XR in the consumer electronics industry is blooming, and Micro OLED is expected to be the mainstream

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-01

Per AI Express, on January 11, 2024, Huajin** released a research report commenting on the consumer electronics industry.

Event Review: At 1 a.m. on January 10, 2024, CES 2024 opened as scheduled in Las Vegas, USA. According to the official data of the exhibition, the number of exhibitors at this year's CES 2024 will exceed 130,000, with 1,200+ startups and 4,000+ exhibitors participating. Focusing on "Artificial Intelligence" and "Tech for Good", this year's exhibition will cover 25 themes, including 5G communications, AI, AR VR, robotics and drones, Web3 and the metaverse.

High resolution + fast response speed + light weight Low power consumption has helped Micro-OLED become the mainstream choice of current XR equipment. Silicon-based OLED (Micro OLED) is a new display technology for the preparation of active-light-emitting OLED devices on monocrystalline silicon wafers. Due to the use of standard CMOS process to integrate OLED display devices in silicon-based backplanes, the fineness is much higher than that of traditional OLED devices, and the pixel size is only 1 10 of traditional display devices. The CMOS process is used to mass-produce large-scale integrated circuit chips, and the use of this process can realize the precise control of the luminous color of the micro OLED, displaying millions of colors, and the colors are more colorful. (1) High resolution: Micro OLED has the high image quality characteristics of OLED, which can be simply understood as a tiny OLED, and its backplane mainly uses high-mobility monocrystalline silicon wafers, which can achieve high resolution of over 4,000 ppi. (2) Fast response speed: the time required for pixel update is less than 1 s, while the update time of LCD is usually 10 15ms, a difference of 1,000 to 1,500 times, and the display screen of silicon-based OLED is smoother and reduces eye fatigue. (3) Lightweight and low power consumption: Compared with LCD, the power consumption is 20% smaller, the battery weight can be lighter, and the microdisplay is small in size, which is very easy to carry, and the near-eye display effect provided by its small size can be comparable to that of large-size AMOLED displays. For mixed reality (MR) headsets, it is necessary to take into account immersion, comfort and interactivity, so the requirements for FOV (Field of View), contrast, resolution and delay are very high, so it is expected to become the mainstream choice of current XR equipment with its high resolution, fast response, light weight and low power consumption.

Samsung Show 103-inch micro-OLED screen, multi-manufacturer XR new products are equipped with micro-OLED screens. At CES 2024, Samsung unveiled a new microdisplay from Oledos, designed to be used in XR headsets. Oledos (Silicon-Based Organic Light-Emitting Diode) uses an RGB sub-pixel structure, which is a piece of 1The 03-inch square screen is made by applying organic materials to silicon wafers and has a pixel density of up to 3,500ppi. Silicon-based OLED screens are based on monocrystalline silicon, which has the characteristics of high reliability, light weight, less power consumption, and high yield, making them more suitable for head-mounted devices. At present, there are a number of XR devices equipped with Micro-OLED, such as: (1) Vision Pro (Apple) is equipped with two pieces provided by Sony1The 42-inch microoled screen has more than 23 million pixels, a pixel density of 3386ppi, and costs about $700, which can account for about 46% of the total BOM cost. (2) Pancake 2 (Skyworth XR) is equipped with a Micro OLED screen, which can be 4K resolution per eye. (3) Rokid ArStudio is equipped with Sony Semiconductor Technology Micro OLED screen, with a brightness of up to 600nit, a screen resolution of 1920 1200, and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. (4) Thunderbird X2 is equipped with full-color MicroLED (provided by JBD) + diffractive light waveguide display scheme to achieve high brightness and high transparency display.

In XR, Sony's Micro OLED shipments are nearly 80%, and domestic construction is in full swing. Judging from the competitive landscape of near-eye display panel shipments (excluding shipments of military products), there are still few manufacturers that can mass-produce silicon-based OLED (microOLED). According to the data of Qunzhi Consulting, Sony accounts for 78% of the global XR industry's silicon-based OLED shipment market share, while Epson and Seeya account for 20% and 1% respectively. There are few manufacturers engaged in the development and production of silicon-based OLED displays in the world, and European and American companies entered the market earlier, mainly Emagin in the United States, Sony in Japan, Kopin in the United States, Microoled in France, Fraunhofer IPMS in Germany and MED in the United Kingdom. According to the statistics of Chaodian wearables, the current domestic silicon-based micro OLED production line mainly includes 7 8-inch factories of BOE, Xitai Technology, Aureid, Ruixian Technology, Guozhao Optoelectronics, Cuisong Optoelectronics and Qingyue, as well as 2 12-inch factories of Hongxi Technology and Shiya, and now there are 2 12-inch factories of Xitai Technology and Xinshijia under construction, as well as 12-inch factories planned by Huarui Optoelectronics, Lakeside Optoelectronics, and Guanyu Technology (Chuangwang), and there are 8 domestic 12-inch silicon-based Micro OLED factories, 6-inch and 8-inch combined, China will have 15 silicon-based micro OLED factories.

Investment suggestion: Silicon-based Micro OLED is a new type of microdisplay technology that combines semiconductor process technology and OLED panel technology, and is the core device of near-eye display system. Since Apple's entry into the market with Vision Pro in June 2023, the XR industry has transformed from traditional virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology to mixed reality (MR) technology. It is recommended to pay attention to silicon-based Micro OLED manufacturers whose related products have entered the ** chain or layout of major terminal manufacturers and have mature production lines. Related targets: BOE, Xitai Technology, Aored, Ruixian Technology, Guozhao Optoelectronics, Hongxi Technology, Shiya Technology, JBD, etc.

Risk warning: the risk of changes in the macroeconomic situation will impact the industrial chain; The market demand for virtual reality equipment is less than expected; Consumer XR content development falls short of expectations.

*: Huibo Investment Research).

Disclaimer: The content and data in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Do so at your own risk.

Edited by Tsang Kin-fai).

National Business Daily.

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