Forecast of OLED Light Emitting Materials Market in 2021: $15.2 billion

/in /by

Citing the recently published ‘2021 OLED emitting material report’, UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, forecasted that the OLED emitting material market size in 2021 will be $1.52 billion, a 17% increase from $1.3 billion in 2020.

By country, Korean panel makers’ material purchase rate is expected to account for 74.3% of the total market, and China is expected to account for 25.7%. By company, Samsung Display is expected to take the 1st place with 45.9% of the total, LG Display to take second place with 28.5%, and BOE to take third place with 13.7%.

By evaporation method, it is expected that the emitting materials for RGB OLED used for small OLEDs account for 81.4% of the total market, and the emitting materials for WRGB OLED of LG Display account for 18.3%. Samsung Display’s QD-OLED emitting material, which will be released in the second half of this year, is expected to account for less than 1% of the total material market as shipments of QD-OLED panels are not expected to be large.

Meanwhile, the ‘2021 OLED Emitting Material Report’ published this time includes not only the OLED emitting material market forecast, but also the development trend of low-power driving technology, the development trend of blue phosphorescent materials, and the material supply chain of Chinese panel makers. It is expected to be helpful for the companies related to emitting materials understand related technologies and forecast future technology directions and markets.

Why did Apple choose LTPO?

/in /by
  • Utilizing high refresh rate and reducing power consumption by up to 20%
  • but, 30% more complex process

LTPO (Low Temperature Poly-crystalline Oxide) is an Apple’s technology made by combining LTPS (Low Temperature Poly-Silicon) and Oxide (oxide semiconductor, mainly IGZO) TFT technology. It is characterized by further improving power efficiency by using LTPS with fast electron mobility and oxide with less leakage current.

LTPS TFT with fast electron mobility is applied as a driving role, and oxide TFT with low leakage current is applied as a switch.

LTPO was first applied to smart watches before smartphones. The first device to be applied is the Apple Watch Series 4, released in 2018, and was supplied exclusively by LG Display. Samsung Electronics also applied LTPO to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 in 2019.

Apple Watch with LTPO applied       

     Galaxy Watch Active 2

LTPO technology, which is characterized by low power, is suitable for 5G smartphones that consume more power than existing LTE and is in high demand from major smartphone manufacturers. Samsung Display launched the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the first smartphone to which LTPO technology was applied.

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with LTPO applied

It is expected that Samsung Display will dominate the market as it is leading in technology of LTPO OLED panels for Smartphones, and as a latecomer, LG Display is known to develop panels to be applied to the iPhone, which is scheduled to be released next year.

LTPO technology does not only have the advantage of low power. Because masks are added during the process, the unit price is increased due to the complexity of the process. Manufacturing methods are completely different from existing LTPS and Oxide TFT, and processes are more than 30% complicated. Complex manufacturing processes lead to higher unit prices.

From a manufacturer’s perspective, LTPO application effect must be as large as the increased process unit price. Considering this, it is analyzed that the need and effect of LTPO application are greater (because of the always-on display function) than smartphones. Smartwatches also had a greater effect on lowering power consumption than smartphones. If LTPO is applied, the refresh rate can be lowered, which reduces power consumption, because smartphones require a high refresh rate. The refresh rate is a figure that shows how many scenes are shown per second, and the higher the refresh rate, the smoother the screen transition.

In the case of smartphones, if you play games or watch videos, you can quickly switch to the screen with high refresh rates, allowing you to experience smooth and smooth gaming. Recently released flagship Smartphones are currently supporting 120Hz refresh rate. Considering this trend, LTPO technology, which can reduce screen conversion, is not very suitable for smartphone utilization.

However, in a still picture, LTPS requires a driving of 60Hz to maintain the brightness of the screen due to a high leakage current, but the oxide TFT can be driven at 1Hz because of a low leakage current, so there is no decrease in brightness.

As a result, the LTPO TFT has the effect of reducing the total power in mobile devices by 10% to 15% compared to the LTPS TFT.

To take advantage of LTPO’s technology, new applications and services that consumers want are needed. If it is always turned on and has a function to flow information or a service function to view information by turning on only a certain part of it, OLED and LTPO technologies will be combined and used as an advantage.