Huawei enters the OLED driver chip

Huawei enters the OLED driver chip

According to the latest news from the upstream supply chain, Huawei’s mobile phone OLED driver chips are currently in the tape-out stage. This year and next, Huawei’s flagship phones may not be equipped with self-developed OLED driver chips, but they are accelerating the speed of their own products.

According to the supply chain, the chip testing machine purchased by Huawei is in place. It is expected to start mass production of driver ICs in 2020 to increase self-sufficiency and impact existing supply chains such as Novatek and Duntech.

The industry pointed out that Huawei’s HiSilicon even the most advanced 5nm Kirin series of mobile phone chips can be independently developed. The driver IC technology is far less than that of mobile phone chips. It does not need to be produced at TSMC and can be produced using SMIC's process.

According to media reports, Huawei started to carry out panel driver IC related research and development in 2019, and cooperated with BOE. Its first OLED driver IC from HiSilicon has begun trial production.

As for why Huawei wants to enter the OLED driver chip, in addition to strengthening the self-sufficiency rate of important chips, it still has to create the characteristics of its own products.

Industry insiders bluntly say that Huawei is sanctioned by the United States, and TSMC will not be able to produce Kirin chips for Huawei HiSilicon after September 15. Huawei's high-end smartphone P series and Mate series can only use chips designed and produced by other manufacturers. Open the gap with competitors such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and their entry into the OLED driver chip may be to improve the design and display effect of mobile phones, in order to improve the differentiation competitiveness of flagship phones.

At present, Huawei HiSilicon has a display technology R&D team of hundreds of people, which can continuously improve the appearance design and display performance of Huawei smartphone screens to ensure product quality.

It is undeniable that after entering the OLED driver chip, Huawei mobile phone screens will have better performance.