Product
The LED display market continues to expand. Among them, Mini LED and Micro LED technologies are rapidly industrializing, and their application areas are constantly penetrating from the engineering market to the consumer market.
In this process, the market's choice of technology paths presents a new trend: with the further development and maturity of COB technology, the release of production capacity and the decline in prices, COB has begun to compete with SMD technology in the display market below P1.2 dot pitch, and its penetration rate in the P1.5-P2.5 dot pitch market has gradually increased.
According to data, the sales of small-pitch and micro-pitch LED displays in mainland China reached 4.22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%, and the shipment area was nearly 280,000 square meters, a year-on-year increase of 13.4%. Among them, the market share of COB packaging technology continues to grow, with sales accounting for 23.4% and sales accounting for more than 10%. At the same time, sales increased by nearly 200% year-on-year, far higher than the growth rate of the overall small-pitch LED market.
Data shows that the COB market is growing rapidly.
With the miniaturization of LED chips, LED displays have entered the era of ultra-high-definition displays with micro-pitch and high refresh rates. COB display products are increasingly favored by the market due to their advantages such as ultra-lightness, anti-collision and pressure resistance, wide viewing angle, and strong heat dissipation. Since 2023, the penetration rate of COB technology has gradually increased, and the shipment volume of the COB market has continued to grow.
The current COB display market is developing rapidly, and the production capacity competition between companies has begun. At present, the monthly production capacity of Zhaochi COB has reached 16,000 square meters, and new production lines are gradually entering the site. It is expected that the company's monthly COB production capacity will exceed 20,000 square meters in September. Huang Zhiqiang, R&D director of Zhongqi Optoelectronics, revealed at the Second Suzhou International Mini/Micro LED Industry Ecology Conference held by JM Insights at the end of May that Zhongqi Optoelectronics' production capacity will reach 10,000 square meters/month in 2024.
Unilumin Technology said that relying on the Daya Bay Science Park Intelligent Manufacturing Base, Unilumin Mini/Micro COB production workshop can successfully complete the full process of automated and intelligent integrated production process from solid crystal, sealing, to testing and packaging. Its total production capacity has reached 2000KK/month. The planned COB production capacity will increase by 30% each year, realizing the "self-research, self-production and self-sales" of COB in the industry, and the scale is leading in all aspects.
At present, COB production capacity is still growing rapidly, and prices are falling rapidly. The comprehensive cost advantage of COB packaging technology in the field of dot pitch less than P1.2 has emerged. The average price of LED display COB terminal has dropped to less than 30,000 yuan/square meter by 24Q2, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 30%.
With the continuous release of production capacity, the increasing number of new entrants, COB's penetration into the channel market, and the continuous improvement of product awareness, it is expected that the competition in the COB market will become more intense in the future, and the market positioning will gradually penetrate from the high-end market to the mid-end market. The application continues to sink, showing a trend of fully occupying the SMD market, and the product shipments are still growing rapidly. It is worth noting that although the prospects of COB are becoming brighter and brighter, the market is in a period of reshuffle and integration, and it faces many difficulties and bottlenecks.
First of all, this is an asset-heavy and innovation-heavy field, and only strong companies can enter. With the heavy investment of cross-border companies such as panels, IT, TV, and security, the entire LED display market has undergone tremendous changes. Some LED display companies have been eliminated, and of course there are companies that have deployed the entire industrial chain.
In addition to the competition of financial strength, COB display also faces technical difficulties, such as pass-through rate, contrast, splicing and flatness, correction technology, maintenance costs, etc., all of which require technological innovation to achieve breakthroughs. Industry insiders said that overcoming these problems requires upstream and downstream collaboration and strong alliances.
In addition, there are technical competition issues in the market. The COB display product market has not yet been fully opened, but it has been hit by MIP technology display products. MIP technology has reduced the entry threshold of small and micro-pitch products with its advantages of low investment, no need to change production lines, low production difficulty, and high mounting efficiency. In the field of small and micro-pitch displays, it has become another new packaging and display technology and has gradually been recognized by the market. Therefore, some companies in the current market have also deployed MIP products, which have formed a certain competition with COB. However, many experts in the industry believe that COB packaging technology can develop products in the field of micro-level pitch and ultra-macro display with a pitch of P0.4 and below, and it is still the main technical route for future Micro LED products.