Today, a blogger revealed that Huawei has established a dedicated department to develop display driver chips and enter the display industry. The blogger also exposed an internal document signed by Richard Yu.
It is reported that although China has become a major manufacturer and exporter of large screens, screen driver chips still rely mainly on imports. In 2019, BOE purchased screen driver chips worth over 6 billion yuan, of which less than 5% were domestic chips.
The LED display driver IC is a key component, much like the central nervous system of the human brain, responsible for regulating overall movement and conscious thought. The performance of the driver IC directly determines the quality of the LED display, especially in small-pitch LED applications. To ensure long-term visual comfort for users, low brightness and high grayscale have become important standards for evaluating driver IC performance, which also makes the requirements for driver ICs more stringent.
According to the latest reports, after verification with Huawei, the department has indeed been established. Industry sources indicate that Huawei started related projects as early as the end of 2019. Huawei HiSilicon’s first OLED driver chip has entered mass production.
It is reported that Samsung Display uses self-developed driver chips, while BOE’s AMOLED driver chips use products from suppliers such as South Korea’s MagnaChip. Samsung (75%), MagnaChip (25%), Silicon Works (5%), and three other Korean chip companies together account for about 95% of the global AMOLED driver chip market.
