From 66 million in 2005, automobile sales around the world grew to 91 million in 2019, says Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA). This surge has primarily been led by countries such as China, Japan, India, Mexico, and Indonesia, which are experiencing a rapid advance in their economy. In the past few years, the analog displays in the vehicle dashboard, with needles and buttons, have been substantially replaced by digital screens. With the new generation of automotive displays on the rise, the demand for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens is going up.
To make an OLED screen, emissive layer (EML), cathodes, hole-injection layer (HIL), electron transport layer (ETL), substrates, encapsulation, anodes, and several other materials are required. Among these, substrates, which are either electrical insulators or semiconductors, registered the highest demand in the past, because they are heavily used to create diodes.
Apart from displays, these materials are also used for lighting purposes, but their major usage continues to be in displays. This is because other than automotive displays, they are also used to manufacture the screens of smartphones, televisions and monitors, and notebooks and tablets. All these consumer electronics are witnessing rising sales owing to the increasing disposable income, which means that people now have more to spend on these items than before. According to the World Bank, the gross domestic income (GDP) per capita around the world has sharply risen from $5,527.011 in 2001 to $11,312.44 in 2018.
OLED screens help in creating more-realistic pictures than other prevalent technologies. Additionally, the materials are witnessing robust technological advancements, which have led to the creation of carbon nanotubes, grapheme, hybrid transparent electrodes, and silver nanowires. Manufacturers of OLED materials, including DowDuPont Inc., Bayer AG, LG Chem, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., Novaled GmbH, Merck KGaA, TCI America, Sumitomo Chemical Company Limited, Heraeus Holding GmbH, and Universal Display Corporation, are increasingly leveraging these improvements in the technology to develop better products, with the ultimate aim of increasing their customer base in places where they already have a robust sales network, as well as uncharted territories.
Around the world, Asia-Pacific (APAC) has been the largest OLED materials market, as regional countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and India, account for high production of consumer electronics and vehicles. Additionally, APAC is also where the population is growing the fastest, which is raising the demand for residential projects. At such settings, OLED is rapidly replacing the liquid crystal display (LCD) and LED technologies. Another reason for the growing demand for OLED lighting is that with a higher purchasing power of regional inhabitants than before, such expensive products are more affordable now.
Hence, as the disposable income of people rises, especially in developing countries, they will buy more consumer electronics and automobiles, and with all these fields undergoing technological advancements, the demand for OLED materials will keep rising.
