While Chinese companies account for about half of the LCD market, the OLED panels and its driver chips are dominated by South Korean companies like Samsung. But now, Huawei has entered into OLED driver chip development with its new self developed OLED driver chip.
Notably, China’s driver ICs for displays account for less than 1 percent of the total market share. So, the Chinese tech giant entering into the field could significantly boost the presence of China in the market. For those unaware, a driver IC chip acts as the main control panel in a system, which manages the image quality being displayed by the screen and its energy efficiency as well. In other words, these driver chips are a core technology that are used in electronic gadgets like smartphones and TVs with a large screen.
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Traditionally, driver chip technology is based around the ARM architecture, which is also subject to the US technology restriction against Huawei. So, the new chip arrives as a custom built chip made by the company. At the moment, the OLED driver chip market is dominated by South Korean companies like Samsung, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of market, and Magnachip accounting for about 20 percent, as per a MyDrivers report.
With the growth in display technology demands, many companies have strengthened research into driver ICs; and it seems that Huawei has also joined seeking to expand its presence in the segment with its chip designing sub brand, HiSilicon. According to Huawei CEO, Yu Chengdong, the new chips are taped out, and will begin mass production within the year. These chips are expected to be equipped in both Huawei smartphones and TVs that will launch next year. Analysts believe that the chips might already be in mass production and could help reduce China’s reliance on foreign driver chips.
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