In-vehicle display, a big step forward

The in-vehicle display market is developing in a positive direction.

As Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute said in the "In-Vehicle Display Industry Report (2024 Edition)", large-screen, multi-screen and high-definition are driving the steady growth of the in-vehicle display market. Among them, large-screen and high-definition are driving the increase in the value of in-vehicle display screens, and multi-screen contributes to new market growth.

Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute predicts that the in-vehicle display market size will reach 120.83 billion yuan in 2025.

The scale of the in-vehicle display market has increased, and the business of major players has grown significantly

In recent years, with the continuous emergence of end users' diversified and personalized demands for smart cockpits, in-vehicle displays have expanded from the original instruments and central controls to many application areas such as co-pilot screens, HUDs, rear-seat entertainment screens, streaming media rearview mirrors, smart surfaces, and the multi-screen trend is becoming more and more obvious.

According to the smart cockpit configuration data analysis of Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute, in the first eight months of this year, the penetration rate of central control screens has reached nearly 95%, and the penetration rate of full LCD instruments has also increased from 66% in the same period last year to 73.4%. The penetration rates of both are already at a relatively high level.

At the same time, the penetration rate of HUD increased from 9.7% in the first eight months of last year to 14.4% in the same period this year, and the penetration rate of streaming media rearview mirrors increased from 0.8% to 2.1%. Although the co-pilot screen and rear LCD screen are mainly equipped in mid-to-high-end models, they also achieved an increase from 3.4% to 5.9% and from 1.6% to 2.2% respectively.

In addition to the multi-screen trend, as the various functions and applications of smart cockpits become more and more integrated, and end users' demand for immersive cockpit experience continues to increase, in-vehicle displays are gradually becoming larger.

According to the smart cockpit configuration data analysis of Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute, in terms of central control screens, in the first eight months of this year, the proportion of large screens of 15 inches and above has increased significantly, and now has reached 17%, the proportion of 10 to 15 inches screens is 68%, and the proportion of 7 to 10 inches screens is 15%.

As for LCD instruments, those larger than 12 inches account for 29%, and those above 8 inches account for 68% of the total share. However, the proportion of LCD instruments 5 inches and below has been significantly reduced, from 21% in 2023 to 13% in 2024.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, trends like these have led to a continuous increase in the size of the in-vehicle display market, which also means that the major players in the market will not perform too badly.

Taking Tianma as an example, Liu Jinquan, general manager of Tianma Microelectronics' China automotive business, recently revealed in an interview with Gasgoo and other media that in the first three quarters of this year, the company's overall automotive business grew very impressively, with a year-on-year increase of more than 40%, especially its LTPS products, which performed very well, with an increase of about 250%. In addition, its HUD product market share has increased from over 20% last year to over 30% this year.

"With the rapid development of the domestic new energy market, most of the heavyweight new car models use Tianma display products, so the company's in-vehicle business is developing very well," Liu Jinquan added.

Image source: Tianma (the same below)

Of course, he also pointed out that the in-vehicle display market currently seems to have a lot of room for development, and it is indeed a track that everyone wants to participate in, but there are only a few companies that are truly capable, because this is, after all, a technology, investment, and talent-intensive industry.

It is reported that in the automotive display market, Tianma has achieved global leadership in core technology, product performance, production capacity, shipment volume, market share, etc. based on its deep cultivation and accumulation over the past 30 years.

Technological innovation is accelerating, and Micro-LED technology is expected to become the ultimate display technology

As the market space expands, the innovation of in-vehicle display technology is also accelerating.

Recently, at the 2024 Tianma Microelectronics Global Innovation Conference (TIC 2024), Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Blankenbach, full professor at Pforzheim University in Germany and honorary chairman of Displayforum (DFF), said: "From more, bigger, and better, to the changes in instrument displays, to the design and integration of screens, global in-vehicle display screens have experienced rapid development and are entering a new stage."

He pointed out that at present, LCD technology is still the mainstream in the in-vehicle display market, but as OLED technology matures, it will bring new display application experience. At the same time, the next-generation display technology Micro-LED technology is expected to become the "ultimate display technology" in the future with its high transparency, high brightness, and high reliability.

At TIC 2024, the heads of various technical sections of Tianma jointly released nine major innovative achievements, including Micro-LED display technology.

According to Xi Kerui, deputy director of Tianma Microelectronics Micro-LED Research Institute, this seamless splicing display is a zero-border display. On the one hand, it adopts Tianma's unique GOA (Gate on Active Area) backplane driving technology and designs the substrate with a negative border to reduce the border width and achieve seamless splicing between cabinets. On the other hand, compared with the industry's side routing solutions, Tianma independently developed 3D coated side routing technology, which can increase the efficiency of side routing by 3 times and reduce the cost by about three times.

According to him, Tianma has completed product development based on samples in the development stage, and will continue to iterate and improve in the future. It is expected that more amazing seamless splicing products will be released with partners next year.

As for the Micro-LED production line, Tianma plans to lock in all processes by the end of this year and achieve full process integration. Next year, it will improve the yield and efficiency based on the production line products, with the goal of achieving small-scale mass production by the end of 2025.

Of course, in addition to Micro-LED display technology, Tianma also released innovative technologies such as smart interior technology and smart cockpit integrated sensing technology, demonstrating its continuous exploration and innovation in the field of display technology.

Among them, smart interior technology is a very popular emerging technology. In the non-operating state, only the decorative texture integrated with the interior can be observed. After the display screen is turned on, the operation content clearly appears above the decorative layer.

It is reported that this product adopts the industry's best high-transmittance hidden display technology, with innovative Mini-LED backlight design, small icon brightness is improved, showing excellent display quality and integration effect, improving visual perception and user experience, matching special process and material optimization, the module thickness is thinner. Compared with conventional display modules on the market, the total power consumption is reduced by about half.

Another smart cockpit integrated sensing technology released by Tianma has also attracted much attention. It is developed based on the existing LTPS process and integrates the new module into the original display panel or module. Compared with the traditional external module solution, this technology not only retains the extremely narrow frame characteristics of the traditional cockpit display, but also has certain cost advantages.

The integrated ambient light sensing function can adaptively adjust the brightness and color of the screen according to the intensity and color temperature of the ambient light in real time, greatly improving the user experience in the car; the integrated near-field communication function can conveniently and sensitively interact with the car computer with a mobile phone or other components with NFC, eliminating many tedious steps and improving user convenience.

In addition, Tianma also released the PAMETRIA panel-level metamaterial smart antenna technology to meet the strong demand for wide-area broadband networks in scenarios such as navigation and vehicle-mounted.

According to reports, PAMETRIA technology combines multiple advantages and performs well in terms of lightweight, low power consumption, high precision, and high quality. The world's first S series metamaterial smart antenna is designed for maritime scenarios, adapted to the K and Ka bands, and can achieve high-throughput data transmission. In the future, it will actively expand to multiple scenarios such as vehicle-mounted.

In summary, as far as Tianma is concerned, it has been pioneering and advancing in various display technology cycles, continuously pushing the development of automotive display technology forward.