Approval of LG Display Plant in China, cementing the global No.1position in large OLED market

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LG Display has earned approval to invest in Gen 8.5 OLED panel plant in Guangzhou, China.  As the government, who has delayed the approval due to the possible technology leakage, finally gives ‘a conditional approval’ for the plan, the construction of large size OLED panel factory will embark on.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) hosted ‘the 17th Industrial Technology protection Committee’ on June 26th, in which government officials and 20 civilian members participated to approve LG Display’s overseas expansion of OLED panel manufacturing technology on the condition of maintaining the localization ratio of equipment and materials to a certain level, preparing local security measures, and investing in next-generation technologies in Korea.

This approval would be a chance for LG Display to further increase the productivity of large size OLED panels and strengthen its market competitiveness.  In addition, they can expect sales growth and tariff reduction in Chinese TV market.  At the IMID 2018 held in BEXCO in Busan last August, LG Display CTO In-Byeong Kang said, “ Recently OLED TV has overtaken LCD TV market share in North and Central Americas and Europe, but not yet in China.  We will increase our market share of OLED TV in China, which is recently being raised as a largest TV market in the world.”

<Market share of global OLED TV market: LG Display>

LG Display plans to strengthen its presence in larger OLEDs by completing both the newly approved Guangzhou Gen OLED line and Paju Gen 10.5 line.  According to UBI Research, LG Display’s 55-inch and larger OLED panel shipments are projected to increase from 2.4 million units in 2018 to 10 million units in 2022.

<Expectation of 55-inch and larger OLED panel shipments 55 inch >

LG V30 + launched in Japan and India

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According to ITmeadia of Japan, NTT docomo said that LG Electronics’ smartphone ‘V30 + L-01K’ and ‘JOJO L-02K’ started to be sold in advance as from 12:00 on December 20th at DoCoMo store and web site. The full-fledged release of V30 + L-01K will be at the end of January 2018, and that of JOJO L-02K is scheduled in March 2018.

<JOJO L-02K, Source: nttdocomo.co.jp>

V30 + L-01K is equipped with 6-inch QHD OLED, 16.5 and 13.1 megapixel dual cameras, and a wide-angle camera for panorama.

JOJO L-02K is a product celebrating the 30th anniversary of the JoJo’s odd adventure series- Japanese animation. The special edition of JOJO L-02K is limited to 10,000 and the price is 125,712 JPY. It is known that it is also equipped with AR camera mode to make an effect of being with a character.

V30 + has been also available in India since December 18th. Its price is RS. 44,900 (760,000KRW); aurora black and cloud silver will be released first, and other colors will be added later. It features one free display replacement and can be purchased only through amazon.in.

OLED applied Galaxy Book 12.0 released in Japan

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<Galaxy Book 12.0, Source: news.samsung.com>

Samsung Electronics launched its Windows tablet ‘Galaxy Book 12.0’ in Japan. It has a 12-inch OLED display with an aspect ratio of 3: 2 and a resolution of 2,160 × 1,440. The size is 291.3 × 199.8 × 7.4 mm (WLH), the weight is 754 g, and the official price is 139,800 yen.

Galaxy Book 12.0 was released to the public at MWC 2017, the world’s largest mobile telecommunication exhibition held in Barcelona, Spain on February 26, and was pre-booked in Korea in April. At MWC 2017, a Samsung Electronics official said, “Galaxy book is expected to be able to target both tablet PC and notebook market at the same time, and burn-in phenomenon, which is a weak point of AMOLED panel, has been improved enough to be used for notebook applications.”

OLED, which was mainly applied only to mobile devices and TVs, has recently been applied to tablets and notebooks, widening its application range. In early 2017, Alienware launched the ’13 R3 2017 ‘with 13.3-inch OLED, and Lenovo also released the X1 Yoga 2017, which is powered by a 14-inch OLED in July 2017.

As OLEDs are applied to various applications and become the mainstream of display industry, it will be interesting to see if they can exert their influence in the tablet and notebook market as well.

OLED lighting, growing their presence

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By HyunJun JANG (hyunjun@ubiresearch.com)

As the OLED lighting has expanded its applications, the expectation is raised for the beginning of the OLED lighting market. In particular, LG Display has recently completed the OLED lighting production line and started attracting customers.  As a result, there is much attention towards the growing OLED lighting market.

LG Display is said to supply its OLED lighting to Baskin Robbins Brown store in Cheongdam Dong and the ‘transparent connection solution’ applied OLED lighting to IOPE store in Myeong Dong.  The company explains as the thickness of lighting is as thin as 0.88mm, it enhances aesthetic effect, and does not effect on cosmetics and other displays with less heat generated.

<OLED lighting applied to IOPE store, Source: lgoledlight.com>

Until recently, compared to OLED display for mobile devices and TVs, OLED lighting has shown slow growth.  However, OLED lighting is thinner, lighter, and more flexible so that it is now being consideres as a next generation lighting.  By tapping on the strengths, it has applied not only to indoor lighting but to cars, exhibitions, and many other industries.

More recently, IKEA announced to release a new lighting product of Vitsand with 7 OLED panels while Mercedez-Benz decided to apply OLED lighting for taillights of both 2018 Benz S class Coupe and Cabriolet.

According to the 2017 OLED Lighting Annual Report published by UBI Research, the global OLED lighting panel market is expected to grow rapidly from 2020, becoming $1.9 billion worth of market by 2021.

 

 

UBI Research, an OLED specializing global research institute, is invited as an overseas expert in the Shenzhen Display Industry Association

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<Right: Jeff Kwok, Vice President and Executive Director of the Shenzhen Display Industry Association
Left: Choong Hoon Yi, the CEO of UBI Research>

On November 25, Jeff Kwok, Vice President and Executive Deputy of the Shenzhen Display Industry Association, officially invited Choong Hoon Yi, the CEO of UBI Research, an OLED specializing global research institute, as an overseas expert of the association.

In January 2005, the Shenzhen Display Industry Association was established by 30 leading companies of the association, and established a touch screen division in 2009. It is the first display association established in China. Its members are from all over the country and from abroad, and overcoming the local limits of Shenzhen, it is the largest in scale and influence in China and actively working for industry development. In 2014, the Shenzhen Display Industry Association established a specialist committee to try to meet more requirements of the companies related to the members and the industry, and to provide various services such as technical consulting services.

The Association Expert Committee is composed of technical experts in each area and top industry analysts in the industry. The members have been invited from companies, schools, scientific research institutes, industry analysis institutions, etc. in the display industry at home and abroad, and they are striving to build a solid human resources platform for healthy development of the Chinese display industry.
UBI Research announced that it will contribute to the development of OLED industry in Korea, China, and the world as a global research institute in the OLED industry through participation in the expert committee of the Shenzhen Display Industry Association. UBI Research will provide more reliable industry and market analysis services to the OLED industry by establishing relationships with various companies in the Chinese display industry, which is recognized as an important market.

Flexible OLED Leading the OLED Panel Market from 2019

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■ Flexible OLED is expected to ship 480 million units in 2019, surpassing Rigid OLED shipments.

■ Full-screen OLED among Flexible OLED is expected to have an average market share of 78.3% by 2022, dominating the market.

■ Foldable OLED is expected to ship in earnest from 2019.

Flexible OLED shipments are expected to exceed rigid OLED shipments in 2019. According to the ‘2017 Flexible OLED Annual Report’ published by Ubi Research, flexible OLEDs are expected to ship 480 million units in 2019, surpassing 409 million units of rigid OLED shipments. In addition, flexible OLED shipments will grow at a CAGR of 41% starting in 2018, reaching 1,285 million units in 2022 with forecasted revenue of US$ 59.4 billion.

<OLED Market Share Forecast by Substrate in 2018 ~ 2022>

Recently, as the hardware technology of mobile devices has been leveled up, set makers targeting the premium market are trying to differentiate their products by adopting OLED. Especially, set makers are beginning to introduce flexible OLED capable of full screen, as the needs of consumers who want a wider screen in mobile devices (even in the same sizes) on the increase.

 

Accordingly, panel makers are continuing to invest in flexible OLED mass production. Since Chinese panel makers such as BOE, CSOT and Visionox are expected to start mass production of Gen6 flexible OLED starting in 2018, flexible OLED shipments will likely grow at an average growth rate of 59% per annum, reaching 354 million units by 2022.

 

This report compares the structure and process of rigid OLED and flexible OLED, and analyzes the trends of technology development for foldable OLED implementation by layer. It also compares the flexible OLED application technology of Samsung Electronics, Apple, and LG Electronics which released mobile devices with full screen OLED. The report also forecasts the flexible OLED market from 2018 to 2022 by categorizing into various perspectives including flexible type, country and generation.

 

According to the report, full screen OLEDs of flexible OLEDs will ship 265 million units in 2018 with a market share of 82.1%, and 1,022 million shipments will be made in 2022, accounting for 79.5% of the market, leading the flexible OLED market. In addition, the foldable OLED, which has been receiving a great deal of attention recently, is expected to ship 5 million units from 2019 and 53 million units by 2022.

<Foldable OLED Shipment Forecast in 2018~ 2022>

 

RGB ink-jet printing, also applied to small and medium-sized OLED?

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At the “Year End Seminar of OLED/Display” held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, on December 7, Kim, Seok-Soon, CEO of Unijet said that ink-jet printing technology can implement over 550 RGB ppi and ink-jet printing can be applied to small and medium-sized OLED process as well.

The currently mass-produced QHD resolution of 5.5-inch mobile device is 550 ppi but it is actually 400 ppi with pentile structure. Moreover the ink-jet printing technology for RGB pixels is currently in the range of 150 to 200 ppi which can achieve 8K resolution on over 55inch OLED, yet inapplicable to the small and medium-sized OLED process. As Kim announced, if the ink-jet printing technology is applicable, implementing 550 ppi in the small and medium-sized OLED process, beyond QHD resolution in 5.5 inches, it is possible to implement UHD resolution in pentile structure.

<ppi by size and resolution>

Kim said, “In 2012, single droplet measurement technology showed 2.5% or less of volume accuracy, which was, however, insufficient for RGB printing.  In 2017, the laser droplet measurement technology enabled the discharge volume control less than 0.1 μm and the real-time internal pressure control reduced the volume accuracy by less than 0.1%.” Kim added that it is possible to form over 550 RGB ppi regardless of the pixel structure.

Lastly, Kim noted that the solvent purity for OLED RGB pixel is very important; “Inkjet printer can be commercialized only if ink materials are fully developed first to satisfy panel makers. He expected that it will be applied to the mass production line in earnest since 2020. ”

OLED TVs which are driving forces of both LG Electronics and Sony′ performance

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The director, So, Hyun-cheol, mentioned during the ′Closing seminar of OLED/Display′ held at COEX in Seoul on December, 7th about that OLED TV has made 9.9% of operating profits for LG Electronics in Q3, 2017. He forecasted there, Sony and LG Electronics who are producing OLED TV now will lead the premium TV market in the future also, in particular, while explaining about that the demands have highly increased as OLED TV entered into under $3,000.

The director, especially, explained that Sony took No.1 player in the premium TV market in 12 years, moreover, one of the driving forces for stock price rise of them at 445% in 2013 was OLED TV. He evaluated them such followings that “Sony has starting to improve the structure of operating profit by focusing on 55-inch and 65-inch TV, and “They built the TV business structure in stable through launching OLED TV in 2017”.

He also expected that the investment for 10th generation OLED producing line of LG Electronics will be moved sooner than expected. He also forecasted that demands on large-sized OLED TVs will rise due to the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeong-chang and World Cup in Russia next year, especially, its investment of OLED line will be accelerated, because Sony would also want it.

Subsequently, while the director mentioned that the cost savings will be accelerated by improvement of yield of OLED TV panel, he said, “Although, 55-inch LCD panel is difficult to improve the production cost more since it is already reached to enough yield as 232$, but, the price competitiveness in the 55-inch OLED production cost will be intensified more, because, there is still able to reduce it from current 545$ up to 378$ by the yield improvement”.

Lastly, Mr. So, expected that the sales volume of OLED TV panel will reach to 2.9 million units in 2018 by operating E4-2 line of LG Display in full. The panel business will be turned into profit-making, and operating profits of OLED TV business shall meet 17.3% in 2019.

The strategy of LG Display’s OLED TV, Source: Shinhaninvest

The number of OLED TV products in 2017 has doubled compared to last year

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OLED TV models launched in 2017 have been highly increased rather than both 2015 and 2016. 16 types of OLED TVs were launched in 2016, while 29 kinds of OLED TVs were launched which covers that the number of products has nearly doubled from last year. By company, LG Electronics released total 10 types of products which are the greater number of products launched than competitors, and followed by Loewe with 5 types of products.

<Comparison of No. of OLED TVs by each year>

Meanwhile, OLED TV market led by LG Electronics, was taken attentions of publics when Sony decided to launch OLED TV first in the early of 2017. Sony which launched OLED TV first in CES 2017 to catch public’s eyes with “Acoustic Surface” technology that can make sounds without speakers, is leading the premium market with LG Electronics by producing 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch OLED TVs.

The number of OLED TV products are expected to increase in 2018 more and more. According to Flat Panels HD, Philips which launched only one model with 55-inch OLED in the early of this year, decided for releasing the 6 kinds of OLED TV such as 65OLED973, 65OLED903, 65OLED873, 65OLED803, 55OLED903, 55OLED803 and so forth. It is analyzed that the strategy is to aim at diverse consumers which divides OLED TV leading the premium TV market into high-priced line with 9xx model and low-priced line with 8xx model.

The shipment in 2018 is also expected to grow. In accordance with UBI Research, it expects that OLED panel with 55-inch and more will shipped over 2.4 million units in 2018, 9.1 million units in 2022. There is much attentions how OLED TV leading premium TV market will harden its positions all the more in 2018.

<Shipment forecasting of OLED panel in 55-inch and more in 2018-2022>

AOI equipment market for OLED mobile devices is expected to reach US $ 23.3 billion by 2021

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AOI equipment used for small and medium-sized OLED inspection is non-contact inspection equipment that analyzes the presence of defects by irradiating the product with light and measuring the difference in the amount of the reflected light. The AOI equipment detects not only pattern defects by recognizing the difference through comparison of repeated patterns but also foreign objects on mask and substrate before and after LLO process.

As a result, AOI equipment is used in almost all OLED processes such as TFT pattern inspection, mask particle inspection, OLED pixel inspection, encapsulation inspection, and pre-and after LLO substrate inspection.

HB Technology, DIT, and LG PRI are major AOI equipment manufacturers. HB Technology, DIT and LG PRI produce almost all AOI equipment used for OLED process, whereas HIMS mainly produces AOI for mask foreign object inspection.

According to the ‘2017 Inspection and Measuring Equipment Report for OLED Mobile Device’ recently published by UBi Research, the market for inspection and measuring equipment in the entire OLED equipment market is estimated to be US $ 6.63 billion (about KRW 7.3 trillion) from 2017 to 2021. Among them, AOI equipment market is expected to be US $ 2.33 billion.

When it comes to processes, the AOI equipment market for TFT process is expected to create the biggest market of US $ 1.36 billion, and the AOI market for OLED pixel process, encapsulation and cell process will be US $ 430 million, US $ 390 million and US $ 160 million, respectively.

UBi’s Researcher, Yoon Dae Jeong said, “We can discover the added value of AOI equipment in that AOI equipment can improve yield by detecting and repairing defects during the OLED process and reduce the quality cost by preventing the further process of defective products.“ “With the technological development of AOI equipment, panel manufacturers are also actively introducing AOI equipment, and the AOI market is expected to grow even larger, as the inspection items are increasingly being strengthened.”

<2017 ~ 2021 OLED Mobile AOI Equipment Market Forecast>