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Foldable Phones Drive Penetration of Mid-to-High-End Backplane Technology to 60% by 2025, Says TrendForce

by SP Chou on Aug.26 2024

TrendForce’s latest investigations into backplane technology for displays reveal that OLED has become the mainstream display solution for smartphones, pushing the penetration rate of mid-to-high-end backplane technologies such as LTPS and LTPO in the smartphone market to nearly 57% in 2024. The penetration rate is expected to challenge 60% in 2025, thanks to improvements in yield and effective cost control. Additionally, AMOLED panels are rapidly expanding into other IT markets, which is projected to boost the penetration of oxide and LTPO backplanes.

 

LTPO improves the energy efficiency of displays

Backplane technology in displays not only affects visual quality but also determines a smartphone’s performance, energy consumption, and cost. Since Apple introduced Retina display to the iPhone, the industry has driven the development of low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) backplanes to achieve higher screen resolutions, with this technology now becoming highly mature.

 

LTPS offers high electron mobility, which provides faster switching speeds and higher resolution, making it ideal for high-end smartphones. However, its high electron mobility also results in greater leakage current, preventing support for low-frequency dynamic refresh adjustment and leading to higher overall power consumption.

 

TrendForce highlights that most flagship smartphones currently use low temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) backplanes. In larger foldable phones, LTPO enables split-screen functionality with different refresh rates, balancing multitasking capabilities and energy efficiency.

 

LTPO then builds on LTPS by adding oxide semiconductors to optimize display performance, including reducing leakage current when driving the display and adjusting the screen’s refresh rate based on content. However, producing LTPO backplanes involves stacking more layers, making them more complex and costlier to manufacture than LTPS.

 

TrendForce also notes that oxide backplanes—which primarily use materials like zinc oxide (ZnO) or indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO)—commonly appear in high-end displays, such as Apple’s iPad and MacBook series. Oxide backplanes are expected to be well-suited for future applications in transparent displays due to their lower leakage current.

 

Large-generation AMOLED panels to prioritize oxide and LTPO

While OLED dominates smartphone displays, AMOLED panels are quickly expanding into other IT markets, including tablets and notebooks. TrendForce posits that when IT device brands choose their preferred backplane technology, they consider display quality, energy consumption, cost, and product positioning. Panel makers preparing new large-generation AMOLED production capacity are likely to prioritize oxide or LTPO backplanes to meet the diverse specifications required by different brands.

 

For example, BOE has already introduced LTPO backplanes in its 8.6-generation line. Although initial production costs were high due to the high equipment setup threshold and complexity, the scale and cost efficiency achieved as the technology matures will help BOE target flagship products and expand its market share, potentially even capturing a portion of the mainstream market. Conversely, while oxide backplanes have lower initial setup costs, they struggle to improve yield; however, once these are overcome, oxide technology could penetrate deeper into the mainstream market.

 

TrendForce concludes that as production scales up, the manufacturing costs of high-end backplanes like LTPO and oxide are expected to decrease. This will enable mid-sized AMOLED displays incorporating these technologies to penetrate various product segments more competitively, ultimately expanding their market share across different products.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SP Chou has worked in the flat panel display industry for 17 years and has experience in the development and application of advanced technology from the practical end of manufacturing. With years of accumulated knowledge and experience, his current research focuses on the application trends of OLED and the evolution of related technologies, materials, and equipment, as well as the analysis of cost competitiveness.

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