Graphene And OLED: Mobile Phones Want To Play Soft Finger

May 11, 2018 LG OLED commercial display new product conference came to Chongqing. At the site, an electronic screen of about 5 square meters curved like a wave on the stand, attracting people's attention. The "secret" of this electronic screen's ability to bend is the splicing of six OLED flexible screens.

Since last year, the application of OLED into the market is not just Apple's iPhone X's flexible mobile phone screen. The “Star Tunnel” on the tower in Guangzhou and the OLED Aquarium in Dubai with the world’s Guinness Book of Records... The flexibility and ultra-thin characteristics of OLED can create immersive feelings like the starry sky and the ocean, and change the city’s life. .

In addition to South Korea's LG, China's display panel companies such as BOE, China Star Optoelectronics, Tianma have already laid out OLED production. A few days ago, the reporter learned that Chongqing Moshi Technology Co., Ltd. is working with BOE to study how to combine a graphene flexible touch screen with an OLED flexible display to produce a completely soft mobile phone.

OLED adds wisdom to Chongqing

At the LG OLED commercial display new product launch conference that debuted in Chongqing last week, the reporter learned that Chongqing Xun Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., as the general agent of LG OLED products in southwest China, will put smart homes and smart cities with OLED as the core product. The solution was promoted in the Chongqing market.

How will this change the lives of Chongqing citizens?

"The LCD TV's screen is relatively thick because of the use of the backlight module, and the OLED display can make the TV screen thin to about 3 mm. I hang the TV at home and show a picture when static, you may not know Where is my TV?” Wu Xiaozhe, general manager of Chongqing Xun Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. told reporters.

Because it is self-luminous, self-illuminating pixels can accurately reproduce colors. For example, when dark colors are displayed, the OLEDs are all black, and the LCD screen is still fully luminous. In addition, OLED has the advantages of wide viewing angle, almost infinite high contrast, low power consumption, and high response speed, which makes it more and more popular in the market.

In addition to some TV, computer, mobile terminal manufacturers use OLED instead of liquid crystal display, OLED flexible screen can be widely applied to all areas of smart cities. “In the personalized solutions for smart cities and smart homes, OLEDs are also more competitive,” Wang Gang, director of the Greater China Division of LG Electronics' commercial display division, told reporters last year, an elevator inside a project in Shanghai posted an OLED screen at 360 degrees. It turns into a “sightseeing elevator”, and it uses software to play the scene-like images. The elevator goes up from the first floor, and the perspective of the screen changes from the ground to the air. This is not possible with traditional LEDs. In other words, OLEDs can simulate various scenarios and create "immersive" effects. “For example, if we can use the huge OLED splicing screen to broadcast the sky snow in the summer of Chongqing, it will definitely give people a bit cool,” Wang Gang said.

Wu Xiaozhe is full of anticipation for the application of OLED in public buildings in Chongqing: “If you can use OLED display technology in iconic buildings in Chongqing, such as the first high-rise of Jiefangbei, Jiangbeizui Grand Theatre, etc., it will surely bring shock to the city. Visual effects."

BOE to build OLED production line in Fuzhou

At present, the world is actively deploying OLED production capacity. According to estimates by authoritative organizations, the global OLED panel market in 2022 will reach US$41.36 billion, which is three times that of 2016.

China's panel makers have great potential in the field of OLEDs. The first 6-generation flexible AMOLED production line built by BOE in Chengdu was officially released in October 2017 with a production capacity of 480,000 pieces/month. The sixth-generation flexible AMOLED production line built in Mianyang is expected to start production in 2019. In March this year, an announcement issued by BOE showed that it will invest in the sixth-generation flexible AMOLED production line in Chongqing.

In addition to BOE, domestic companies also include Huaxing Optoelectronics, Xinli and Tianma, which have also joined the OLED market. At present, the proportion of OLED production capacity in the world is still far behind that of South Korea. In 2015, the domestic OLED production capacity was only equivalent to 9% of the total global OLED production capacity. Some organizations expect this data to reach 28% by 2020, and China will become only The second largest OLED supplier in the world after South Korea.

The real flexible phone is expected to be born

OLED flexible flexible screen debut in Chongqing this time, can not help but remind people of the graphene industry in Chongqing - graphene is also due to the characteristics of flexible thin and gradually known by the public. In December 2013, the world's first large-area single-layer graphene film production line was completed and put into operation in Chongqing. The international first graphene flexible screen mobile phone debuted at the Chongqing Hi-tech Fair in 2016 also caused a sensation in the industry.

OLED and graphene are hailed by the industry as two major “aristocratic materials” in the display industry. The former is an excellent display material with high image quality, flexibility, thinness, high contrast, and low energy consumption; the latter is an excellent touch material with excellent strength, high conductivity, flexible touch, and super transparency. Can these two kinds of "aristocratic materials" have the possibility of "holding hands"?

Recently, the reporter learned from Chongqing Moshi Technology Co., Ltd. that they are currently developing a prototype of a flexible touch display principle and studied how to fit the flexible display of OLED and the flexible touch screen of graphene to produce a fully bendable display. Flexible phone. "The OLED display achieves the display function, and the graphene touch screen realizes the interactive function. If the corresponding structure can keep up, it will be able to create a flexible mobile phone that can be completely bent." Related person in charge of Chongqing Moshi Technology Co., Ltd. At present, the fitting work between the flexible touch screen and the flexible display screen has been completed and related performance tests are being conducted. In February of this year, this flexible touch display principle prototype was also selected for participation in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology “National New Material Industry Development - 2017 Achievement Report Presentation”.

Once these two flexible components are able to "hand in hand" success, what kind of experience will it bring? The person in charge introduced that there were two types of graphene flexible screen phones that had been unveiled to consumers. One could be properly bent, and the other one could only show a fixed curved surface and could not be bent. “But once it is successfully integrated with OLED, The consumer will be a mobile phone with a full range of options that can be flexibly folded, and it doesn't matter if you sit in your trouser pocket because it's a flexible, wearable device like a watch."

“We are studying how to make graphene a raw material for OLEDs.” Shi Haofei, director of the Micronano Manufacturing and System Integration Research Center of the Chongqing Institute of Green Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences told reporters that the fusion of the two is still in the global graphene field. At the cutting-edge research stage, the technical difficulty lies in how to make graphene more efficient in OLED applications.

He said that the flexible material used in current OLED display technology is ITO, a transparent conductive film that can be bent but not folded. Compared with graphene, graphene is more flexible and has a smaller bending radius, allowing it to bend and fold. So, once graphene becomes the transparent conductive material of OLED, it will make OLED flexible screen realize more extensive and efficient application.