"It is also an LED display, why is the flexible screen ridiculously expensive? "You must have thought about this issue. Let’s talk about it today. What are the invisible technical details of this flexible LED screen that can be bent and folded?

1. The cost of materials is as high as a rocket

If you want to say that it is so expensive, you must first see how many "black technology" materials it uses. Ordinary LED screens use hard PCB boards, while the substrate of the flexible screen must be both light-transmitting and bendable.​ ​Polyimide film​​——The production process of this material is so complicated that it makes people feel overwhelmed. It is said that the pass rate is less than 70% of that of traditional materials.

Let’s talk about the conductive layer. Ordinary screens can be done with copper foil, but flexible screens need to be used.​​Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)​​This transparent conductive material. Not only does this thing cost three times more than copper foil per square meter, it cannot produce cracks when coating on flexible substrates. The yield rate of this process alone is enough for the manufacturer to drink a pot.

2. The production process is comparable to micro-carving art

Do you think it's all done with the materials? The real difficulty has just begun. Useful for making flexible screens​ ​Micron-scale lithography technology​​, accurately solder the LED chip thinner than the hair to the film. How difficult is this operation? For example, it is like embroidering on plastic wrap, if you are not careful, the substrate will be torn.

What's even more amazing is the packaging process. The engineers invented that the screen can be bent repeatedly and dust-proof and water-proof.​ ​Transparent liquid silicone potting technology​​. This special glue is priced at a price of Maotai per kilogram, and the temperature fluctuation must be controlled to not exceed ±0.5℃ when curing. Do you think this cost is not high?

3. R&D investment is like a bottomless hole

Now the industry is playing the "pixel density competition", and it took less than three years from P10 to P4. To achieve this leap, you have to invest​ ​Fully automatic patch machine​​This kind of equipment that can be used as tens of millions of dollars. I heard that some manufacturers have burned more than 8 million in mold development alone in order to develop P2.5-pitch flexible screens.

Not to mention those invisible hidden costs. For example​ ​180 degree bending test​​, each sample must undergo 50,000 bends to be considered qualified. This test alone can scrap millions of test items worth of them every month.

4. Quality inspection is strictly to abnormal level

Just check the ordinary LED screen, the flexible screen must​​Full inspection​​. In addition to the conventional brightness and color difference detection, you have to pass three levels:​ ​Flexible tester​​To simulate various bend angles,​​Transmittance detector​​To be accurate to 0.1%,​​Environmental aging box​​It is necessary to run continuously for 2000 hours. Any of these testing equipment can be replaced by Porsche.

There is a real case: During the acceptance of a project, Party A took a vernier caliper to measure the pixel spacing, and the difference was 0.01 mm, and the whole batch had to be returned. Do you think the manufacturer dares not to control the quality to the extreme?

5. Application scenarios hide hidden costs

Don't look at the flexible screen when installing it, the​​Customized services​​It's a big money-burning player. For example, to make a curved screen, you need to develop a curved surface correction system specifically. ； To make floor tiles, we must develop a composite solution of explosion-proof glass + waterproof structure. These customized development costs will eventually be distributed to the product price.

To give a down-to-earth example: common in shopping mall atriums​​Cylindrical advertising screen​​, it looks like a circle, but in fact, each module has to debug the surface curvature separately. This labor cost is more than three times higher than that of installing an ordinary screen.

Now expensive ≠ forever expensive

Although the current price is indeed painful, the industry is already holding its big moves. I heard that some manufacturers are experimenting​ ​Roll-to-roll production process​​, can cut production costs by 40%. There are also new materials players developing​ ​Graphene transparent conductive film​​, If it is real energy production, the material cost can be cut in half immediately.

Our own factory has also invested a lot in the past two years.​​Automatic patch machine​​After changing to a six-axis robotic arm, the yield rate soared from 78% to 92%. The cost of making a P4 transparent screen now is 40% lower than three years ago. So, the flexible screen is just like the LCD TVs back then, and will sooner or later fly into the homes of ordinary people.

Having said that, expensive things naturally have their own reasons. Next time I see those LED curved screens that can "dance" in the mall, don't just stare at the price tag - it condenses inside, but countless engineers' hair fallen and burnt brain cells!

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