But mainland enterprises still lack competitiveness.
On January 6, at CES 2022 , BMW showed off a concept car with a color-changing appearance – the BMW iX Flow.
The car uses electronic paper technology provided by Taiwanese company Yuantai Technology, and the body surface is wrapped with a custom electronic ink screen that has been laser cut, which can achieve one-click color change.
When many people may not understand what electronic paper is, the concept of electronic paper has taken the lead in the capital market, and many individual stocks such as Helitai and Yashi Optoelectronics have risen and stopped.
However, although BMW has extended the application of electronic paper to the automotive field, it is still a relatively niche concept, the market is still relatively limited, and the core technology is almost monopolized by the head enterprise, and the mainland enterprises lack competitive advantage.
▍Environmentally friendly and healthy electronic paper
We do not seem to be familiar with the concept of electronic paper, which is essentially a display technology, and because of the similarity of display characteristics to traditional paper materials, it is called electronic paper, also known as digital paper.
Electronic paper technology itself includes a variety of types, such as E-Ink microcapsule technology, SiPix microcup technology, Bridgestone electronic liquid powder technology, cholesterol liquid crystal display technology and so on.
BMW's concept car uses Yuantai Technology's main E-Ink microcapsule technology, also known as "electrophoretic electronic ink" technology.
The principle is to encapsulate the charged white titanium oxide particles and black toner ions in tiny microcapsules, together with the electrolyte to form an "electronic ink", and then apply it to a layer of plastic film, and then paste the TFT (thin film transistor) circuit, controlled by the drive IC, to form a pixel graphic, that is, an electronic paper display.
Yuantai Technology "electronic ink screen" principle
Unlike traditional digital screens (such as LCD screens) that use the backlight principle to illuminate the text or images displayed on the screen, the display of electronic paper uses the reflection principle of ambient light, the light source does not directly hit the eyes, and the display effect is close to that of natural paper.
Traditional digital screen light emitting utilizes the principle of backlighting
This means that reading text with electronic paper screens is not easy to appear when using traditional digital screens for a long time, and the outdoor use effect is good, and it will not be difficult to display when the sun is bright outdoors like traditional LCD screens.
At the same time, because there is no need for backlight components, the electronic paper screen can be made thinner and lighter, more suitable for the production of flexible display materials, and it does not need a continuous light source, significantly reducing the energy consumption of electronic devices.
Of course, electronic paper also has its own shortcomings. Because the principle of color rendering is the electrophoresis phenomenon of particles, the color switching speed of electronic paper depends on the movement of particles, and it is difficult to continuously and efficiently switch colors, which makes it difficult to clearly display a variety of colors, and most of the electronic paper is mainly used for black and white display.
Electronic paper is currently mainly used for electronic price tags
Even the color conversion on the BMW concept car is currently limited to black and white. At present, electronic paper is mainly used in shopping mall electronic labels, bus stops, theater advertising and other fields. In the field of e-readers, it is still difficult to display color images with full color.
The color of electronic paper (right) is not full enough compared to the traditional display (left).
This makes the global mass production of electronic paper manufacturers rare, the market concentrated. According to the previous Qyresearch data, the world's top four electronic paper manufacturers accounted for 94% of the market share in 2019, of which Yuantai Technology accounted for 59% of the market share.
This means that Yuantai Technology almost monopolizes the e-paper market, and after its acquisition of the American e-paper technology company E Ink in 2009, it has acquired the middle and upper reaches of the e-paper field.
Yuantai Technology has also been at the forefront of technology, facing the bottleneck problem of color electronic paper in the industry, after the earliest two-color electronic ink technology, it has successively developed three-color electronic ink and four-color electronic ink. In 2016, E Ink released a multi-color electronic ink system, which has been able to achieve a better full color gamut display effect.
Although the BMW concept car can only achieve black and white conversion at present, it also said that multi-color conversion can also be achieved quickly.
▍The competitiveness of mainland enterprises is lacking
According to BMW's introduction, in addition to the cool one-click color change, electronic paper is also expected to improve the energy efficiency of electric vehicles, because when the exterior color of the car body is white, it can reduce the impact of strong light exposure and high temperature on the interior of the vehicle (white is easy to dissipate heat), and prevent overheating of the interior such as the center console and the dashboard. When the exterior color of the car body is black, it can absorb sunlight in cold weather (black is easy to absorb heat), reduce the energy consumption required for air conditioning heating, and effectively increase the electric mileage.
Coupled with future expectations for electronic paper in the fields of flexible display, intelligent remote control display, and its own electronic substitution in the field of electronic price tags and bus stop signs, the market has triggered a boom in the concept of electronic paper.
Especially in the capital market, many individual stocks such as Helitai and Yashi Optoelectronics have risen and stopped one after another, because the concept of electronic paper is involved.
YASHI Optoelectronics has risen and stopped one after another
According to the data, Helitai is a manufacturer and solution provider of liquid crystal display, touch module and intelligent hardware products integrating development, design, production and sales. In 2020, the operating income of TN/STN/electronic paper display products of Helitai reached 1.06 billion yuan, accounting for 6.19% of the total operating income.
Previously, on November 16, 2021, Helitai also said on the investor interactive platform that its large-size electronic paper display module has the ability to mass-produce.
Yashi Optoelectronics has invested in research and development of electronic paper products since 2015 and established a special production line. In 2020, 97.89% of the operating income of Asper Optoelectronics came from LCD screens and modules.
After arousing the attention of the market, on January 10, Yashi Optoelectronics said that its subsidiary Qixin Optoelectronics has a special research and development team, and its electronic paper products are carried out in the fields of bus stop signs and electronic price tags.
However, it is worth noting that these two companies have cooperated with Yuantai Technology before, but they seem to lack core technologies themselves.
As early as 2015, Helitai signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Yuantai Technology, Yuantai Technology sold its electronic paper diaphragm products to Helitai, and Helitai provided cost-effective electronic paper module products for Yuantai Technology with its production capacity.
On November 30, 2020, Yashi Optoelectronics also announced that it will cooperate with Yuantai Technology in technology research and development, product manufacturing and other aspects. Yuantai Technology will supply electronic paper films to ASE Optoelectronics to manufacture electronic paper modules, strengthen the application of electronic paper in electronic shelf labels, smart wear, etc., and expand the industrial ecological chain.
Obviously, at present, Helitai and Yashi Optoelectronics still seem to lack competitiveness in the core field of electronic paper films, mainly manufacturing integrated module products.
Of course, although electronic paper is still a niche concept, it does have a good prospect in the field of display.
Previously, on December 20, 2021, the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it will focus on strengthening the forward-looking industrial layout such as Micro-LED, electronic paper, silicon-based OLED, and printed display in the future.
Although mainland enterprises currently lack core technologies, some enterprises are expected to promote the development of mainland industries in the future after having certain technical reserves in the early stage.
This is also expected to promote the expansion of the electronic paper market, so that it is currently relatively small electronic price tags, e-reader applications, to a broader prospect of flexible screens, intelligent control screens, and even BMW concept cars on the electronic ink screen extension.
Original | Zhoukun
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