Dinglong: Striving to be a supporter and leader in material innovation for the semiconductor display industry

For many years, Dinglong has continuously tested and improved materials in interactive R&D with downstream clients, and at the same time, it has built a more complete product matrix around the urgent needs of downstream clients, striding towards the direction of a "one-stop supply platform" for high-end electronic materials. Currently, it has deployed more than 30 "bottleneck" material products in the semiconductor display material field, and has almost covered all major product categories except for light-emitting materials. Based on its understanding of material products, it quickly extended its product line to the semiconductor packaging field.

Dinglong's ability to seize the opportunity to quickly transform and complete its product layout is mainly due to the establishment of seven major technology platforms, which have achieved horizontal technological empowerment among product lines and vertical integration of the industrial chain. Since its establishment, Dinglong has always adhered to the principle of "benchmarking against international giants and insisting on innovation empowerment," repeatedly breaking international monopolies. Over the years, it has learned from international giants in the process of catching up, building seven major technology platforms, and accumulating a successful model for designing product matrices and supporting key raw materials.

Secondly, it has established good relationships with customers, enabling it to understand and solve problems in a timely manner. As Dinglong solves more and more problems for its customers, customers become increasingly confident in Dinglong's technological strength, gradually getting used to "seeking help from Dinglong when encountering difficulties." Dinglong is also able to understand customer needs and invest in R&D in a timely manner.

Dinglong's platform advantages and customer support have accelerated Dinglong's understanding of materials in different fields. Based on valuable experience in monomer synthesis, formula design, structure-activity relationships, and application evaluation, Dinglong can further extend its product line to more key material fields in the future, based on downstream applications and its own technological reserves. The future market has broad growth potential.

2017 With the adoption of OLED screens by iPhones, the development of OLED displays has entered a new stage. The penetration rate of OLED in smartphones in 2023 is expected to reach 51%, and new models above 2000 yuan generally adopt OLED. In the future, with the increase in foldable screens, the improvement of the penetration rate of medium-sized products, and the increase in wearable devices the applications of flexible displays in automotive displays, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and smartphones will continue to increase, and the downstream operating rate will remain high, thus driving demand in the upstream material field.

Dinglong's main mass-produced and sold products in the OLED process are YPI (yellow polyimide slurry), PSPI (photosensitive polyimide), and INK (flexible display packaging material), and they have been fully equipped on mainstream brand OLED mobile phones on the market.

① Photosensitive polyimide PSPI: Dinglong is a leader in the domestic production of PSPI. Monthly sales have exceeded ten tons, and are in a continuous and significant growth trend, breaking the near 20-year monopoly of Japanese companies. It is the first domestic company to achieve mass production and large-scale sales. In terms of capacity construction, the company has completed a 200-ton industrialization project at its Wuhan headquarters and a 1000-ton phase II expansion project in Xiantao, providing strong capacity support for subsequent acceleration of volume production to meet order growth.

② Yellow polyimide slurry YPI: Dinglong is the only company in China with a thousand-ton-level, ultra-clean, fully automated YPI production line. Currently, the company's order share on the G6 lines of various core customers in China is continuously increasing, and it has fully entered all core flexible panel factories in China. It has become the first supplier of YPI products for some mainstream panel customers in China.

③ Panel packaging material TFE INK: Dinglong's TFE-INK products received their first purchase orders from leading downstream display panel customers in the fourth quarter of last year, and the low dielectric encapsulation ink INK has entered the verification stage.

In addition, products such as OC (low temperature, high refractive index), black PDL, fluorine-free PSPI, and PI orientation liquid have been successfully developed. Some of these products have successfully entered the sample testing phase and will become key drivers of growth in the display business. Furthermore, Dinglong's PSPI products can also be extended to the advanced packaging field of semiconductors, further expanding the application space of the products. Currently, multiple models of products adapted to the different process needs of different customers are undergoing verification at multiple wafer manufacturing clients simultaneously.

PSPI, also known as photosensitive polyimide, is a type of polyimide. Polyimide's performance is at the top of the polymer material pyramid, and it is widely used in many downstream fields such as electronic communication, aerospace, new energy, electrical insulation, and the automotive industry. It is known as the "golden film" and "one of the most promising engineering plastics of the 21st century." Semiconductor display PSPI, as a special PI, also has higher technical barriers and a low domestic production rate.

Dinglong, through its platform advantages, has mastered the complexity of heat, mechanics, optics, and electricity in PI series materials and has established a complete verification and evaluation system. Based on this, Dinglong can further extend its product line to battery separators or some heat-insulating materials in the new energy field, materials with lower high-frequency loss in the high-end electronic communication field, and high-frequency, high-speed special materials in intelligent computing power. These materials are widely used in key areas, and the market space is vast.

Currently, Dinglong has joined the ranks of domestic pioneers in the competition to capture this brilliant pearl of PI. It is the only company in China that has simultaneously received support from national ministries and commissions in the three fields of photoresists for semiconductor displays, photoresists for semiconductor packaging, and photoresists for wafer manufacturing. It can be said that, Dinglong is currently the domestic enterprise with the widest layout, the most product series, and the fastest capacity release of import-substitution PSPI products. Currently, Dinglong's photoresist layout has improved the awkward situation in China's PSPI industry of "high import dependence, small industry scale, and products mostly concentrated in the mid-to-low end fields."

① Photoresist for semiconductor displays

Because Dinglong started early, it has a deep understanding of photoresist products. After helping customers achieve "domestic substitution," it continues to be customer-oriented, extending OLED PSPI materials from performance, application, and technological innovation to multiple photoresist products that meet downstream technological trends.

Fluorine-free PSPI: The EU plans to ban PFAS substances in 2025. Dinglong's R&D team has gradually achieved fluorine-free PSPI through new self-developed monomers, resin structures, and unique formula ratios. Currently, this product has passed preliminary client testing, and the feedback on exposure sensitivity is much better than that of foreign competitors.

Black photoresist (BPDL): It is a core material in the key process of OLED COE technology Array. It has the function of replacing the polarizer, resulting in lower thickness and improved bending performance, thus being more conducive to the development of flexible screens. It also performs excellently in reducing screen power consumption, extending screen lifespan, and improving the contrast ratio of OLED screens. It has completed full-process verification on the customer's G4.5 generation line.

Negative PDL: It is a core material used in the Tandem dual-stack OLED architecture. This technology adds another organic light-emitting layer while keeping the screen thickness basically unchanged, achieving brighter images and extending the screen lifespan by 2-6 times. Currently, Dinglong's team has successfully developed the Tandem Undecut trapezoidal negative PDL.

High-resolution PSPI and high-flatness PSPI: It has been optimized in terms of performance, helping customers expand their application areas to the AR/VR field.

As the next-generation mainstream display technology, Dinglong has also made early preparations and developed a chemical plating-resistant PSPI and a high heat-resistant and high-adhesion PSPI, which have been sent for sample verification.

② Photoresist for Semiconductor Packaging

Benefiting from the development of flexible displays and advanced packaging, the space for domestic substitution is vast, and the trend of domestic substitution is obvious, driving the company's industrialization layout. Dinglong leverages its rich experience in the field of new display PI materials to achieve independent research and development and production of key PI resins for semiconductor packaging. Products fully cover non-photosensitive PI, positive PSPI, and negative PSPI, meeting the needs of front-end IGBT power module packaging and back-end advanced semiconductor packaging. Currently, multiple product models have been simultaneously verified by multiple wafer manufacturing clients, and customer feedback has been positive. Products cover high and low-temperature curing processes, covering different resolutions, wide film thickness ranges, and multiple substrate application scenarios; and the production line for negative PSPI photoresist projects mainly used in back-end advanced packaging was completed and successfully put into production in the first half of 2023, with a mass production capacity of tons per month. The construction of the packaging photoresist project production line and quality control system has been completed, ensuring seamless connection after customer testing and order acquisition.

③ Photoresist for Wafer Manufacturing

Wafer photoresist, with its numerous technical indicators and extremely high technical barriers, is known as the "crown jewel" of semiconductor materials. KrF and ArF have a high market share in photoresists, but the current domestic production rate is low, representing the highest point of photoresist technology. Against the backdrop of international market technology blockade and the accelerated development of the domestic semiconductor industry, the demand for domestic substitution of KrF and ArF photoresists covering the main advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes from 0.25µm to 7nm is extremely urgent. According to Trendbank's forecast, the market size of semiconductor photoresists in China will exceed 4 billion yuan in 2023, with the market demand for ArF photoresists reaching approximately 245 tons and a market size of 1.96 billion yuan, leaving ample room for domestic substitution. According to CEMIA's forecast, by 2025, the market size of integrated circuit wafer manufacturing photoresists in China will reach 3.764 billion yuan, and the market size of KrF and ArF photoresists will grow simultaneously, with an estimated market size of 2.501 billion yuan in 2025.

Currently, the company is developing 16 mainstream wafer photoresists and their core raw materials (photoacids, monomers, resins, etc.) that have not yet been broken through domestically, and the industrialization of 300 tons/year of KrF/ArF photoresist is being actively constructed. Including 8 high-end KrF photoresists and 8 immersion ArF photoresists (including 4 negative-tone immersion ArF photoresists), all of which are models developed at the request of clients. Samples of 7 products have been sent to clients, including one extreme resolution KrF photoresist and one extreme resolution ArF photoresist, and the test results have been unanimously recognized by clients; the remaining products are planned to be sent to clients for sampling in 2024.

Currently, China has accumulated rich experience in the global display industry, and its industrial scale has ranked first in the world. However, most upstream materials in the industry chain rely on imports, especially OLED display materials, with a domestic production rate of less than 10%. Therefore, the domestic production of upstream materials in the new display industry chain is imminent. Under this environment, Dinglong inherits Dinglong's innovative characteristics of "customer-oriented and solving industry pain points" from five dimensions: technology, production capacity, service, quality, and supply chain, driving customer needs with materials and promoting greater integration of material technology and terminals. The core advantages are mainly reflected in the following 5 aspects:

① Leading Technological Innovation: Dinglong's technological innovation is steadily advanced according to the law of pursuing innovation, parallel innovation, and leading innovation. Dinglong's product manuals are constantly updated every month to meet customer needs, and this product innovation vitality benefits from Dinglong's willingness to invest in R&D and its strong talent team.

Dinglong invests more than 10%-15% of its revenue in R&D work almost every year, continuously increasing its R&D investment to promote the innovative development of new products that are still in the R&D, verification, or initial market promotion stages, while continuously improving mature products that have achieved large-scale sales. Dinglong has invested over one billion yuan in the material field to establish the most advanced material R&D and product testing system in China: including three evaluation and verification lines: "G2.5 coating verification line", "exposure and development evaluation line", and "liquid crystal cell line", and a complete characterization and evaluation system.

A high-end talent team is the cornerstone of Dinglong's rapid development. Dinglong adheres to the simultaneous development of material technology innovation and talent team cultivation, has established a stable core technical talent team, and has cultivated and reserved a group of professional talents who understand materials, applications, and engineering capacity building. The company is also actively expanding its technical talent team, with the number of R&D personnel increasing year by year in the past three years. Since its establishment, Dinglong has established its own R&D team, possessing a highly efficient "old-to-new" growth environment, a complete talent training mechanism, and a professional R&D platform, and has cultivated three generations of R&D personnel to date. Currently, there are more than 60 doctors and more than 200 masters from home and abroad at Dinglong tackling the technical difficulties of core "stuck neck" materials. It also has a number of national and provincial and municipal-level recognized scientific and technological innovation platforms and laboratories.

② Leading Production Capacity Guarantee: Dinglong's display material product R&D and engineering are carried out simultaneously. In 2020, it built the first domestic 1,000-ton-level, ultra-clean YPI production line; in 2023, in response to customer needs, based on the 200-ton-level PSPI production line, it invested hundreds of millions of yuan to build the nation's first and the world's second 1,000-ton-level panel PSPI production line, further consolidating its leading position in the domestic PSPI field and expanding its market share.

③ Leading Customer Service Capabilities: Dinglong has always used an open mind to work with mainstream industry clients to understand the new needs of the industry, and has undertaken pioneering work with a sense of obligation and responsibility for key materials in China's display industry, achieving technical integration, controlling product rhythm, and matching testing resources; ensuring that products are always benchmarked, client communication is smooth, and materials and processes are mutually beneficial. It has also been affirmed by customers, winning the "Technical Innovation Award" and "Technical Breakthrough Award" from two mainstream panel clients last year.

④ Leading Stable Quality: Every product that leaves Dinglong must undergo a rigorous inspection process. Dinglong's factories are built according to international first-class standards of independent raw material supply, information-based production management, diversified production equipment, clean production environment, and automated production processes, and no quality problems have occurred since the products were put into production.

⑤ Leading Agile Supply Chain: One of the characteristics of high-end materials is the large number of raw material types. In addition to the independent research and development of key core raw materials, some raw materials must rely on the supply chain to select from hundreds of materials those that meet the requirements of our products. In addition, it has cultivated the upgrading and transformation of traditional chemical product suppliers, allowing core raw materials to achieve preferential supply/exclusive supply through strategic cooperation, and has cultivated a complete domestic raw material supply chain, further ensuring product safety.

The essence of Dinglong's competition in the materials field is "more, faster, better, and cheaper." Relying on the platform to produce diversified materials in different fields can solve more problems for customers; fast innovation speed can accelerate product iteration and seize opportunities; good product quality can gain customer recognition; cost and efficiency savings can compete on the international stage.

The company's original intention in the field of display panel innovative materials has never changed, whether in the past or the future: Always adhere to the application needs of customers in related fields, always adhere to long-termism. Find the right position from the overall development of the industry and the general trend of the times "A leading innovative materials platform company in key competitive sectors, both domestically and internationally" Based on years of technological accumulation, we will expand into more material fields and assume the role of a participant and promoter in the development of China's semiconductor industry.