my country's first flexible display production line has achieved mass production in Chengdu, and the "roll-up screen" era is coming

Foldable and bendable, the era of flexible displays is approaching. On the 26th, China's first flexible display production line achieved mass production in Chengdu, breaking the monopoly of foreign companies in this field and accelerating the pace of China's mobile electronic products entering the flexible display era. The flexible screen production line that has achieved mass production was completely independently designed, developed and built by the Chinese company BOE. It uses the world's most advanced evaporation process and can produce 70 million flexible displays per year.

CCTV reporter Zhu Jihua: What I am holding in my hand is a flexible display. It subverts our understanding of displays. It is thinner than paper and can be folded and bent. Perhaps in the near future, rollable mobile phones will enter our lives.

The reason why it can be rolled up is that the flexible display screen no longer requires a backlight source. It uses self-luminous materials and can emit light when powered on. The display clarity, fineness and color vividness are better than LCD screens.

BOE CEO Chen Yanshun: Its products are widely used in mobile phones, PCs, cars and even in fields like notebooks. We expect that the annual growth rate of this flexible display will exceed 30% in the next three to five years.

Previously, only one Korean company in the world could produce flexible displays, and it was often difficult to get one. The mass production of this production line in my country has completely broken this monopoly and will greatly increase the supply of flexible displays. At the mass production ceremony, more than a dozen mobile phone manufacturers in my country have received the first batch of displays.

What’s so great about this flexible display?

First, it’s soft!

This "soft" can actually be understood as strong flexibility. In other words, this display can be bent and folded.

As shown in the picture above, this screen can be bent in an "S" shape. This can be used in various wearable electronic devices in the future.

Second, it’s pretty!

This flexible display has the advantages of high resolution, fast response speed, high brightness and low power consumption, and can provide more colorful and clear high-quality images.

According to relevant person in charge of BOE, Chengdu's 6th generation flexible AMOLED production line uses the world's most advanced vapor deposition process, cutting the glass substrate into half for vapor deposition. This is a technically difficult process and is the first AMOLED production line in my country to adopt this process.

At the same time, the production line uses low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) plastic substrates to replace traditional amorphous silicon (a-Si) glass substrates, and uses flexible packaging technology to achieve bending and folding of the display screen.

How far are we from a rolled-up phone?

Display screens that are thinner than paper, bendable and rollable have been mass-produced. So when can we use rollable mobile phones?

Display screen, circuit board and battery are the three core components of mobile phones, and they are also the key to whether a mobile phone can be rolled up. The reporter first went to a company that produces flexible circuit boards. The company's head told the reporter that currently China cannot produce flexible circuit boards that match flexible display screens, but they have developed samples.

Li Xiaohua, Chairman of Shangda Electronics: The flexible circuit boards we produce now are not flexible enough, the lines are relatively thick, and the density of wiring per unit area is relatively low. In the future, the width of the flexible circuit boards we produce will be micron-level, while now it is millimeter-level. For example, our current products are like coarse cloth clothes, and in the future our products will be softer and more delicate silk.

Li Xiaohua told reporters that their factory dedicated to flexible screens has started construction and will be put into production in 2019. Regarding mobile phone batteries, the reporter interviewed several companies and found that there is no mature technology yet, and it will be difficult to roll them up for a while. However, the reporter saw a compromise solution in a mobile phone manufacturer.

Ma Xiaohang, deputy general manager of Hisense Communications Co., Ltd.: I think a mobile phone that can be folded in half will appear very soon because the screen technology is mature, and there is still room for the battery and hardware board. But for example, if it can be pulled out or made into more product forms, this may require a process of continuous iteration and updating of technology.

Ma Xiaohang believes that this iterative process will take about four to five years, by which time there will be a variety of mobile phones on the market that will subvert the existing appearance.