Bending to his will
An innovator is rolling out what could be game-changing technology.
The subway passenger hears his mobile phone go off. He then reaches into his shirt pocket for a pen, unrolling a small sheet from it to take his call.
If Liu Zihong has his way, that is how most people will use their phones — easily wrapped around or embedded in small devices or clothes — in the not-too-distant future.
Liu, also known as Bill Liu, has long dreamed of a world filled with his flexible, thin and ultra-high-definition display technology being used in fields ranging from communication devices and smart vehicles to home appliances, sports and fashion.
His startup company, Royole Corporation, develops the technology. The group, with its three branches in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Fremont, California in the United States, achieved a market valuation of 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) last year.
Since its founding five years ago, his team has grown from five members to more than 1,000 employees from 15 countries.
Major projects include the world’s thinnest full-color AMOLED flexible display that is bendable and scrollable. The display is about 0.01 millimeters thick, less than one-fifth the diameter of a strand of human hair.
The technology can also be applied to sensors, virtual reality devices and related “smart” products.
Liu’s company has so far applied and reserved more than 1,200 core technology intellectual properties.
The journey to his goals is “gearing up”, the 34-year-old says, with more than 10 billion yuan of investment helping the second production line move into operation by the end of the year, when annual output is expected to reach 50 million display modules.
The idea of inventing a
I’ve been working as a technical engineer from the start. It’s my true calling.”
Liu Zihong,
thinner, lighter, foldable and portable ultra-high-definition display came to Liu’s mind in 2006, when he lay on the lawn of Stanford University in the US.
That year, he was 23 and had just earned his master’s degree from China’s elite Tsinghua University.
He later joined Stanford’s electrical engineering department for his PhD, receiving his doctorate in three years.
He worked for multinational technology company IBM for another three years, before starting his own company in 2012.
Liu’s entrepreneurial drive began early. At Tsinghua University, he put together a team of 10 students and invented an “indoor motion simulation system”, which allowed users to play golf and bowl at home.
“We managed to make a prototype and intended to start a business,” recalls Liu.
But the venture capital sector in China was not mature enough and that held them back, he says.
Years later, when related technology such as motionsensing game consoles like Xbox started becoming popular across the world, Liu realized that good timing, geographical factors and human relations “are indispensable for starting businesses”.
There has been broad and growing respect for Chinese science and technology, he says, with the rapid development of his company in the past five years stemming in part through support from government policy and the domestic funding sector.
The headway made by Liu’s company can also be traced to his innate curiosity and passion for research seen during his school days, says Royole’s public relations director Fan Junchao, who has known his chairman and CEO for 22 years.
Liu once stayed in the college lab for a whole week just to work on an innovation, recalls Fan.
“We went through many tough times at the beginning of our business, but he showed constant perseverance in the face of pressure,” says Fan.
As the head of the company, Liu spends much of his time on its strategic direction, allocation of resources and structure.