makers to research on how to make bigger and bigger screens. A research done by CHEARI showed that Chinese TV sales dropped by 10.6% to CNY 128.2 billion from 2018 to 2019. Large-size TV sales increased as a total but the unit price decreased; high-end products like laser TV and OLED TV saw a strong growth of 131.2% and 34.1%, respectively.

The demand for different products may vary as lifestyles change and panel fabs need to make on-time judgments and respond to the change. For instance, the coming Olympics is a new driving factor to boost TV sales; "smart city" projects around the world will need more screens for data visualization; people will own more screens and better screens when life quality improves. Flexible screens, cost-efficient production process, accessible materials, changing market and all these problems are indeed the next opportunity for the industry.

One of today’s modern technological wonders is the flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, which is the key component we find inside televisions, computer monitors, smartphones, and an ever-proliferating range of gadgets that display information electronically.What most people don’t realize is how complex and sophisticated the manufacturing process is. The entire world’s supply is made within two time zones in East Asia. Unless, of course, the factory proposed by Foxconn for Wisconsin actually gets built.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) screens are manufactured by assembling a sandwich of two thin sheets of glass.On one of the sheets are transistor “cells” formed by first depositing a layer of indium tin oxide (ITO), an unusual metal alloy that you can actually see through.That’s how you can get electrical signals to the middle of a screen.Then you deposit a layer of silicon, followed by a process that builds millions of precisely shaped transistor parts.This patterning step is repeated to build up tiny little cells, one for each dot (known as a pixel) on the screen.Each step has to be precisely aligned to the previous one within a few microns.Remember, the average human hair is 40 microns in diameter.

On the other sheet of glass, you make an array of millions of red, green, and blue dots in a black matrix, called a color filter array (CFA).This is how you produce the colors when you shine light through it.Then you drop tiny amounts of liquid crystal material into the cells on the first sheet and glue the two sheets together.You have to align the two sheets so the colored dots sit right on top of the cells, and you can’t be off by more than a few microns in each direction anywhere on the sheet.The sandwich is next covered with special sheets of polarizing film, and the sheets are cut into individual “panels” – a term that is used to describe the subassembly that actually goes into a TV.

For the sake of efficiency, you would like to make as many panels on a sheet as possible, within the practical limitations of how big a sheet you can handle at a time.The first modern LCD Fabs built in the early 1990s made sheets the size of a single notebook computer screen, and the size grew over time. A Gen 5 sheet, from around 2003, is 1100 x 1300 mm, while a Gen 10.5 sheet is 2940 x 3370 mm (9.6 x 11 ft).The sheets of glass are only 0.5 - 0.7 mm thick or sometimes even thinner, so as you can imagine they are extremely fragile and can really only be handled by robots.The Hefei Gen 10.5 fab is designed to produce the panels for either eight 65 inch or six 75 inch TVs on a single mother glass.If you wanted to make 110 inch TVs, you could make two of them at a time.

The fab is enormous, 1.3 km from one end to the other, divided into three large buildings connected by bridges.LCD fabs are multi-story affairs.The main equipment floor is sandwiched between a ground floor that is filled with chemical pipelines, power distribution, and air handling equipment, and a third floor that also has a lot of air handling and other mechanical equipment.The main equipment floor has to provide a very stable environment with no vibrations, so an LCD fab typically uses far more structural steel in its construction than a typical skyscraper.I visited a Gen 5 fab in Taiwan in 2003, and the plant manager there told me they used three times as much structural steel as Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building from 2004- 2010.Since the equipment floor is usually one or two stories up, there are large loading docks on the outside of the building.When they bring the manufacturing equipment in, they load it onto a platform and hoist it with a crane on the outside of the building.That’s one way to recognize an LCD fab from the outside – loading docks on high floors that just open to the outdoors.

LCD fabs have to maintain strict standards of cleanliness inside.Any dust particles in the air could cause defects in the finished displays – tiny dark spots or uneven intensities on your screen.That means the air is passed through elaborate filtration systems and pushed downwards from the ceiling constantly.Workers have to wear special clean room protective clothing and scrub before entering to minimize dust particles or other contamination.People are the largest source of particles, from shedding dead skin cells, dust from cosmetic powders, or smoke particles exhaled from the lungs of workers who smoke.Clean rooms are rated by the number of particles per cubic meter of air.A class 100 cleanroom has less than 100 particles less than 0.3 microns in diameter per cubic meter of air, Class 10 has less than 10 particles, and so on. Fab 9 has hundeds of thousands of square meters of Class 100 cleanroom, and many critical areas like photolithography are Class 10.In comparison, the air in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA is roughly Class 8,000,000, and probably gets substantially worse when an MBTA bus passes through.

The Hefei Gen 10.5 is one of the most sophisticated manufacturing plants in the world.On opening day for the fab, BOE shipped panels to Sony, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Vizio, and Haier.So if you have a new 65 or 75-inch TV, there is some chance the LCD panel came from here.

China"s first 8.5-generation TFT-LCD production line was launched in Bengbu, East China"s Anhui province, on June 18, 2019, representing a breakthrough in the production of high-definition LCD screen, Science and Technology Daily reported.

TFT-LCD, or Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display, is key strategic material of the electronic information display industry. The Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD production line, launched by the Bengbu Glass Industry Design and Research Institute of the China National Building Material Group, will produce high-definition LCD screens of 55 inches, the report said.

According to the Liquid Crystal Branch of the China Optics and Optoelectronics Manufactures Association, the demand for TFT-LCD in the Chinese mainland was about 260 million square meters in 2018, including 233 million square meters" Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD. However, the annual supply of domestically made TFT-LCD is less than 40 million square meters, with all of them Gen 6 or below, which cannot meet the demand in scale and quantity.

The association predicted that China"s market demand for Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD or above will exceed 300 million square meters by 2020, accounting for 49.6 percent of the total global demand.

The production and control precision of Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD is comparable to that of the semiconductor industry, representing a higher level of large-scale manufacturing of modern glass industry.

The institute in Bengbu, with 60 years of expertise in glass, has finally made a breakthrough in the production of Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD, and will provide key raw material guarantee for China"s LCD panel industry after it goes into mass production in September, the report said.

LCD manufacturers are mainly located in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan. Almost all the lcd or TFT manufacturers have built or moved their lcd plants to China on the past decades. Top TFT lcd and oled display manufactuers including BOE, COST, Tianma, IVO from China mainland, and Innolux, AUO from Tianwan, but they have established factories in China mainland as well, and other small-middium sizes lcd manufacturers in China.

China flat display revenue has reached to Sixty billion US Dollars from 2020. there are 35 tft lcd lines (higher than 6 generation lines) in China,China is the best place for seeking the lcd manufacturers.

The first half of 2021, BOE revenue has been reached to twenty billion US dollars, increased more than 90% than thesame time of 2020, the main revenue is from TFT LCD, AMoled. BOE flexible amoled screens" output have been reach to 25KK pcs at the first half of 2021.the new display group Micro LED revenue has been increased to 0.25% of the total revenue as well.

Established in 1993 BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd. is the top1 tft lcd manufacturers in China, headquarter in Beijing, China, BOE has 4 lines of G6 AMOLED production lines that can make flexible OLED, BOE is the authorized screen supplier of Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc,the first G10.5 TFT line is made in BOE.BOE main products is in large sizes of tft lcd panel,the maximum lcd sizes what BOE made is up to 110 inch tft panel, 8k resolution. BOE is the bigger supplier for flexible AM OLED in China.

Technology Co., Ltd), established in 2009. CSOT is the company from TCL, CSOT has eight tft LCD panel plants, four tft lcd modules plants in Shenzhen, Wuhan, Huizhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou and in India. CSOTproviding panels and modules for TV and mobile

three decades.Tianma is the leader of small to medium size displays in technologyin China. Tianma have the tft panel factories in Shenzhen, Shanhai, Chendu, Xiamen city, Tianma"s Shenzhen factory could make the monochrome lcd panel and LCD module, TFT LCD module, TFT touch screen module. Tianma is top 1 manufactures in Automotive display screen and LTPS TFT panel.

Tianma and BOE are the top grade lcd manufacturers in China, because they are big lcd manufacturers, their minimum order quantity would be reached 30k pcs MOQ for small sizes lcd panel. price is also top grade, it might be more expensive 50%~80% than the market price.

Panda electronics is established in 1936, located in Nanjing, Jiangshu, China. Panda has a G6 and G8.6 TFT panel lines (bought from Sharp). The TFT panel technologies are mainly from Sharp, but its technology is not compliance to the other tft panels from other tft manufactures, it lead to the capacity efficiency is lower than other tft panel manufacturers. the latest news in 2022, Panda might be bougt to BOE in this year.

Established in 2005, IVO is located in Kunsan,Jiangshu province, China, IVO have more than 3000 employee, 400 R&D employee, IVO have a G-5 tft panel production line, IVO products are including tft panel for notebook, automotive display, smart phone screen. 60% of IVO tft panel is for notebook application (TOP 6 in the worldwide), 23% for smart phone, 11% for automotive.

Besides the lcd manufacturers from China mainland,inGreater China region,there are other lcd manufacturers in Taiwan,even they started from Taiwan, they all have built the lcd plants in China mainland as well,let"s see the lcd manufacturers in Taiwan:

Innolux"s 14 plants in Taiwan possess a complete range of 3.5G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G, 6G, 7.5G, and 8.5G-8.6G production line in Taiwan and China mainland, offering a full range of large/medium/small LCD panels and touch-control screens.including 4K2K ultra-high resolution, 3D naked eye, IGZO, LTPS, AMOLED, OLED, and touch-control solutions,full range of TFT LCD panel modules and touch panels, including TV panels, desktop monitors, notebook computer panels, small and medium-sized panels, and medical and automotive panels.

AUO is the tft lcd panel manufacturers in Taiwan,AUO has the lcd factories in Tianma and China mainland,AUOOffer the full range of display products with industry-leading display technology,such as 8K4K resolution TFT lcd panel, wide color gamut, high dynamic range, mini LED backlight, ultra high refresh rate, ultra high brightness and low power consumption. AUO is also actively developing curved, super slim, bezel-less, extreme narrow bezel and free-form technologies that boast aesthetic beauty in terms of design.Micro LED, flexible and foldable AMOLED, and fingerprint sensing technologies were also developed for people to enjoy a new smart living experience.

Hannstar was found in 1998 in Taiwan, Hannstar display hasG5.3 TFT-LCD factory in Tainan and the Nanjing LCM/Touch factories, providing various products and focus on the vertical integration of industrial resources, creating new products for future applications and business models.

driver, backlight etc ,then make it to tft lcd module. so its price is also more expensive than many other lcd module manufacturers in China mainland.

Maclight is a China based display company, located in Shenzhen, China. ISO9001 certified, as a company that more than 10 years working experiences in display, Maclight has the good relationship with top tft panel manufacturers, it guarantee that we could provide a long term stable supply in our products, we commit our products with reliable quality and competitive prices.

Maclight products included monochrome lcd, TFT lcd module and OLED display, touch screen module, Maclight is special in custom lcd display, Sunlight readable tft lcd module, tft lcd with capacitive touch screen. Maclight is the leader of round lcd display. Maclight is also the long term supplier for many lcd companies in USA and Europe.

If you want tobuy lcd moduleorbuy tft screenfrom China with good quality and competitive price, Maclight would be a best choice for your glowing business.

When reading the headlines, you may have wondered what ‘Generation’ actually means in LCD panel manufacturing, when did this concept start, what the cutting size of each generation, and what field of application.

The LCD panel is composed of two thin glass substrates with a layer of liquid crystal molecules in between. During production, the glass substrate used has a fixed size, and then cut to various sizes of panels.

This involves a problem: how to cut the glass substrate will make the utilization rate of raw materials higher and the economic benefit of the final product better. Therefore, the LCD panel production line is divided into different generations.

The higher the generation of the panel, the more screens will be cut. The glass substrates that are the foundation of panels are called ‘Mother Glass’. Generation is determined based on the size of the mother glass. We use ‘G’ for ‘Generation’ after the latest number to name each generation. For example, “Generation 4.5” is written as “G4.5”.

Initially, the LCD manufacturing process was affected by technology and could not produce large-sized glass substrates. Therefore, the average size of glass substrates at that time was about 270×360mm, and this size was the G1.

That is, there is no strict definition for the number of lines of LCD panel generations, and just a conventional term in the industry. Generally, the generation is represented by the size of the glass substrate used in the production line.

With the development of display panels, each generation of mother glass has increased significantly in size. Usually, the size has doubled with each successive generation.

There are mainly two kinds of panels on the market: LCD and OLED. Because of the difference in display mechanism and production process, there are also differences in the generation of production lines.

It is unreasonable to say that the OLED of G6 is inferior to the LCD of G10.5. The higher the generation number, the more advanced the technology is not necessarily.

The generation of production line is closely related to the size of glass substrate. In the past decades, with the continuous development of LCD technology, the size of LCD panels are also growing. From the original G1 to the current G11 , the size of the base plate has grown to 3000x3320mm.

Therefore, panel manufacturers have to consider the panel size favored by consumers when building new production lines and selecting the generation. The generation can be determined only after the market demand is predicted and the glass substrate size with the best cutting efficiency is calculated.

China is the leader in producing LCD display panels, with a forecast capacity share of 56 percent in 2020. China"s share is expected to increase in the coming years, stabilizing at 69 percent from 2023 onwards.Read moreLCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by countryCharacteristicChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwan-----

DSCC. (June 8, 2020). LCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by country [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/

DSCC. "LCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by country." Chart. June 8, 2020. Statista. Accessed January 27, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/

DSCC. (2020). LCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by country. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: January 27, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/

DSCC. "Lcd Panel Production Capacity Share from 2016 to 2025, by Country." Statista, Statista Inc., 8 Jun 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/

DSCC, LCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by country Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/ (last visited January 27, 2023)

LCD panel production capacity share from 2016 to 2025, by country [Graph], DSCC, June 8, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056470/lcd-panel-production-capacity-country/

LG Display and Samsung Display are struggling to find their ways out of the deterioration of their performance even after withdrawing from production of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. The high-priced organic light emitting diode (OLED) panel sector regarded as a future growth engine is not growing fast due to the economic downturn. Even in the OLED panel sector, Chinese display makers are within striking distance of Korean display makers, experts say.

On Aug. 30, Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), a market research company, predicted that LCD TV panel prices hit an all-time low in August and that an L-shaped recession will continue in the fourth quarter. According to DSCC, the average price of a 65-inch ultra-high-definition (UHD) panel in August was only US$109, a 62 percent drop from the highest price of US$288 recorded in July in 2021. The average price of a 75-inch UHD panel was only US$218, which was only about half of the highest price of US$410 in July last year. DSCC predicted that the average panel price in the third quarter will fall by 15.7 percent. As Chinese companies’ price war and the effect of stagnation in consumption overlapped, the more LCD panels display makers produce, the more loss they suffer.

As panel prices fell, manufacturers responded by lowering facility utilization rates. DSCC said that the LCD factory utilization rate descended from 87 percent in April to 83 percent in May, 73 percent in June, and 70 percent in July.

Now that the LCD panel business has become no longer lucrative, Korean display makers have shut down their LCD business or shrunk their sizes. In the LCD sector, China has outpaced Korea since 2018. China’s LCD market share reached 50.9 percent in 2021, while that of Korea dropped to 14.4 percent, lower than Taiwan’s 31.6 percent.

Samsung Display already announced its withdrawal from the LCD business in June. Only 10 years have passed since the company was spun off from Samsung Electronics in 2012. LG Display has decided to halt domestic LCD TV panel production until 2023 and reorganize its business structure centering on OLED panels. Its Chinese LCD production line will be gradually converted to produce LCD panels for IT or commercial products. TrendForce predicted that LG Display will stop operating its P7 Plant in the first quarter of next year.

Korean display makers’ waning LCD business led to a situation in which Korea even lost first place in the display industry. Korea with a display market share of 33.2 percent was already overtaken by China with 41.5 percent) in 2021 according to market researcher Omdia and the Korea Display Industry Association. Korea’s market share has never rebounded in for five years since 2017 amid the Korean government’s neglect. Seventeen years have passed since 2004 when Korea overtook Japan to rise to the top of the world in the LCD industry. Korea’s LCD exports amounted to more than US$30 billion in 2014, but fell to US$21.4 billion last year.

A bigger problem is that Korean display makers may lose its leadership in the OLED panel sector although it is still standing at the top spot. While Korea’s OLED market share fell from 98.1 percent in 2016 to 82.8 percent last year, that of China rose from 1.1 percent to 16.6 percent. Considering that the high-end TV market is highly likely to shrink for the time being due to a full-fledged global consumption contraction, some analysts say that the technology gap between Korea and China can be sharply narrowed through this looming TV market slump. According to industry sources, the Chinese government is now focusing on giving subsidies to the development of OLED panel technology rather LCD technology. On the other hand, in Korea, displays were also wiped out from national strategic technology industry items under the Restriction of Special Taxation Act which can receive tax benefits for R&D activities on displays.

According to the Korean media reports, BOE’s OLED screen will give a strong competition to Samsung in the next 2 years. BOE may start shipping the OLED panels to Apple in 2020. According to the South Korean analysts, BOE will ship 45 million OLED panels for the iPhone in 2021.

Existing iPhone screens have a separate touch-sensitive layer which sits on top of the actual display. But Samsung offers a next-generation design known as touch-integrated flexible OLED panels which, as the name suggests, allow both jobs to be achieved within a single layer.

With the global industrial transfer and technology upgrade, a group of leading flat display panel manufacturers from mainland China is taking the opportunities and competing in the global market with their predecessors from South Korea and Taiwan.

Flat display panel (FDP) mainly refers to the display technology used for electronic devices such as televisions, desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Today is the age of information. The role of information display technology in people’s social activities and daily life is increasing rapidly. 80% of human information is obtained from vision, and the interaction between various information system terminal devices and people needs to be realized through information display.

The panel industry has become the leader of the optoelectronic industry, second only to microelectronics in the information industry, and has become one of the most important industries.

Display panel products mainly include liquid crystal panels (LCD), plasma panels, and organic light-emitting diode panels (OLED). At present, plasma panels have been completely withdrawn from the market due to factors such as large thickness, low resolution, and high price.

On the other side, the display panel industry is a particularly typical case of the “Eastward spread of Western Culture ”. The production capacity is transferred from the United States to the Chinese mainland step by step, following the route of “the origin from the United States – the development byJapan – the overtaking by South Korea – the rise of Taiwan area – scale and further development in mainland China”.

In 1962, Radio Corporation of America(RCA) developed the first LCD display model, and then relevant technologies were introduced to Japan, which made a crazy investment in LCD. By the 1990s, Japanese enterprises had almost forestalled the entire LCD market. Enterprises with the spirit of “LCD craftsman” represented by Sharp have made contributions to the research and development of LCD technology.

In the mid-1990s, South Korea took advantage of the trough of the liquid crystal cycle to expand substantially and replaced Japan’s position around 2000. By 2009, BOE from mainland China announced the construction of the 8.5 generation line, breaking the technical blockade of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Subsequently, Japanese and Korean companies such as Sharp, Samsung, and LG finalized the plan to build the 8th generation line in China at an alarming speed. Since then, mainland China’s LCD industry has entered a period of rapid expansion for ten years.

Until 2008, China’s LCD panels were still completely dependent on imports. Even in China’s annual consumption of imported materials, LCD panels ranked fourth after oil, iron ore, and chips.

After development in recent years, China’s panel industry has caught up from behind. In 2015, the LCD panel production capacity accounted for 23% of the world in total. With the Korean manufacturers having announced to withdrawal from LCD and turn to OLED, the global LCD production capacity has further gathered in mainland China. In 2020, China’s LCD production capacity has already ranked first in the world, and mainland produced about half of the – LCD panels global.

At present, Chinese LCD manufacturers are mainly focusing on the further layouts of high-generation LCDs. From 2020 to 2021, in mainland China, BOE, TCL, HKC, and CEC will successively put into production a total of 8 important production lines larger than 7-generation.

In 2020, the outbreak of the global epidemic has led to the adoption of blockade measures around the world. The mode of remote working and learning has led to a consumption surge of laptop electronic terminal products, overlapping the shortage of upstream materials, the global panel entered a new round of price rise cycle in June 2020.

According to WitsView quotes, the average price of 55″W (3840 x 2160) panels has risen from $103 in June 2020 to $176 in early January 2020, up $73 in just seven months.

In order to ensure the normal panel supply to their own terminals, both Samsung and LGD have announced a delay in closing the LCD production line. At present, LG P7 and P8 production lines are definitely delayed to exit completely by the end of 2021. Samsung L7-2 is planned to be shut down in the first quarter of 2020, and has not given a clear exit schedule for the remaining two lines of L8-1 and L8-2.

From the perspective of the regional distribution of enterprises in the panel supply chain, panel enterprises are mainly distributed in coastal provinces.

From the perspective of competitiveness, BOE and Tianma are currently more competitive in the panel industry both accounting for more than 98% of panel-related business.

BOE97.36%The business revenue of mainland China accounted for 48.13%, and other Asian countries accounted for 40.50%, the Americas 7.64%, and the rest of the region less than 5%.For TFT-LCD: 55,628 thousand square meters;

While in the TFT-LCD market, leading manufacturers include BOE, HKC, TCL, Innolux, AUO, Tianma Panda, CAIHONG, and IVO. Among them, BOE, TCL, Innolux, and AUO lead the Chinese TFT-LCD market due to their production capacity advantages.

This year, Samsung, LG, and other Korean panel giants have announced the cessation of LCD panel production. In addition, to the local retention of part of the production capacity, these companies are basically out of the LCD market. They will now focus on the OLED market but even here, the competition is growing. In the OLED market, Chinese companies are catching up even faster, and the competition in this market is not easy.

According to recent reports, in 2019 the global OLED panel market, Samsung leads all other manufacturers. The South Korean manufacturer had an 85.4% market share. In second place was Chinese display manufacturer, BOE, with only 3.6% market share. LG ranks fourth with 2.8% market share after Pfizer in third position. However, LG’s strength is in the large size OELD panels market. It only recently started entering the small/medium panels market.

Although Samsung and LG are conveniently leading the OLED market presently, Chinese manufacturers are rising fast. The likes of BOE, Huaxing Optoelectronics, Pegasus Microelectronics, Vivienne, and other companies are vigorously building a 5.5 generation / 6 generation line of OLED production. There are speculations that the Chinese production of OLED panels in the next three years will increase significantly.

South Korean companies are worried that not only have Chinese companies have increased their production capacity significantly but after mastering LCD and OLED panel production technologies, they also have the same competing capital in the new generation of display technologies, such as mini LEDs, micro LEDs, and other emerging display panels. South Korean companies fear that if such development continues, Chinese companies will sooner or later take control of the entire industry chain, from upstream equipment to downstream products.

According to recent reports, LCD display manufacturing has now been taken over by Chinese manufacturers. Display makers like LG, Samsung, and others are now leaving the LCD display market for Chinese brands. These companies are now focusing on the OLED market. However, cheap smartphones will still make use of LCD displays. This means that more companies will now rely on these Chinese brands. According to a recent report, BOE may develop panels for Samsung’s entry-level models. These models will include the Samsung Galaxy A13, Galaxy A23, and other models.

There is news that BOE is only developing panels for Samsung’s entry-level models. However, according to relevant industry sources, at the end of March, Samsung had proposed to BOE to supply the next-generation flagship smartphone panel. According to reports, both companies are currently discussing technical verification and contract signing. If this is true and goes well, perhaps we will see the appearance of Chinese screens on future Samsung flagship phones.

Samsung originally planned to stop the production of LCD panels by the end of 2020. However, the LCD panel market started to increase prices in the past year or so. This made Samsung’s LCD factory continue to operate for another two years. However, the company originally plans to exit the market at the end of 2022. Nevertheless, the LCD panel market has changed since the end of last year. The price has been falling significantly and it is now on a free fall. By January this year, the average price of a 32 -inch panel was only $ 38, a 64% drop relative to January last year.

China may become the world’s largest LCD panel manufacturing base. Data shows that in the third quarter of this year, our country’s well-known display panel manufacturer BOE surpassed LG Display to become the world’s largest large-size panel manufacturer. At the same time, technological integration and breakthroughs in my country’s display industry are accelerating, and China’s display manufacturing is attracting more and more attention on the global stage.

Recently, market research agency IHS Markit released data showing that the third quarter. South Korea’s well-known panel manufacturer LG Display’s share of the global large-size panel market fell to 19.3%, and BOE’s market share reached 21.7%, which means that BOE surpassed LG to become the world’s largest large-size panel manufacturer.

This is another breakthrough made by BOE this year, and before that, BOE has successfully attracted global attention in the manufacture of small-size panels.A few days ago, BOE announced the mass production of the 6th generation flexible small-size OLED screen production line in Chengdu. It is China’s first 6th generation flexible small-size OLED screen production line, and the world’s second mass-production 6th generation flexible small-size OLED screen production line. The production line uses the world’s most advanced evaporation process, and uses flexible packaging technology to achieve display screen bending and folding. This year is considered to be the first year of my country’s mobile high-end flexible screen to break the South Korean Samsung’s exclusive monopoly and begin to become self-sufficient.

In addition to BOE, CSOT, another panel manufacturing company in my country, has also made many breakthroughs this year. Recently, TCL Group revealed that its subsidiary CSOT has increased its production capacity and continues to maintain full production and full sales. The order in the fourth quarter is in good condition. The production research and development of Wuhan Huaxing’s full-screen products is in progress, and mass production is expected in the fourth quarter.

It is reported that at present, CSOT already has one 11 generation line in Shenzhen, mainly producing TV panels; two 6th generation lines in Wuhan, mainly producing small-size panels such as mobile phones.

The transcripts handed over by BOE and CSOT are just a microcosm of the sudden rise of Chinese panel manufacturing in recent years. Previously, South Korean companies Samsung Display and LG Display occupies an absolute leading position in the global size of panel manufacturing, but now, the situation is changing. Chinese panel manufacturing companies represented by BOE, CSOT, and Tianma Technology are gradually strengthening their own strengths, and they are competing with Korean companies to compete for the “one brother” throne in the world panel manufacturing field.It shows that the industry is under construction and planned investment reaches 800 billion yuan.

At the same time that BOE became the world’s largest large-size panel manufacturer, Juhua Printing Display Public Platform was inaugurated on the 28th in Guangzhou. This is the first public open R&D platform for my country’s display industry.

According to the latest data from the China Electronics Video Association and the China Optical Optoelectronics Industry Association Liquid Crystal Branch, the investment in flat panel display production lines under construction and announced in my country has reached 800 billion yuan. Among them, the LCD panel investment exceeded 500 billion yuan. It is estimated that around 2019, my country will become the world’s largest flat panel display production base.

The information society shows everywhere. TVs, computers, smart phones, wearable devices, etc., are inseparable from the support of the display screen. According to statistics, in 2016 my country’s display industry operating income exceeded 200 billion yuan. In the first half of this year, my country’s display panel shipment area was about 57 million square meters, accounting for about 1/3 of global shipments, second only to South Korea in the world.

In fact, in addition to the breakthrough in the production line, this year, driven by the good news, my country’s panel companies have also handed out good transcripts in the A-share market. In the first three quarters of this year, BOE’s total revenue was 69.408 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.41%; the net profit was 6.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 450.45%; basic earnings per share was 0.185 yuan, an increase 4525%; and CSOT revenue and profits have also maintained strong growth, strongly driving TCL Group to “reverse the market” in the color TV field.

Regarding the development trend of China’s display industry, well-known home appliance industry analyst Liu Buchen told reporters that in recent years, Chinese panel manufacturing companies have developed rapidly. At present, in display technology, ordinary liquid crystal displays have no technical problems. Next, OLED, QLED and other futures The development of display technology will become the focus.

As Liu Buchen said, BOE’s products have become more and more mature in small-size OLED displays. Next, it is planned to develop flexible and foldable OLED small-size panels, while in large-size OLED displays, including BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics and other enterprises intend to break through key technologies through the form of cooperative research and development between Chinese and foreign companies to compete in the future display market.

Chinese companies have gained a competitive edge in the large-screen display industry and the exit of South Korean counterparts such as Samsung Electronics and LG Display from the liquid crystal display market will bring opportunities for China"s panel makers despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Market research firm Sigmaintell said BOE Technology Group Co Ltd－a leading Chinese supplier of display products and solutions－became the world"s largest shipper of LCD TV panels for the first time in 2019.

The Beijing-based company shipped 53.3 million units of LCD panels in 2019, with production capacity increasing by more than 20 percent on a yearly basis.Chinese companies have gained an upper hand in large-screen LCD displays. Samsung and LG"s decision to exit from the LCD sector means Chinese panel makers will take a dominant position in this field

The consultancy said the LCD TV panel production area of Chinese manufacturers will account for more than 50 percent of the global total this year, surpassing South Korean competitors who are accelerating the shutdown of large-sized LCD panel production capacity due to competition from Chinese manufacturers.

It estimated the production capacity of large-sized LCD panels will continue to increase in China over the next three years. In addition, global LCD TV panel shipments stood at 283 million pieces last year, a slight decrease of 0.2 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the shipment area was 160 million square meters, an increase of 6.3 percent year-on-year.

"Chinese companies have gained an upper hand in large-screen LCD displays. Samsung and LG"s decision to exit from the LCD sector means Chinese panel makers will take a dominant position in this field," said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese tech giant TCL Technology Group Corp.

Li said South Korean firms will focus on organic LED screens and quantum dot LED displays, while Chinese TV panel makers are catching up at a rapid pace.

Data consultancy Digitimes Research said it comes as little surprise that Samsung has opted to withdraw from the LCD panel sector as its LCD business was losing money in every quarter of 2019 due to challenges from Chinese competitors.

BOE said its Gen 10.5 TFTLCD production line achieved mass production in Hefei, Anhui province, in March 2018. The plant mainly produces high-definition LCD screens of 65 inches and above. With a total investment of 46 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion), the company"s second Gen 10.5 TFT-LCD production line launched operations in Wuhan, Hubei province, in December.

The Gen 11 TFT-LCD and active-matrix OLED production line of Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology, a subsidiary of TCL, officially entered operations in November 2018, producing 43-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch LCD screens.

Chen Lijuan, an analyst at Sigmaintell, said panel manufacturers should not just invest in production lines, but also pay more attention to the establishment of the whole supply chain, including raw materials, equipment and technology.

Bian Zheng, deputy director of research at AVC Revo, a unit of market consultancy firm AVC, said China will have a 51 percent market share in global TV shipments in 2020, while South Korea will have 25 percent, adding that large-screen TV panels will bolster healthy development of the industry.

Bian said the OLED and QLED will be the next-generation flat-panel display technologies to be in the spotlight. LG Display is currently the world"s only supplier of large-screen OLED TV panels.

OLED is a relatively new technology and part of recent display innovation. It has a fast response rate, wide viewing angles, super high-contrast images and richer colors. It is much thinner and can be made flexible, compared with traditional LCD display panels.