LED-backlit LCD TV business opportunities are highly anticipated, and related components bring new business opportunities to supply chain manufacturers. Due to the edge-lit LED backlight module, a large-size thin light guide plate must be used. At present, Taiwan's backlight module factory Zhongqiang Optoelectronics and Ruiyi can make 100% homemade NB light guide plate, but the large-size light guide plate still Need to go out. In the past, Taiwan's large-size light guide plates were mainly supplied by Fuxiang and Chimei Industrial. Recently, the diffusion board giant Yingtai also actively entered. Huahong also plans to introduce light guide plate printing and cutting business. It is obvious that the large-size ultra-thin light guide plate has become a new battle for panel components. Since Samsung has introduced a LED-backlit LCDTV with a body thickness of 2.99 cm, the thickness of 3 cm has almost become the upper limit of the thickness of the edge-lit LED backlight TV. The major manufacturers continue to introduce ultra-thin models. The light guide plate applied to the edge-lit LED backlight design has a large-sized ultra-thin light guide plate that meets the requirements of cost, area, and thickness (about 3-8 mm mm) in order to meet the requirements of large-scale and thin-film TV.遂 Become one of the key components of the LED-backlit LCDTV supply chain.
At present, Taiwan's backlight module factories, including China Optoelectronics, Ruiyi, etc., have internal injection machines that can directly produce the light guide plates required for NB backlight modules. However, large-sized light guide plates used in LCDMonitor and LCDTV backlight modules need to be purchased from outside, and then printed and optically designed. At present, Taiwan's main light guide plate manufacturers are large-scale with Chimei's parent company Chimei Industrial and Fuxiang. In addition, the diffusion board manufacturer Yingtai also plans to officially launch large-size light guide plates from the end of this year to the first quarter of next year. Hua Hong, a manufacturer of optical film back-ends, is also planning to introduce light-guide plate printing and cutting process business.
Since the conventional light guide plate uses PMMA ester particles (polymethyl methacrylate) as a substrate, there is a problem that water vapor is easily lifted and the flatness is poor. When applied to a large-sized backlight module, there are still technical problems to be overcome. Including Yingtai and Japanese manufacturers, they are currently investing in the development of new materials for light guide materials.
Yingtai is a micro-structure diffusion board manufacturer that holds a 20% stake in Hon Hai Group and panel maker AUO. The current production technology and equipment machine can directly produce light guide plates. However, due to the limited production capacity and the patent protection of the micro-structured diffuser products, the orders are fully loaded, and the orders for the diffuser (including microstructured diffuser) products are filled, and the existing capacity of Yingtai is filled. Can be used to produce light guides.
However, as the LED backlight application of LCD TVs becomes more and more mature, Yingtai plans to remove one of the three new production lines expanded before the end of this year for the production of light guide products. In the initial stage, flat-panel light guide plates will be produced to meet the immediate needs of customers. Then, according to the needs of different customers and different types of machines, the patented micro-structure design will be introduced, and the micro-structured light guide plate will be officially launched to enter the sample-certification stage. The fastest in the second half of 2010 is expected to show the layout benefits.
AUO's backlight module factory Fuxiang has invested in the field of light guide plates for many years, and currently has more than 10 light guide plate production lines. At the same time, it also cooperated with the development of PMMA ester pellets through the joint venture with the German company Evonik. Fuxiang's own PMMA is mostly used for light guide plate production, but it is also continuously developed for other application markets, such as building materials, lamp templates, soundproof walls, and so on. For the light guide plate used for LED-backlit LCDTV, Fuxiang believes that it is not only light and thin, but also solves the problem of flatness that is easy to lift.
Chi Mei Industrial is currently the largest supplier of PMMA ester pellets in Taiwan. Due to its abundant production capacity, it is also one of the major suppliers of light guides in Taiwan. After the merger of Innolux and Chi Mei of Hon Hai Group, the future role of Chimei Industrial in the supply chain of LED backlight LCDTV and LED backlight LCDMonitor components of Hon Hai Group will evolve, and the market is very concerned.
The LED backlight design is divided into Direct-lit LED Backlight and side-lit, each with advantages and disadvantages, as well as cost differences. The direct-lit backlight design directly distributes the LED light source evenly on the back of the panel, and the light source is evenly transmitted to the entire screen through the diffusion plate, and different regions can be set to independently adjust the brightness and darkness, so that the image performance is better. The shortcoming is that the direct-lit backlight design uses more LEDs and consumes more power (or saves power than conventional CCFL (cold cathode lamp) backlights), and must use nearly a thousand LEDs, which is costly. Early brand manufacturers have also used RGB tri-color LEDs to improve color rendering. At that time, the cost was higher, and later the cheaper white LEDs were used to lower the cost.
The edge-lit backlight design is to place the LED die on the peripheral edge of the back of the panel, and then use the light guide to transmit the light source to the central area of the screen, so that the entire panel has enough light source. The side-light design has recently been adopted by brand manufacturers, mainly because the number of LED particles used has been greatly reduced, which has greatly reduced the cost of LED backlights. Then, because there is no need to place the LED module behind the panel and reduce the thickness of the screen, the TV body can be lighter and lighter, but the disadvantage is that the TV with the side-light backlight design has poor picture uniformity.
