Historical review of industrial development
In the chronology of global LCD industry development, China started not too late. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, scientific research institutes represented by Tsinghua University and Changchun Institute of Physics and enterprises represented by former 774 and 770 factories of the Ministry of Electronics and Shanghai Electron Tube Factory began to set foot in the research and development of liquid crystal technology and products and sample making. But until 1984, both the self-assembled equipment and the equipment imported from the United States were small-scale experimental lines. There is no mass production scale, but these laboratories and experimental lines have laid the foundation for the LCD industry in China. A group of people working in these experimental lines have played an active role in every stage of the development of China LCD industry.
1.TN-LCD
1984, the first 4 "TN-LCD production line was built in Shenzhen AVIC Tianma Company, and the first 7" LCD production line with advanced equipment was built in 770 Factory (the main equipment was imported from Japan via Hong Kong). Later, Shenzhen Shenke Group and Singapore Hui Kai Group jointly established Shenzhen Shenhui Company, which is also a 7 "LCD production line. Shenzhen Jinghua Company also built a TN-LCD production line almost at the same time, and the production line of Li Kang Company, which ranked first in Hong Kong TN-LCD production, was also transferred to Huizhou, Guangdong. Subsequently, Tianma Phase II, Jing Lei, Huatai, etc. Larger TN-LCD production lines with specifications above 12 "have been built in succession. In addition to the above domestic production lines, many Hong Kong enterprises represented by Truly have also built TN-LCD production lines in Chinese mainland. The end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s were considered as the first golden period of LCD industry in China, during which a large-scale TN-LCD industry was formed. Shenzhen Tianma Company started from the 4 "line and soon built the 1 7" line and 1 12 "line in the early 1990s. At that time, the scale was large and the product quality was good.
2.STN-LCD
Chinese mainland started to set foot in STN-LCD in the early 1990s. The National Eighth Five-Year Development Project "640×200 Super Distortion LCD Display Project" was jointly completed by Tsinghua University 770 Factory and Nanjing 55 Institute. After 1993, Tianjun Project of Tianma Phase III, Hebei Jiya, Wuxi Sharp, Shanwei Xinli Phase II, LCD and Melcott of Shanghai Radio and Television successively built STN-LCD production lines with specifications of 12″× 14″ or 14″ to produce large and medium-sized STN. The STN-LCD production lines built by Anshan Sante Electronics (now Anshan Yashi Optoelectronics) and Shantou Ultrasonic mainly produce small and medium-sized STN-LCD products. Other TN-LCD production lines with high technical level also meet the needs of market development in this period and are compatible with the production of STN-LCD products, such as Shenzhen Jinghua and Shanghai Haijing. However, all the above STN-LCD production lines can produce color STN-LCD except Wuxi Sharp. Since the end of 1990s, the construction of color STN-LCD production line has entered a climax, and Philips has built two 14″× 16″ color STN-LCD production lines in Shanghai. Together with the STN module production line that has been built in Shanghai in the early stage, we try to build a Philips LCD city in Shanghai. After transforming the monochrome STN-LCD production line into CSTN-LCD production line, Sony invested in a special production line. Epson and optrix set up Suzhou Epson and Zhangjiagang Wangguang Electronics production lines in Suzhou and Zhangjiagang respectively, specializing in the production of small and medium-sized STN and color STN-LCD. In 2003, Shenzhen Tianma completed four Tianlong projects and produced color STN-LCD with14×16 ″ CSTN production line. After the STN module production line, South Korea's Samsung built a color STN-LCD production line in Dongguan. The color STN-LCD production line built by Lian Xin in Changchun has entered the mass production stage. Shenzhen BYD Company and Shantou Ultrasound also built color STN-LCD production line after 2004, and started trial production and mass production of color STN-LCD.
3. Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD)
Before 2000, China's work on TFT was limited to some small-scale research in some universities and research institutes. In 2000, Jilin Electronics Group bought the first generation TFT—LCD second-hand line from Japan, and now it is producing some small and medium-sized TFT products. In February 2003, BOE Electronic Technology Group successfully acquired three modern TFT production lines and businesses for US$ 380 million, ranking ninth in the global sales of large-size TFT in that year, and this merger was one of the top ten successful mergers and acquisitions in China in 2003. In June 2003, BOE also announced that it would invest 654.38+200 million dollars to build the fifth-generation TFT-LCD production line in Beijing Yizhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone. At present, the project is progressing smoothly, and it is being debugged and put into trial production. The first TFT-LCD screen on the production line will be produced at the end of February 2004, which is nearly 654.38+ 0 months ahead of schedule. In June 2003, BOE's TFT module production line has settled in Beijing, which is also BOE TFT business. In April 2003, Shanghai Radio and Television Group reached an agreement with Japan's NEC Company to invest 1 146 billion yen to build the fifth-generation TFT—LCD production line in Shanghai Xinzhuang. Like BOE, the glass size of this production line is 1 100* 1300, and the target products are notebook computers, monitors and TV screens. On June 12 this year, the process equipment of the production line entered the installation and commissioning, and the commissioning production was completed on June 10, producing the first domestic large-size TFT-LCD. At present, this production line is advancing to the mass production stage. In Nanjing, Xinhua Day purchased the second-hand line of NEC's first-generation TFT, with an investment of about US$ 54 million. The total investment is smaller than Caijing, and the target products are also positioned in small and medium sizes. Now it is being debugged and put into trial operation, and a 2.5 "sample has been made.
4. LCD module
The modular production lines of TN-LCD and STN-LCD have relatively low investment and low technical threshold. The number of modular production lines in Chinese mainland is higher than that of screen production lines, and the layout is relatively scattered. The early modular chemical plants were mainly invested by individuals or small enterprises, and the scale was small. However, in recent years, with the substantial increase in the number of mobile phones produced in Chinese mainland, the demand for localization of supporting devices, the large output value of modules and the direct attraction to end customers, many manufacturers with screen production lines and downstream machine manufacturers have also started to build their own large-scale module factories, among which many manufacturers with screen production lines, such as Shanghai Philips, Beijing Sanwu Electronics, Dongguan Samsung Electronics, Zhangjiagang Wangguang Electronics, Shenzhen Tianma, Guangzhou Seiko, Shanghai Radio and Television LCD, BOE, are also large-scale.
As for TFT modules, companies from Taiwan Province, South Korea and Japan have successively moved their production lines to Chinese mainland. LG- Philips is in Nanjing, Hanyu Caijing is in Nanjing, AUO is in Suzhou, Zhonghua CRT is in Wujiang, Chimei is in Shanghai and Dongguan, Samsung is in Zhenjiang, Hitachi is in Suzhou, and Sharp is in Wuxi. The reasons for this change are thought to come from two aspects, one is optimism about the future market of China, and the other is.
5. LCD support materials
With the increase of the number and scale of LCD production lines, the materials and equipment supporting LCD have also got a good development space. Among the three major materials of LCD, liquid crystal material and ITO glass are the first to realize industrialization. The research work of liquid crystal materials in China began at 1969, with the research institutes represented by Tsinghua University Department of Chemistry and Beihua as the main force. 1987, the liquid crystal research achievements of Tsinghua University Department of Chemistry began to be mass-produced in Shijiazhuang and supplied to the liquid crystal factory. Now the company named Shijiazhuang Yongsheng Huaqing is still the LCD material factory with the largest variety and output in China. Tsinghua University cooperated with other companies to industrialize the research technology of liquid crystal materials in Tsinghua Department of Chemistry. There is another company: Tsinghua Wangya Liquid Crystal Material Co., Ltd., which can also mass-produce TN liquid crystals and middle and low-grade STN liquid crystals. Together, Shijiazhuang Yongsheng Huaqing and Tsinghua Wangya occupy more than 70% of the market share of middle and low-grade LCDs in Chinese mainland, and low-grade TN accounts for more than 80%. Monomers are provided to other LCD companies in and Germany. In addition to these two companies, Xi An Modern Research Institute and Xi An Rui Lian Company are also engaged in the research and development and production of liquid crystal materials, but liquid crystal monomers are mainly mixed with some liquid crystals, and many enterprises such as Jiangsu Gaofeng Chemical and Yantai are also engaged in the research and development and production of liquid crystal materials monomers and intermediates. In terms of ITO glass, 1987 China's first ITO glass production line for LCD was built in Shenzhen South Asia. The scale of this line is not very large, but many technical management backbones of other ITO glass production lines have worked on this line. After South Asia, Shenzhen Lai Bao, Shenzhen CSG, Shenzhen Hao Wei and Anhui Huayi successively built larger ITO glass production lines. They not only contributed to the localization of ITO glass, but also exported to some liquid crystal companies in Japan, on TN liquid crystal and ITO glass. At present, we have been able to fully realize local matching. At present, there are two kinds of polarizers in LCD, Shenzhen Shenfang Le Kai and Wen 30 Qiao Ye, which supply TN polarizers and some STN polarizers in batches. A few years ago, Dongguan Fudi imported an old Japanese polarizer production line from Japan, but after debugging, the operation has been unsatisfactory and is currently undergoing restructuring.
Luoyang float glass group has built an ultra-thin substrate glass production line with a daily melting capacity of 250 tons, and started to supply ITO glass factory, which is an area that many domestic enterprises have tried hard but never made a breakthrough. On the mask plate, Shenzhen Qingyi, Shenzhen Meijingwei and other companies have supporting materials such as film and chrome mask from TN, STN to CF. Meijingwei is the first professional LCD mask company, Qingyi Company is currently in a leading position in mask product output and scale, and its corporate culture and quality management have been well received by the industry. In 2004, he won the National Quality Award, which was used as a teaching case of Guanghua School of Management and crosby College of Peking University.
Shenzhen Lai Bao and Shenzhen CSG have started mass production of color filters, the key materials of color LCD, and Shenzhen BYD has also introduced its own supporting production line.
Other supporting materials for LCD, such as backlight, PI, cleaning agent and photoresist, can also be partially supplied by domestic manufacturers.
6. LCD support equipment
In terms of supporting equipment, after years of efforts, Chinese mainland has been able to produce some LCD manufacturing equipment and testing instruments. Testing instruments are mainly universities and research institutes. For example, Tsinghua University Physics Department and Changchun Physics Department have developed and finalized testing equipment such as LCD box thickness gauge, pretilt angle gauge and LCD photoelectric parameter gauge, while manufacturing equipment has developed from single equipment such as glass cutting machine, polarizer cutting machine and crystal filling machine to front-end complete equipment such as TN cleaning and equipment with higher requirements such as friction line and board-to-board line. Manufacturers specializing in LCD equipment include Beijing Jingcheng Qingda, Taiyuan No.2 Middle School, Shenzhen Shen Hu, Shenzhen Runzheng, Shenzhen Hangtong and Shenzhen Baoquan. Jingcheng Qingda is a joint venture company of Beijing Gauge Tool Group with Tsinghua University and Japanese Inanuma Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Taiyuan No.2 Middle School is a professional research institute engaged in semiconductor-related technology research, both of which have strong technical strength. However, in terms of its scale and level, Chinese mainland's LCD equipment still lags behind LCD devices and related materials, and there is still a considerable distance compared with Japanese and Korean. Need to give more support and attention.
7 development and research
Chinese mainland's basic and applied research on liquid crystal display technology began in 1960s, including Tsinghua University Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Physics and Beijing Institute of Chemistry. In 1970s, they all put a lot of energy into this research, and then Peking University Institute of Microelectronics, Nankai University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nanjing No.55 Institute and other units also intervened in this research. Although these basic and applied research and development work are not world-class because of less capital investment. Tsinghua LCD Center and North LCD Center, which were established under the background of universities and research institutes, are also specialized in the research and development of LCD technology. Some large groups, such as BOE, SVA and TCL, also have their own research institutes or research institutes engaged in this work. North Liquid Crystal Center focuses on the research and development of STN-LCD, a-si TFT, P-SiTFT-LCD and LCD device parameter tester, and has won the first prize of China Academy of Sciences and the second prize of Jilin Science and Technology Progress Award. Tsinghua Liquid Crystal Center focuses on STN engineering technology research, the development of some personalized devices such as phase change liquid crystal, guest-host liquid crystal and wide viewing angle, and some basic research such as the application of guided wave technology in liquid crystal and mode design. He won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award and the first prize of Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award. In recent two years, he began to train talents for the flat panel industry and held various technical training courses. 55 research institutes have carried out STN, TFT, BTN liquid crystal display devices and military liquid crystal reinforcement technology for the whole machine. They have many patents in reinforcement and won the second prize of national defense science and technology progress.
Second, the present situation and development of China LCD industry
After more than 20 years of development, China's LCD industry has moved from passive to active, becoming the world's largest producer of TN/STN and the fourth largest LCD industrial zone in the world. At present, there are about 65,438+080 LCD-related factories and research institutes in Chinese mainland, about 65,438+065,438+00 TN/ STN-LCD production lines and 7 TFT-LCD. According to the statistics of 65 member enterprises of LCD Association in 2003, the total sales of these 65 enterprises in 2003 was 65.438+03.246 billion, an increase of 654.38+023% over 2002, of which 65.438+00779 billion were display devices, accounting for 8654.38+0.38%, and 654.38 were related materials. Accounting for 0.97%, others accounting for 8.56%, with about 53,000 employees. The annual output of LCD is 4.24 million square meters, the annual output of ITO glass is 6.46 million square meters, the annual output of liquid crystal material is 79.5 tons, and the annual output of polarizer is 960,000 square meters.
In terms of geographical distribution, the LCD industry in China is mainly distributed in South China with Shenzhen as the center, East China with Shanghai as the center, North China and Northeast China with Beijing as the center, which corresponds to the strong distribution area of information industry in China.
South China is the earliest area where LCD and LCM were formed in China. It is still the region with the largest number of enterprises and the most diversified investment components. Its production lines account for more than 70% of the United States, with Shenzhen and Dongguan as the main cities. In terms of investment categories, Hong Kong and Taiwan provinces represented by Huatai in Taiwan Province Province, Xinli in Hong Kong, Jingdian in Hong Kong and Jinjia Optoelectronics in Taiwan Province Province, and Japanese and American capitals represented by Tianma in Shenzhen, Melcott, SDI in Dongguan and New Electric Appliances in Dongguan, etc.
East China is a newly developed area in recent years. The remarkable feature of this area is that the investment and scale of enterprises are relatively large, and there are more Japanese-funded and Taiwan-funded enterprises. Wuxi Sharp, Zhangjiagang Wangguang Electronics, Suzhou Epson, Shanghai Philips and Shanghai Radio and Television LCD all have large-scale CSTN and STN production lines, and there are many TFT module factories in this area. There are many factories with large output value and sales scale of hundreds of millions and billions. With the completion of the fifth-generation TFT-LCD production line that Shanghai Radio and Television Group cooperates with Japan's NEC, it will also drive other projects in the TFT-LCD industry chain, which shows strong development potential.
At present, the number and overall scale of enterprises in Northeast China and North China are smaller than those in the other two regions. However, with BOE's successful acquisition of three Hyundai TFT production lines in 2003, the construction of TFT module production line and the fifth-generation TFT screen production line in Beijing, a series of major actions to integrate the upstream and downstream industrial chains, and its TFT-LCD sales ranked ninth in the world in 2003, as well as the driving and radiation impact after the completion of the fifth-generation production line, this region will become an area with important influence on the LCD industry in China. In addition, there is a prominent feature in this area that the units and forces engaged in LCD research and development are relatively concentrated. There are also a number of enterprises with strength and stamina, such as American Sanwu Electronics, Hebei Jiya, Changchun Lian Xin and Anshan ATV.