Leading the OLED market of Samsung Display continues this year

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According to OLED Market Track, which was published by UBI Research in the first quarter of 2018, AMOLED sales and shipments amounted to US$ 8.86 billion and 130 million units, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2017. The sales amount is 100.2% higher than the fourth quarter of 2016. Among them, Samsung Display’s sales and shipments account for 91.6% and 94.5%, respectively, and keep its absolute position.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, the total number of AMOLED market for smart phones was 120 million units, representing 95.5% of the total market. AMOLED panels for smart phones sold by Samsung Display accounted for 97.5%, with 119 million units.

In 2018, the AMOLED market for smart phones is expected to reach 470 million units, with Samsung Display expecting its market share to maintain over 91.5 % with 430 million units.

<4Q’17 AMOLED market>

<2018 AMOLED market for smartphone>

2018 MWC – Sharing Samsung’s market retention strategy with S9 introduction

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The Mobile World Congress (MWC), which takes place every year in Barcelona, Spain, is well known for releasing new models of smart phone brands that year. This year, however, Samsung Electronics and most of the smart phone makers exhibited new line-ups that did not change much or were hard to change dramatically.

In particular, through a press conference held on Monday, February 26, 2018, Samsung Electronics shared some strategies about concerns that the smart phone market will be experiencing an overall shift in replacement cycles and that the growth rate will slow down gradually.

According to the company, the company will concentrate its strategy in three major directions. It plans to set up a global trading system that will compensate for the remaining price by returning the Galaxy S7 within two years of an implicit average replacement cycle or by returning a competitor’s phone, which might be helpful to secure new customers while preventing current customers escape. This is already done by Apple in a system called recycling.

Another strategy is to secure customer loyalty through experiential marketing that enables users to experience various functions of Galaxy Studios and Galaxy by inducing them to shorten replacement cycles through targeted marketing using customer data. Note 8 sales were slightly lower than originally target at 11 million units, but note series have steady B2B demand and fixed customers. Note 9 is largely defined and can only be described as trying to differentiate itself from other customers at this time. The S9, which was unveiled at the show, said it expects better results than the S8 with its timely sales plan.

The S9, a new model released through the MWC, focuses on camera functions, better Infiniti 5.8-inch displays, stereo sound and IoT-centered mobile phones, redesigned with a new dual aperture lens that powers an innovative low light camera, Super Slow-mo video capabilities and personalized AR Emoji. The exhibition response to date has been evaluated to be a better level than expected, and visitors at the exhibition hall were enjoying the experience of emoticonizing themselves.

In addition, a variety of OLED models including the A8 model (5.6-inch FHD +), A8 + (6.0-inch FHD +), Galaxy Fit 2 Pro and Gear sports, were exhibited.

UBI Research, ‘2018 OLED KOREA Conference’ to be held during March 7~8

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Main Contents

– Presentations from major panel makers in Korea, China and Japan: Samsung Display, LG Display, Visionox, JOLED and TCL.

– Future display market forecast and confirmation through announcements of various display application companies such as Sony, Boeing and Microsoft. 

OLED KOREA CONFERENCE, the high-profile global OLED conference, will be held at Novotel Ambassador Gangnam, Seoul, Korea, on March 7-8, 2018.

The 4th OLED Korea Conference is to be proceeded on the theme of ‘OLED with opportunity & adding value to your business’ for two days, and is expected to become a wonderful forum for exchanging various information and opinions together with the presentations about key technology development, issues, overall OLED market and investment status.

The OLED industry, which is continuing to grow, is expected to surpass the LCD market share in the small and medium sized market this year. According to UBI Research, specialized in OLED research, the shipments for small and medium sized OLED panels for mobile devices are projected to grow by 53.2% YoY to 630 million units this year and the shipments of OLED panels for TV to about 2.4 million units, up 47.2% YoY.

In particular, as OLED market growth has become clear, the investment of major companies is increasing remarkably. Recently, LG Display plans to invest about 9 trillion won in OLED facilities this year, followed by about 6.7 trillion won last year. According to industry sources, “OLED investment in China’s display panel makers is also aggressively progressing.” Since major panel makers such as Samsung Display, LG Display, Visionox, TCL and JOLED will gather together to present major business issues in the conference, 2018 OLED KOREA is getting a lot of attentions from industry people.

The announcements of display application companies under the subject of ‘Vision and Idea about Future Applications’are anticipated to confirm the present and future of the display market. Particularly, Yoshihiro Ono, Division Chief of Sony TV, is scheduled to make a presentation for Sony OLED TV, which was a major issue of OLED industry in 2017, on the background of adopting OLED, history of development of BRAVIA OLED TV, and differentiating points from other OLED TVs. In addition, Dr. Joel S. Kollin, head of Microsoft hardware & display, will be presenting HMD for the first time in Korea, and it is expected to see how it will affect the future display market.

Moreover, representatives from global companies such as 3M, Applied Materials, Corning and Cynora, and 28 specialists from OLED panel makers, set makers, material/equipment companies and research institutes across the globe will make presentations with subjects of ▲ View from Panel Makers about OLED Market  ▲ Solution Process Technology, yet to come  ▲ New Performance Development from Major SCMs  ▲ New Technology Discussions for Next Generation Display or Better Process. Also, lectures are planned under the title of ‘Opinion from Business and Industry Analysts’from UBI Research, Japan Mizuho Securities, and Yole development, market research organization in France. More than 200 major domestic and international experts and industry leaders are anticipated to attend the 4th OLED KOREA Conference, which can identify trends and development directions in OLED industry. Attentions are growing because the conference is planned to provide opportunities for networking and continuous exchange of information and know-how.  For more information, please visit www.oledkoreaconference.com .

– End – ※ 【2018 OLED Conference】 → http://www.oledkoreaconference.com/

Galaxy S9 – Curious about Samsung’s strategy to launch Foldable Phone

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Interests in Galaxy S9 and Note 9, which will be released soon, are growing. There are a lot of people who want to figure out in advance the features of Foldable Phone, which Samsung announced to be launched within this year, through Galaxy S9 and Note9. However, it is impossible to predict the specifications of the Foldable Phone with the contents that have been opened so far.

In general, Galaxy S9 does not seem to be much different, compared to the previous S8. The front fingerprint sensor, which has been anticipated since last year, may not apply, and it seems to adopt iris recognition and fingerprint sensor at the back side. Unlike the S8, which was noticed in the name of Infinity Display, it will not expect much different concept in the design part. The CPU will be equipped with Samsung’s Exynos 9810 chip, except for the US model.

So what is the strategy of the Galaxy series this year? Some say that iPhoneX’s sales volume is a failure, but if you consider adding iPhoneX to the 3-model lineup in the new 2-model lineup, Apple’s overall performance is a success. In the meantime, there seems to require a new strategy for the Galaxy flagship model, which was dominated by superior image quality with adopting OLED display.  The Galaxy S9 appears to have little change, except for a slight improvement in performance. Therefore, it is curious whether it might be Samsung’s planned intention to concentrate on launching the Foldable Phone.

<Spec Comparison for Galaxy flagship models>

Samsung Electronics, releases Galaxy S9 at MWC 2018

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Samsung Electronics will unveil Galaxy S9, its next-generation strategic smartphone, at MWC 2018, held in Barcelona, Spain on February 25. Galaxy S9 is anticipated to be equipped with various features such as dual cameras for the first time at the Galaxy S series and intelligent scanning, so expectations for the Galaxy S9 are rising.

The Galaxy S series continued to increase in ppi and display area (DA), starting with the ‘Galaxy S’ in 2010. The first Galaxy S was introduced with 4 inch WVGA rigid OLED, with 235 ppi and 58% DA. For Galaxy S6 which is the first Galaxy S series adopted with flexible OLED, its ppi became more than doubled and DA was 70.7% increased by 22%, compared to Galaxy S.

<Evolution in ppi and DA for Galaxy S series>

Launched in 2017, the Galaxy S8 first extended the DA to 83.6% by removing the home button and minimizing the bezel for the first time on the OLED smart phone. Through these changes, Samsung Electronics introduced a full-screen OLED display.

According to the industry experts, Samsung Electronics is expected to implement full-screen by expanding DA to 93% with 5.8-inch OLED in Galaxy S9 to be unveiled at MWC 2018.

As the full-screen OLED smart phone has become very popular with consumers, Apple, LG, VIVO and Oppo have started to incorporate full-screen OLED into their flagship models. As a result, smart phones with full-screen OLEDs are expected to become main stream this year.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that 230 million units of flexible OLED panels will be shipped in 2018 according to the recently published ‘2018 OLED Panel Industry Report’. The size of OLEDs is expected to increase steadily for implementation of full screen. Moreover, the development direction for full screen is to be from current full screen or notch type (form of making holes in speaker and camera functions) to the form of real full-screen displays, in which they (speaker and camera parts) are not visible on the front display.

<Expected development direction for full-screen>

AMOLED Display Market Track, just issued – Market Performance, Market Forecast, ASP, Supply and Demand Analysis

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According to the market performance data of the AMOLED Display Market Track published by UBI Research in February 2018, total AMOLED shipments and sales in 2017 were recorded as 440 million units and US$ 27.1 billion, up 13.6% and 62.3% respectively, compared to the previous year.

The number of AMOLED smart phone shipments grew to 95.1% in the total AMOLED market in 2017, and its market share for the revenue was 89.7%. The number of shipments of flexible AMOLEDs reached 140 million units in 2017, increased by 2.1 times compared to the previous year.  Analysis shows that shipments of flexible AMOLEDs will reach 230 million units by 2018, with a share of 46%.

AMOLED shipments for TVs grew by 1.8 times YoY to 1.72 million units in 2017, and the AMOLED market for TV is expected to continue to grow, as LG Display’s 8 G plant in China is scheduled to start operation from 2H 2019.

<Overall AMOLED Market Forecast>

From 2018, AMOLED market is forecasted to change significantly.

In terms of supply, shipments of displays are projected to decline compared to the global capacity of display makers due to the accelerated increase in the size of AMOLED panels and Samsung Display’s shift of rigid AMOLED lines into automotive and foldable applications.

In terms of demand, the demand growth for AMOLED panels for smartphones is expected to decrease. In 2018, demand for flexible AMOLED panels for Chinese set makers is expected to decrease due to the introduction of low-priced full screen LCDs and rising prices of flexible AMOLED panels.

According to the market forecast data of AMOLED Display Market Track, the total AMOLED shipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.5%, reaching 995 million units in 2022. The revenue is projected to grow at a CAGR of 22%, forming a market of US$ 80.5 billion in 2022.

<Small and Medium sized AMOLED, Supply and Demand Analysis>

According to Yi Choong-Hoon, CEO of UBI Research, “20% oversupply is expected to occur by 2021, however, since then, panel prices have fallen due to the entry of Chinese panel makers into the flexible AMOLED market, and oversupply will decrease by 11% in 2022 “.

Meanwhile, AMOLED Display Market Track, which was published on February 12, 2018, covers AMOLED market performance and forecast by quarter, year and application. It also provides data and graphs analyzed in various aspects such as ASP and supply & demand analysis.

V-technology, announces acquisition of Lumiotec, OLED lighting company, and establishment of new subsidiary to develop next-generation OLED mask and deposition technology

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V-technology said on February 7 that it would establish an ‘organic electronics business demonstration facility’ in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture to develop a fine hybrid mask (FHM), which is next-generation deposition mask for OLEDs, and next-generation deposition technology.  The total investment is planned to be about 5 billion Japanese yen for two to three years. The facility is scheduled to be completed in August, 2018 and the mask samples are to be shipped from October, 2018.

 

V-technology’s FHM adopts electroforming method and non-tension structure which is different from conventional FMM manufacturing method. The weight of the mask produced by this FHM method can be reduced to one tenth (1/10) level compared to the existing conventional mask. As the weight decreases, the problem of mask bending due to its own weight and shadow interference problem caused thereby can be solved. V technology already unveiled a Fine Hybrid Mask (FHM) that can implement 738ppi UHD at Finetech Japan 2017 in April 2017.

<V technology, Fine hybrid mask with non-tension structure>

V-technology also announced that it has reached a basic agreement to transfer the entire stock of Lumiotec, a lighting OLED panel company. Lumiotec is specialized in lighting OLED panels in Japan, and has supplied a large number of OLED lighting panels for indoor use and exhibition use in addition to indoor lighting.

<Lumiotec lounge lighting, Source: Lumiotec>

V technology expects Lumiotec’s technology and business know-how to contribute to the group’s development. The stock transfer is scheduled for April, and information such as the transfer price is not disclosed.

 

Samsung Electronics, 2017 display business exceeded annual business profit of 5 trillion won

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Samsung Electronics achieved sales of 65.98 trillion won and business profit of 15.15 trillion won through the fourth quarter of 2017 performance conference call which was held on 31 January. Moreover, Samsung Electronics achieved 11.18 trillion won and business profit of 1.41 trillion won in display business.

Display business sales was increased up to 35% compared to the former quarter and 50.7% compared to the same quarter of the last year. The business profit was increased up to 45.4% compared to the former quarter and 52% compared to the same quarter of the last year. Display business achieved annual sales of 34.46 trillion won and business profit of 5.39 trillion won. OLED sales in the display business accounted for the latter half of 70%.

According to Samsung Electronics, the performance of the fourth quarter of 2017 was developed compared to the former quarter by the expanded supply of flagship smartphone panels for major OLED customers. However, profits of LCD department were decreased due to seasonally low demand and falling panel prices.

Samsung Electronics reported that profitability may be weakened due to the intensifying competition with LTPS LCD and sluggish demand for OLED in the first quarter of 2018. Samsung Electronics plans to expand sales portion of flagship product panels, diversifying customers and improve profitability by productivity improvement.

Although the LCD department is a seasonally low season, it is expected that the line rater of operation will be stabilized by high-resolution and large-scale trend of TV and effects of sports event in the first half of year. Samsung Electronics plans to increase profitability by strengthening yield and cost-cutting activities and expand sales portion of high value-added products such as UHD, large-size and quantum dot in order to raise profitability.

In 2018, OLED department is expected to become the mainstream in the mobile market. Samsung Electronics plans to actively respond to demand from major smartphone companies and expand its market share by strengthening technology differentiation from LTPS LCD.

Also, Samsung Electronics will strengthen its capabilities in new application areas such as IT and electronics to secure new growth based on technology and cost competitiveness.

LCD department reported that uncertainty of the market may be more severe as Chinese company expand its capacity and intensify their competition.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, Samsung Electronics sold 86 million cell phones and 7 million tablets. It is reported that sales volume of cell phone and tablet sales are expected to decline slightly compared to the first quarter of 2018.

Samsung Electronics’ facility investment in 2017 was a total of 43.4 trillion won and 13.5 trillion won was invested in the display business. In the case of display business, Samsung Electronics invested greatly on OLED capacity expansion to raise profits through flexible OLED panel customers. The 2018 investment plan is not yet settled but is expected to decline compared to the last year.

Kwon Young Choi, managing director of Samsung Display said, “We are continuously expanding sales channels in China in order to reduce reliance on mobile OLED sales to specific customers and decrease of volumes of orders on iPhone X will not be significantly affected by temporary fluctuations in demand.”

He added that “we are preparing various applications including foldable phone to meet customer demand and it is important to raise the level of perfection to the level desired by the market and consumers.” He also said that “the new production complex (A5) has not yet been specifically defined in terms of operation time, production products, and production volume.”

LG Electronics Will Expand OLED TV Shipments to More Than 5 Million Units by 2020

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LG Electronics announced through its Q4 2017 earnings conference call, the sales of HE (Home Entertainment) Division increased by more than 10% compared to the same period of last year due to the demand for high-demand season of TV market and the sales of premium TV.

Regarding the 2018 forecast, “there are still external environmental risks such as exchange rate fluctuations, but the global TV market will increase with sporting events”, they added.

As a result, the HE Division will pursue sales growth through marketing centered on premium TVs while maintaining a stable profit structure through continuous cost-cutting activities.

They answered to the question when OLED TV shipments exceed 5 million units, “OLED TV shipments in 2017 were doubled compared to 2016 and the sales are expected to rise at a similar level in 2018”. And, “if this trend continues, that point will be 2020″, they said.

They also emphasized that it is more important for OLED TVs to have a premium position in the TV market rather than shipments, and how much they will secure OLED TVs.

On the other hand, the sales of MC(mobile communication) Division increased 9% QoQ to KRW3.655 trillion thanks to the release of LG V30, a premium smartphone equipped with OLED, in the fourth quarter of last year. However, the division posted an operating loss of KRW213.2 billion due to increased costs of smartphone major parts such as memory and marketing expenses.

In order to overcome these operating losses, MC Division plans to increase customer satisfaction by implementing the strategies that enhance product completeness and reliability.

The MC Division said, “We will release the next strategy model within the first half of the year when it is deemed to be ready enough after securing its competitiveness rather than pursuing the timing of competitors.”

In addition, the next strategic model will strengthen AI ​​function, audio and camera functions, which are the strengths of LG Electronics. Until the next strategic model is launched, we will continue to release upgraded and mid-priced models of LG V30 and G6. At the same time, we will minimize sales losses by reducing costs with our unique platform.

AMOLED Display Market track – Investment & MP Line Status, just published

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According to the investment trend data from AMOLED Display Market Track published by UBI research, the net area capacity of AMOLED production worldwide is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48% from 2018 to 2020.

As a result of analyzing the glass area based on the overall equipment capacity, the net area capacity of AMOLED mass production was 13 million square meters in 2017, and it is expected to grow more than three times to 40 million square meters in 2020.

The net area capacity of AMOLED mass production area is projected to grow from 4 million square meters in 2017 to 8.4 million square meters in 2020, and that of small and medium-sized AMOLED is to be increased about 3.5 times from 9.1 million square meters in 2017 to 32 million square meters in 2020.

Analysis shows that LG Display’s net area capacity will be increased by 6.9 million square meters from 2018 to 2020, followed by Samsung Display with 5.8 million square meters increase and BOE with 4.4 million square meters increase.

On the other hand, when compared to the net area capacity for small and medium-sized AMOLED, Samsung Display is expected to increase by 5.8 million square meters, with the largest investment, followed by BOE of 4 million square meters’ increase and LG Display of 2.9 million square meters increase.

<Net area capacity of AMOLED mass production by company>

According to Lee Choong Hoon, CEO of UBI Research, LG Display’s AMOLED mass production line investment in China will lead LGD to more than double BOE’s AMOLED production capacity in terms of net area capacity in 2020, however, BOE is expected to overtake LG Display at small and medium-sized panel capacity in 2019.

AMOLED Display Market Track consists of investment data, market performance, market forecast, ASP, cost analysis, competitiveness analysis and so on. The investment data in this report contains details of the investment history of the panel companies, current status, and investment prospects for the next three years. Also, the useful data and graphs analyzed in various aspects are provided in excel format.

At the 10th CAR-ELE JAPAN, Many Companies Unveiled Automotive OLED Display and Lighting

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

OLED display and lighting are expected to become increasingly applied to the interior and exterior of automobiles.

At CES 2018, Samsung Electronics introduced the OLED-applied dashboard. LG Electronics unveiled the center fascia with 14-inch OLED, and OLED set makers continue to exhibit their OLED applications for automobiles.

At the 10th CAR-ELE JAPAN held in TOKYO BIG SIGHT(Tokyo International Exhibition Center) on 17th, several companies including Tianma and Truly exhibited automotive OLED displays and lighting.

Tianma exhibited 4.2-inch, 5.46-inch and 5.99-inch OLED panels. The 5.99-inch OLED was a full-screen OLED, and the company official said “The full screen will be applied not only to mobile devices but also to automobiles such as CIDs and navigation systems due to the nature of automotive displays sensitive to visual impacts.” It is said they produced the OLED Panel with high luminance, including 5.46-inch and 4.2-inch OLED with luminance of 650 cd/m2, ensuring good high visibility under sunlight. In addition, they announced that they will manufacture unbreakable flexible type of OLED even though the exhibited OLEDs were all rigid type.

<Tianma’s Automotive OLED Panel>

Truly exhibited 5.5-inch OLED panel. The company’s official mentioned that although they can not disclose detailed specifications, it should be further developed in terms of reliability for the application to the current automotive displays. In addition, they announced that automotive potentials such as autonomous vehicles are so huge that the importance of displays that can provide visual information will become even more important, and therefore they will invest in it.

Lastly, Nippon Electric Glass introduced OLED lighting which was created in collaboration with OLEDWorks. “This was created as interior lights and taillights for vehicles.” and “The OLED lighting substrate uses IEL(internal extraction layer) to improve more efficiency when applied to indoor lights, and better visibility when applied to taillights,” explained the company’s official.”

<OLED Lighting exhibited by Nippon Electric Glass>

Meanwhile, in relation to OLED lighting, OLED light source companies such as LG Display and Osram supplied the OLED lights for tail lights to finished car makers such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. In particular, it is expected to start the OLED lighting market in earnest, for example LG Display’s announcement of full-scale operation of the Gen5 OLED light source production line in December.

PMOLED and Micro OLED Stand Out In the Wearable Device Market

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At the 4th wearable expo being held from January 17th in TOKYO BIG SIGHT -Tokyo International Exhibition Center, many companies attracted the attention of participants by exhibiting OLED wearable devices and OLED panels. Particularly, at this exhibition, many wearable devices with PMOLED and micro OLED were displayed, which proved once again infinite possibilities of OLED.

First, ColorLink Japan unveiled its VR and AR devices with micro OLED. Micro OLED is a panel that can realize high resolution in small size by reducing OLED panel to micro size. “The micro OLED applied to ColorLink Japan’s VR equipment is 0.7-inch in size with FHD resolution, and we were able to manufacture more compact and scarce VR device by applying micro OLED”, said an official from ColorLink Japan.

<ColorLink Japan’s Micro OLED VR and AR>

In addition, Fitbit and iWOWNfit exhibited smart bands with PMOLED. PMOLED refers to a passive matrix OLED that does not use TFT, which is a switching device, and is mainly applied to low resolution devices that display numbers or characters rather than high resolution-required devices. In relation to the reason for the application of PMOLED, both companies explained that they have been able to significantly reduce power consumption by applying PMOLED, and the OLED prices have fallen considerably so that they have sufficient price competitiveness.

Meanwhile, OLED panel makers also exhibited a number of OLED panels for wearable devices. Pioneer, which firstly produced mono color PMOLED for FM character broadcast in 1997, attracted participants by introducing a number of PMOLEDs and devices using this. Pioneer announced its goal to diversify its business centering on PMOLED, introducing PMOLED-applied Bluetooth speakers, smart watches, and AR devices.

<Pioneer’s PMOLED Panel and AR>

RiTdisplay also attracted attention by exhibiting a number of wearable appliances and panels with many PMOLEDs. RiTdisplay said, “Since the AMOLED market is already occupied by Korea, it is inevitably lagging behind its productivity and price competitiveness”. “Instead, PMOLED enables easy customization with less production cost than AMOLED so it is competitive in the wearable device market.” Also, they announced that since smart bands will be more aggressive in this market due to lower ppi than smart watches and mobile devices, they will actively target the market.

<RiTdisplay’s PMOLED Panels & Applications>

In addition to AMOLED which is leading the mobile device and TV market, various methods of OLEDs such as PMOLED and micro OLED are being actively applied to wearable devices, thereby expanding its influence. The future of OLED, which is being increasingly utilized, is expected.

[CES 2018] OLED TV in 17 Types to be Displayed Compared to 2017, and OLED Manufacturers to be Expanded Further

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

The number of OLED TVs exhibited at CES 2018 increased to 31, which was a significant increase of 17 from CES 2017. The number of OLED TV companies that exhibited at CES 2018 were 7 including LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic and Skyworth.

At CES 2018, OLED TVs were exhibited with 6 for 55-inch, 19 for 65-inch, and 6 for 77-inch. 65-inch OLED TVs were most on display, and it was noticeable that many companies were focusing on 65-inch OLED TV products. 77-inch OLED TVs in 6 types same as 55-inch were exhibited so that it was found to be included in the main lineup.

In addition, the display resolution of all OLED TVs was UHD because UHD products were mainly displayed according to consumers’ demand for high-definition TV. OLED TVs with FHD resolution had been exhibited until 2015, and only OLED TVs with UHD resolution have been on display since 2016.

Meanwhile, LG Display’s Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom said, “We will raise the sales portion of OLEDs to 40% of total sales by 2020” in a press conference on 8th local time, which implied that OLED TV market will be more expanded.

In addition, Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom said that two major Chinese companies will join the OLED market. As a result, the number of OLED manufacturers will grow from 13 to 15, including LG Electronics, Sony and Panasonic so that the OLED companies are expected to be expanded further.

OLED TV, which is currently leading the premium TV market, is expected to see a bigger rise.

UBI Research, ‘2018 OLED KOREA Conference’ will be held on 7th to 8th of March

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OLED Korea Conference, the global OLED conference, will be held on 7th(Wed) to 8th(Thu) of March.

The 4th OLED Korea Conference will be held on the theme of ‘OLED with opportunity & adding value to your business’ at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Seoul, Korea for two days. It is expected to provide a platform for various information and exchange of opinions regarding presentation of each theme.

OLED industry, which is continuing to grow at a high rate is expected to surpass the LCD market share in the small and mid-sized market of this year.

According to UBI Research, the OLED research organization, small and medium-sized OLED panel shipments for mobile devices are expected to grow up to 6.3 billion won in this year, which is 53.2% growth compared to last year. On the other side, OLED panel shipments for TV is expected to grow up to about 2.4 million won which is 47.2% growth compared to last year.

In this conference, there will be presentations on the topic; ▲ View from Panel Makers about OLED Market ▲ Solution Process Technology, yet to come ▲ New Performance Development from Major SCMs ▲ New Technology Discussions for Next Generation Display or Better Process from global companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, Sony and leading companies such as 3M, Applied Materials, Corning, Cynora and OLED panel company, set company, material/device company, university/research institute as well as domestic and foreign experts of OLED display.

Also, UBI Research, Japan Mizuho Security and French market research institute ‘Yole development’ planned a lecture about the title of “Opinion from Business and Industry Analysts.”

Especially, Yoshihiro Ono, TV business manager from Sony will present about OLED TV launch for the first time in Sony, which was one of the biggest issues in OLED industry of 2017. The title is ‘Designs for BRAVIA OLED TV and Expectations for large screen OLED devices’ and contents are about adoption background, BRAVIA OLED TV development history and different points of OLED TV from other companies.

In the 4th OLED KOREA Conference which will show trends and developments of OLED industry, it is expected that more than 200 major domestic and foreign experts and industry workers will participate. This conference has received much attention as it is planned to provide opportunities for networking and continuous exchanges of relevant information and know-how. For more information, please visit www.oledkoreaconference.com.

[CES 2018] This is the era of “Connected”

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

“Connected” is the theme of largest number of exhibitors participating in 2018 CES. In the future, home appliances and electronic goods such as TV, washing machine, refrigerator, and automobiles will be connected to people and operated with artificial intelligence (AI).

CES 2018 is a chance for many set-makers, including LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, to highlight both that electronic goods are connected with users as it is connected and converged going beyond single primary function and using electronic good equals to the user’s “life style”. “Connect” and “Expansion” is a way for many companies to show how they communicate with the upcoming new era: LG electronics launches new brand of Thin Q, Samsung Electronics suggests connected city phone and life style through connection of phones with consumer electronics, and Intel displays AI-applied applications, and autonomous cars.

<“ThinQ” of LG Electonics >

Now, display is changing in order to facilitate and enable the “Connectedness” of these electronic devices. If display was simply recognized as image projection in the past, now it becomes a tool of “Communications”. “Connected” without display seems incomplete as it recognizes the user through display and extend from information output to information selection and recognition of correct information.

OLED is expected to apply to 5G and AI favorably as it is applied to diverse electronic products including TV, mobile devices and automobiles thanks to flexibility of product design and superior color presentation.

<’AI’ of Intel>

< ‘connected city’ of Samsung Electronics>

[CES 2018] OLED TV exhibition from major set manufacturers

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On 8 January 2018, the largest electronic show is held at Enclave Convention Center in Las Vegas, United States.

Major electronic companies such as LG Electronics, Sony, Vestel, Changhong, Skyworth presented OLED TV as main exhibition. In particular, Samsung Electronics’ “Micro LED” exhibition received a great deal of attention.  Samsung Electronics unveiled the world’s first “micro LED” technology-applied 146-inch modular TV, “The Wall.” People came to see the product and it was heated up in a hot issue. Samsung Electronics emphasized that this product is a future screen that is unlimited in image quality, size and form. Through the implementation of the local dimming 3000, “The Wall”, which was unveiled at the exhibition show is developed by brightness, contrast ratio, color reproduction and black display compared to the existing display.

<‘Micro LED TV ‘The Wall’ of Samsung Electronics’>

Especially, the existing “Mini LED” products were exhibited along with “The Wall” for comparison of exhibition. And the excellence of “Micro LED” was outstanding. “Mini LED” products was little far from the large display as pixels and the lines of each module were shown on the screen.

LG Electronics, Sony, Changhong and other companies presented 65-inch and 77-inch OLED TV display products including Sound Acoustic OLED TV products. In particular, Konka reflected the trend that TV is a part of furniture, not just electronic products and it consists of a set design that took advantages of Chinese traditional atmosphere.

In addition, many set manufacturers have demonstrated the advantages of OLED TV, which is the lightest and thinnest through “Wall Paper TV” and “Slim” concepts.

<A8F Bravia OLED TV of Sony>

<OLED TV of Kongka>

‘TCL’, which occupies a side of QLED TV showed more advanced QLED TV in image quality and color reproduction range. According to the person in charge of TCL, QD dominated the portion of the current market therefore, many manufacturers are producing Quantum dot LCD, and also considering OLED TV launches. The person in charge emphasized that they are building factories in China that produce only OLED.

LG Electronics is a leading OLED TV company and showed OLED which is being developed continuously through making tunnels of OLED TV. They revealed that LG Electronics is the world’s first OLED TV set manufacturer. People look forward to seeing OLED growth in the future through CES the first electronic exhibition show in 2018.

LG Display to Showcase Next-Generation OLED Products at CES 2018

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LG Display will showcase its distinctive technologies during the ‘Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018’ exhibition held in Las Vegas from January 9th to 12th, and aggressively engage in marketing.

In this exhibition, LG Display displays distinctive OLED products in various aspects such as image quality, application range and design for customers to directly experience the value of OLED.

LG Display unveils products that have realized unique and distinctive values of OLED, such as 65 inch UHD rollable display and 55-inch transparent display.

In particular, the 65 inch UHD rollable display proposes the future of display, offering a new look and experience. It is a rollable display with 65 inch ultra-high resolution (UHD, 3,840 x 2,160).  When not in use of the display, the screen can be rolled in to be hidden away to increase space utilization, providing a new value that existing displays cannot realize. In addition, it is easy to move and install the screen when it is rolled up and also possible to adjust the screen size and the ratio optimized for the purpose of use- the user can enjoy the desired content anytime and anywhere. LG Display has demonstrated the unlimited potential of OLED to create a new market through introduction of the rollable display.

In addition, LG Display has implemented an 88 inch 8K TV as an OLED display, and Crystal Sound OLED TV also upgraded its audio function from the existing 2.1 channel sound to 3.1 channel sound. LG display will deliver the confidence in OLED to customers, exhibiting products that emphasize the benefits of OLED, including 55 inch transparent displays and 77 inch wallpapers.

<LG Display’s rollable display, Source: LG Display>

 

CES 2018: Expected to Showcase Low to Mid-End Smartphones

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are going to unveil low to mid-end smartphones at CES 2018 instead of their mainstream smartphones.

Samsung Electronics will showcase 5.6-inch Galaxy A8 and 6-inch Galaxy A8 Plus at CES 2018. The Galaxy A8(2018) series are expected to adopt a 18: 9 ratio full screen OLED similar to Galaxy S8 design with almost zero bezel.

<Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy A8, Source: news.samsung.com>

LG Electronics is going to introduce four K series, K3, K4, K8, and K10. Among them, K10 has a 5.3 inch FHD LCD and it is changed to X series in Korea and is expected to be released at the end of January.

Meanwhile, there is an opinion that Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics’ plan to release low to mid-end smartphones is a bulwark against Huawei which announced the entry into the North American smartphone market.

Huawei has recently partnered with AT&T to sell the Mate 10 series in the US from February 2018. Mate 10 has a 5.9 inch IPS LCD, and Mate 10 PRO has a 6-inch OLED. Huawei announced that it will aggressively advance into the North American market to become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, outpacing Apple this year.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics intend to strengthen their low to mid-end smartphone specifications up to the premium level as well as their flagship smartphones to dominate the smartphone market until new mainstream smartphones are launched and to check other companies including Huawei.

Meanwhile, more details such as the price and mobile provider of Huawei Mate 10 series to be released in North America will be disclosed at the CES 2018 exhibition.

<Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro, Source: GSMArena.com>

 

Completed the Construction of CSOT Wuhan Gen6 LTPS OLED Fab

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On December 28, CSOT’s Wuhan Gen6 LTPS OLED(T4 fab) production line was announced to be completed four months ahead of schedule. CSOT started building T4 fab in June 2017 and built a factory with a capacity of about 600,000 pyeong(1,983,471 m²) in 199 days. The total investment amount is reported to be 5,080 million dollars.

<CSOT’s T4 Production Line Rendering Image, Source: China Daily>

CSOT’s T4 fab has received attention as China’s first Gen6 flexible LTPS OLED production line. T4 fab is known to have a production capacity of 45,000 units per month, and it is expected to mass-produce small and medium-sized flexible OLEDs and foldable OLEDs.

Meanwhile, CSOT said that the next step is to build clean rooms and have equipment and they aim to start producing in 2019.

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 >

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.

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 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>

IoT Era – Smart interface focused on display

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With the Google’s comments in 2015 that the new IoT era is coming, the 13th China International Display Conference started with the presentation of BOE, a large Chinese display company, with the topic of the era of smart interfaces to be developed in the future.

Randy Chen (BOE, Sales Marketing Executive) shared the overall IT market trend as the first presentation and delivered the BOE’s strategy within it. At the heart of the IOT industry, which is expected to account for around $ 10 trillion in 2050, smart interfaces that link 5G communications and electronics to displays will play a big role and emphasized 8K and flexible display as BOE’s survival strategy. For this, he announced that they are working to build the 8K Industry Alliance and continuing to invest in the production of flexible displays starting with Chendu’s G6 Flexible Line. OLED panels produced in the Chendu B7 line, which began operating in the second half of this year, will be supplied to a smartphone maker in Shenzhen and expected to be seen in the market early next year.

Next, Xiuqi Huang (GVO, Vice President) of Visionox, who first started producing OLEDs starting with PMOLED, mentioned the change of smartphone trend and said that a mobile device with a foldable and rollable type using a flexible panel will be introduced in the future. He said that the technological development is required not only in design but also in related equipment and materials and Visionox has also been actively developing its technology.

CSOT, which produces QD-LCDs together with Samsung Display, mentioned the development potential of QLED and OLED TV and said that it was spurring technological development and investment as a latecomer. Especially, it was developing large-area inkjet printing technology that has advantages of relatively high material utilization rate and price competitiveness, on the other hand, it shared the goal of developing a smartphone panel that minimizes Bezel.

Following the presentation of representative panel companies in China, Lee Choong-hoon of Ubi Research, a global OLED research company, forecasted the market size of the OLED market, which is already leading the small-medium-sized panel market and the premium TV panel market and discussed why OLEDs have grown rapidly as a next-generation display. Ubi Research, as an OLED professional research company, is suggesting directions for future growth of OLED based on years of data and research experience.

In current display industry, major global smartphone makers such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei already have plans to apply OLED to all flagship models and TV companies such as LG Electronics and Sony have also shown that OLED TVs can only succeed in the premium market. This is why we expect the development of various types of panels and various applications that maximize the advantages of OLED forward.

IT Industry in China is still hot, OLED is center on that

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News about when, where, what size of new investments emerge from Samsung display who leads Recent Small and Medium-sized OLED Market and LG display who leads large OLED market should come true are continuously main news in Display industry. In the middle, Maybe, publics who are invovled in industry, are interested in watching when will China’s panel companies who are processing on construction of flexible OLED line supported by government between Korea narrows the technology gaps.

The Hi-Tech Fair, which celebrates its 19th anniversary this year, is a representative event showing how much China is interested in the IT industry.
Hi-Tech Fair held in Shenzhen, China from November 16th to 19th exhibits almost all fields relevant to IT industry. Communication with Display is a key point to increase importance of IT industry and these two field is developing by complex connecting with another field.

Exhibition include total 9 hall and the newest technology such as Smart cities, robots, aviation, telecommunications, home appliances, games, and other technologies that connect with IT can be seen in that area. Among them,  one that stick out in 1 Hall is Visionox which is large panel company in China, many people are gather together to watch China’s Display Panel technology.

Current smart phone display’s trends are a bezel-less design that maximizes the screen by minimizing the bezel and a curved design represented by the Galaxy Edge series. In this exhibition, Visionox showed a the bezel-less design smartphone which applied rigid OLED and a curved design smartphone which applied flexible OLED having 8R bending radius.

According to officials, disclosed curved display is going to apply to smartphone which will launched in market earlier in 2018. So, this process is currently making decision about supplying with china’s smartphone company. In addition, a variety of flexible displays being developed for future foldable and rollable applications have been on display.

On the other side in Hall, Royole, who manufactures and sells VR devices for China’s leading OLED applications, exhibited flexible sensors with VR device “Noon” Also, they did not exhibit their technology, they disclose a very thin flexible display of 0.01mm through wathcing a video and keep delivering message about continous Display technology development. Also, we can see the various forms and functions of display panel is applied to electrical instruments such as car, robot in many booths. Among them, OLED is expected to continue to grow in significance of IT industry in the future due to its wide range of applications and its technical strengths such as design excellence, thin panel and high resolution.

OLED leading the virtual reality; Olympus also to sell smart glasses in application of OLED

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OLED is advantageous for miniaturization and light weight because it is a self-emitting display with no need of back light; it is applied to various HMD devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Sony PS VR for its fast response.

Olympus announced that ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’ using OLED will be released in the end of November to show the virtual reality to one eye only. Olympus smart glasses to be released this month are a developer version, priced at about US$ 1,500, and will be available on the Olympus website and Amazon.

In the meantime, Olympus has developed and presented smart glasses in application of constantly displaying on only one eye, but this is the first time to launch in the commercial market. According to Olympus, visual information is displayed on only one eye, so it does not interfere with the user’s view, advantageously showing the view when it’s needed.

<Olympus의 ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’, Source: petapixel.com>

Olympus applied OLED to smart glasses to achieve realistic image quality, miniaturization and weight reduction. The resolution of OLED in application of ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’ is 640x 400, the FOV is 13°, and weight is 66g including battery. The OLED brightness and manufacturer were not disclosed.

Meanwhile UBi Research market report on the display type of AR and VR forecast that the OLED would lead the virtual reality market with fast response speed and perfect screen quality, and will take up 80% market share with 52 million shipment in 2021.

Price competition intensifies in the premium TV market- OLED TV price close to premium LCD TV

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In the premium TV market, price competition is on the rise. The basic premium TV models (55 inch, 65inch, flat type) such as QN55Q7F and QN65Q7F (Samsung Elec.), OLED55C7, OLED65C7 (LG Elec.), XBR55A1E and XBR65A1E (Sony), launched in Amazon (www.amazon.com) in March 2017, are compared to one another).

<Comparison of 55 inch and 65 inch premium TV price>

As a result, the average price of 55 inch models of those three manufacturers dropped by 54.8% from March to October; especially Samsung Elec.’s QN55Q7F showed the highest drop from $ 2,798 in March to $ 1,598 in October. The 65 inch model showed a similar phenomenon. 65 inch dropped 60.0% on average from March to October while Samsung Elec.’s QN65Q7F showing the most dramatic decline from $ 3,998 in March to $ 2,498 in October.

Notably the price difference between 55 inch LG OLED TV and Samsung SUHD TV, both of which were released in 2016, was about $ 1,000 as of Dec 2016, and for 65 inch models, 1,500$ while those released 2017 showed a significantly narrowed price difference as of October 2017-55 inch 200$, 65 inch 300$.

The reason why OLED TV prices are catching up with the premium LCD TV prices is significantly due to stabilization of LG Display production yield. In particular, if the E4-2 line of LG Display, which has started operating since the second half of this year, is fully in operation from 2018, LG Display’s large OLED panel production is expected to increase by 41% to 2.4M units from about 1.7M units in 2017; the OLED TV will accelerate market expansion.

LG Display wins OLED TV Premium Market

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LG Display’s OLED TV panel sales in October more than doubled thanks to surging sales of major global TV customers such as LG Electronics, Sony and Philips.

 

LG Display’s OLED TV panel sales exceeded 200,000 units for the first time in October, followed by sales plan of exceeding 210,000 units in November.

 

With the help of Sony’s OLED TV which released LG Display’s OLED TV for the first time this year, it has achieved an overwhelming market share of 74% both in units and sales in the 55” and 65” TV market and OLED TV Set.

(September NPD North American aggregate basis)

 

In North America, Sony’s sales volume in September increased by 2.1 times compared to the previous month, and in Europe, Philips in its third quarter increased by 5.9 times compared to the previous quarter, and sales of LG Electronics, family of OLED TV, together with North America and Europe, experienced an increase of OLED TV sales in September with a surge of 1.5 times compared to the previous month.

(September NPD North America, GFK Europe / CIS 14 countries)

 

Particularly last end of July, it had only been 3 months since LG Display announced the move to invest in OLED to lead the future display market when TV sales are rapidly growing, with OLED becoming the trend of the Premium TV market.

 

This trend is due to the surge in consumer demand after 13 global TV companies introduced OLED TVs in front of the premium TV lineup at the IFA exhibition last September, and the demand for LG Display have increased not only for until the end of the year but even until next year.

 

Accordingly, LG Display’s OLED TV sales are expected to leap over 1.7 million units this year, exceeding market expectations of 1.5 million units, and 2.7 million units are expected to be sold next year.

 

LG Display plans to raise utilization of the E4-2 line to the maximum in Paju, which started operation in this second half of the year.

 

LG Display Vice Chairman Han Sang-Bum states, “OLEDs are rapidly emerging as a premium TV market and are growing steadily in accordance to our production capacity.”

 

Meanwhile, LG Display has actively promoted the trend of OLEDs in the display market and has recently opened ‘OLED Day’ events in China and Europe. In addition, OLED Experience Center has been installed in 8 major cities in China to show OLED potential and future technologies to consumers.

OLED TV, leading the premium TV market, LG Electronics HE division created the largest operating profit

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On the 26th, LG Electronics announced its 2017 Q3 performance through conference call. LG Electronics recorded consolidated sales of KRW 15.2241 trillion in 3Q and operating profit of KRW 516.1 billion. Sales and operating profit grew by 15.1% and 82.2% YoY respectively. Sales are the highest in 3Qs ever.

In particular, sales of premium TV increased, and HE division posted record-high quarterly results with operating profit (KRW 458.0 billion) and operating margin (9.9%). In addition, operating profit (KRW 882.9 billion) and operating margin (9.2%) are the highest in the household appliances business including household appliances and TVs.

LG Electronics announced that its HE division posted sales of KRW 4.6376 trillion and operating profit of KRW458 billion, and sales of premium TVs such as OLED TVs and UltraHD TVs increased steadily, with 12.0% YoY growth. It is known that the operating profit and operating margin (9.9%) reached a record high on a quarterly basis due to improved profit structure by expanding sales of premium products.

LG Electronics said on Oct 11 that monthly sales of OLED TV have exceeded 10,000 units for the first time in Korea and that it is speeding up its popularization. LG OLED TV has been recognized for its image quality by being awarded the top spot in the performance evaluation conducted by non-profit consumer magazines in 11 countries including the US and UK this year and the price of the 55-inch OLED TV has dropped to the mid-2 million level, and It is regarded as the cause of goodness of its sales.

LG OLED TV accounted for about 30% of domestic TV sales of LG Electronics, and it is known to have completely settled in the market. LG Electronics official announced plans for the future, ” HE division plans to continue sales growth and stable profit structure focusing on premium products such as OLED TV and UltraHD TV.”

[IMID 2017] Opening solution for next generation high-resolution OLED implementation

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Various solutions for high resolution OLED implementation were released at iMiD 2017 held in COEX from October 18th to 19th. As the resolution of small and mid-sized OLEDs, which are currently being commercialized, is staying at the QHD level, the solutions released at this time have attracted a great deal of attention from display members.

First, Hwang Chang-hoon, CEO of OLEDON, who is developing plane source FMM deposition technology, announced at the business forum, “The plane source FMM deposition technology currently being developed is the only alternative for ultra-high resolution OLED manufacturing at 2,250 ppi”. Hwang Chang-hoon CEO said, “We measured the shadow distance using a-step, and it was 0.38 μm. We can fabricate OLED device with 2,250 ppi only if we have this shadow distance.” “We are currently looking for shadow-free process conditions”

<Difference in shadow distance between point source and plane source>

In addition, Hwang Chang-hoon said, “We first co-deposited the host material and the dopant material on the metal plate to evaporate the deposited green donor thin film and measure the green target thin film with the same PL wavelength for the first time” and “Color control of target thin films made with plate sources can be controlled by the amount of dopant molecules in the donor film, so color control is expected to be easy”.

<OLEDON plane evaporation co-deposition material>

AP Systems, which recently announced the successful development of 1,000 ppi FMM using ultra-short pulse laser (USPL), exhibited 5.28 inch FMM of 825 ppi and 4.72 inch FMM of 677 ppi at this exhibition. A company official said, “By developing a burr-free laser process to solve the burr problem caused by the heat generated during the fabrication process, it is possible to fabricate not only FMM of 1170 ppi but also FMM of various shapes”.

<5.28 inch 825ppi FMM of AP Systems>

Finally, Philoptics unveiled FMMs fabricated using electro forming, especially, FMM of 1,200 ppi, which attracted attention this time, was displayed separately in the VIP room. A company official said “We have secured the stability of the process for the production of 1,200 ppi FMM,” and mentioned “We plan to deliver it to panel makers for testing in the first half of next year, and aim to develop FMM at 2,000 ppi later.”

<FMM of Philoptics manufactured by electro forming method>

As such, in this iMiD 2017, various solutions for high-resolution patterning of OLEDs has been released. Recently, as the number of contents requiring high-resolution OLED such as virtual reality contents increases, interest of smartphone users are increasingly interested. It is worth noting which solution will enable the small to medium-sized UHD OLED era.

[iMiD 2017] JOLED announces printing-type OLED development trend and future road map

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At the ‘IMID 2017 Business Forum’ held in COEX, Seoul from 18th to 19th, Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist of JOLED announced JOLED’s printing technology and future road map.

<JOLED’s Toshiaki Arai chief technologist>

Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist stated that a stable jetting technology at 220 ppi level has been currently secured; high resolution OLED with more than 300 ppi has been developed at Gen 8.5 but there are some issues such as jetting accuracy and stability.

Toshiaki Arai introduced TG-TAOS (top gate-transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors) TFT, which will contribute to saving the unit cost of OLED with excellent performance at low price.

He also announced the future strategy of JOLED, stressing that, instead of small and large OLED dominated by South Korean companies, the middle-sized OLED for tablet and monitor with more than 200 ppi. Joled is the only OLED panel maker that unveiled its 21.6 inch 4K RGB OLED in 2017, using printing process, and has pilot launched.

<JOLED’s 21.6 inch 4K OLED in application of printing method>

On the other hand, according to the Nihon Keizai newspaper in Japan, JOLED is reported to have invested 100 billion yen in mass production of printing-type OLED. In addition, Toshiaki Arai stated that the OLED test samples manufactured by printing process have been provided since this April and the mass production will realize in the second half of 2018.

 

OLED TV with different characteristics and advantages by set makers

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LG Electronics announced on last 11th that LG OLED TV is speeding up the popularization with the monthly sales volume of 10,000 units and above for the first time in Korea. In addition, Sony, which joins the OLED TV camp in 2017, is enjoying great popularity and continues to expand its market share in the premium TV market. As such, OLED TV is leading the premium TV market by improving cost competitiveness through cost reduction as well as excellent image quality.

OLED TVs are currently being mass-produced by LG Electronics, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic. Although all set makers that produce OLED TVs use OLED of LG Display, they are producing OLED TVs with different characteristics and advantages.

First, LG Electronics mentioned OLED’s vivid image quality and wall paper design as advantages of OLED W7 which is a signature TV. LG Electronics mentioned that OLED, which is a self-luminous element, can express near-infinite contrast ratio and rich color close to nature, and supports Dolby vision HDR and HDR10 to experience vivid image quality. Also, introduced that a 4.6mm of thin panel provided the experience of seeing the theater screen and all parts except the panel were housed in a space called innovation stage and completed the perfect wall paper design.

<OLED TV W7 of LG Electronics, Source: LG Electronics>

Sony emphasizes sound, image quality and simple design as the advantage of 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E series. It mentioned that the TV screen, which attracted great attention in last year’s CES 2017, can provide an enhanced immersive feeling by applying the ‘Acoustic Surface’ that the TV screen vibrates and makes sound by itself. In addition, the ‘X1 extreme processor’ HDR chip has been applied to improve the picture quality of OLED TV, and the cable is housed in the stand on the backside so that the simple design is realized.

<Acoustic Surface of Sony 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E, Source: Sony>

Toshiba then mentioned a high color gamut of 100% DCI-P3 and a high brightness of over 800 nits as the advantages of the REGZA X910. It said that it increased the color reproduction rate to express natural colors and improved the brightness to express the bright and dark parts in richer gradations and strengthened HDR restoration function to realize sharp and realistic high-definition video.

<REGZA X910 of Toshiba, Source: Toshiba>

Lastly, Panasonic stated that it implemented full black and rich color expressions. Especially, it emphasized that it applied ‘Hexa chroma drive plus’ which is Panasonic’s high-definition technology to express high contrast and colors hidden in dark areas that were difficult to implement in LCD TV and reproduced the emotion that the video producer intended.

<Comparison of ‘Hexa chroma drive plus’ technology application of Panasonic, Source: Panasonic>

As such, OLED TV set makers are introducing different OLED TVs that emphasize their characteristics and advantages. In addition to the above four makers, LOEWE of Germany and B & O of Denmark are expected to continue to launch OLED TVs, including mass production of OLED TVs or preparations for mass production. Based on the unique technology of set makers, it is worth noting that OLED TVs with what kind of characteristics and advantages will be produced.

Solution Process OLED, Max. 40% Decrease in Component Material Cost Possible Compared to WRGB

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According to 2017 Solution Process OLED Annual Report published by UBI Research, when solution process (ink-jet printing) is applied to large area OLED, it could reduce up to 40% of component material cost, and approximately more than 18% of production cost compared to WRGB process that uses evaporation method.

 

Solution process is a technology that can manufacture RGB pixel structure of large size OLED panel without cutting mother glass using Gen8 manufacturing equipment or larger.

 

UBI Research analyst Hyunjun Jang explained that the solution process applied OLED has a simpler panel structure with 5 layers compared to 20 layers of WRGB OLED. WRGB OLED process material usage efficiency is only at 40% but solution process application could increase this to over 90%. Jang added that the lack of color filter is a factor that could decrease panel production price by reducing development cost. Particularly, this can greatly reduce emitting materials usage which occupies much of materials cost and contribute considerably to the fall in production cost. Furthermore, he added that cost setting of soluble emitting material per gram will be an important factor in production cost decrease and emphasized that organic material usage greatly decreases when soluble emitting materials are used but must consider price increase due to solvent cost, production cost, and development cost.

 

Solution process technology continues to receive attention as a key technology that can lead popularization of large area OLED, and key AMOLED panel companies are carrying out development.

 

In terms of technology, solution process OLED has lower emitting efficiency and short lifetime as diverse solvent is added to existing evaporation materials to transform into ink leading to low purity. This has been an important issue for panel and material companies for past several years. To improve this, DuPont, Merck, Sumitomo Chemical and others have been actively developing soluble OLED emitting materials. Much like evaporation materials, blue materials showed particular difficulty in performance improvement. However, at present significant portion of technology development has been carried out and investigation shows approximately 80% of lifetime and efficacy of has been achieved compared to evaporation materials.

 

2017 Solution Process OLED Annual Report compared and analysed WRGB OLED and solution process OLED’s competitiveness in terms of process, materials, and cost. Key issues, soluble OLED emitting materials development status, key companies’ trend, and solution process OLED market are analysed from various perspectives.

<Source: WRGB OLED and solution process OLED production cost comparison, UBI Research 2017 Solution Process OLED Annual Report>

Is there possibility of High resolution(UHD) OLED Smart-phone generation?

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Recently VR contents experience through smart-phone device has been increased, therefore high resolution of smart phone is becoming necessary. However, OLED smart-phone resolution still remains at QHD level for 3 years since QHD OLED is applied to Galaxy Note 4 for the first time in 2014.

The core point that decides resolution of OLED smart-phone is evaporation process for emission layer. Bottom-up type evaporation method, which is applied to the recent devices is that substrate and FMM (fine metal mask) are horizontally arranged on the upper side of evaporator and vaporize the organic material from the lower linear source in order to form RGB layer.

Thin FMM measures less than 15um thick is necessary for making high resolution OLED like UHD level, however, as FMM gets thinner, it would be difficult to make mass production because technical problems will be occurred such as patterning, sealing and welding.

In order to solve these problems, various metal mask patterning technologies are being developed such as vertical type evaporation and plane source evaporation.

Vertical type evaporator that arranges board and FMM vertical is developed by Hitachi of Japan for the first time. And Canon Tokki exhibited Gen6 vertical type evaporator at Finetech Japan 2013, however it is not being used for mass production at the moment.

<Canon Tokki’s Gen6 vertical type evaporator which is exhibited at Finetech Japan 2013>

According to the recent ETNEWS, Applied Materials developed Gen6 flexible OLED vertical type evaporator and it is being tested in Japan Display.

Plane source evaporator is being tested but also the linear source type. Plane source evaporator method is that an organic material is first evaporated on the metal surface to produce plane source, then re-evaporated in order to form an organic thin film on the substrate.

In the past iMiD 2017, representative of OLEDON, Chang Hoon Hwang mentioned that 2250 ppi resolution OLED can be implemented through plane source evaporator.

For metal mask patterning technology, electro forming and laser patterning technology is highlighted. Electro forming method is developed by Wave Electronics, TGO Technology, Athene and so on. Laser patterning technology is being developed by AP Systems.

As such, development for high resolution OLED is receiving great attention whether it can solve the current problems and contribute to UHD resolution implementation for OLED smart-phone.

<Principle of plane source evaporation developed by OLEDON>

LG Electronics, Big step on popularization of OLED TV

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<OLED TV of LG Electronics Source: LG Electronics>

LG Electronics OLED TV is speeding up its popularization with exceeding monthly sales of 10,000 units for the first time in Korea.

‘LG OLED TV’ was sold every four minutes last month. Compared to the beginning of this year, it’s double. LG Electronics expects sales increase of OLED TVs in the future and to rapidly increase market power.

The secret to increasing sales is recognition of outstanding image quality. LG OLED TV, this year, was first in the performance evaluation conducted by nonprofit consumer magazines in 11 advanced markets including the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and Australia. Unlike LCD TVs, the contrast ratio is high because it emits light without backlight. So it presents perfect black and realizes a lively screen.

Consumers consider picture quality the most when purchasing TV. According to a consumer survey conducted by LG Electronics, over 40% of the respondents cited image quality as the top priority when purchasing TVs. This percentage is the highest of all purchasing considerations.

Reasonable price is also the cause of good sales. LG Electronics has continuously developed technology for more consumer to experience OLED TV image quality so as to reduce the. 55-inch OLED TV prices have fallen to the mid-2 million won. It is no different from premium LCD TVs. In 2013 when LG Electronics first launched OLED TV, it was worth 15 million won.

‘LG OLED TV’ accounted for about 30% of LG Electronics domestic TV sales this year and settled perfectly in the market.

Son, Dae-Gi, LG Electronics Korea HE Marketing FD, emphasized “we will expand sales to allow more customers to enjoy ‘LG OLED TV’ image quality and have a solid profit structure by raising premium market power”.

Fraunhofer FEP will show bidirectional AR / VR head mounted display devices based on OLED microdisplay.

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Fraunhofer FEP announced that they would show bidirectional AR / VR head mounted display devices based on OLED microdisplay at AWE Europe 2017 from October 19-20. According to Fraunhofer FEP, OLED microdisplay supports SVGA (800 x 600) resolution and can display augmented reality and virtual reality of 2D and 3D content via USB interface and HDMI connection. In addition, it is known that it is possible to use an eye tracking system that uses a photodiode to detect a user’s gaze.

<New HMD device of Fraunhofer FEP, Source: Fraunhofer FEP>

Judith Baumgarten, developer of Fraunhofer FEP, commented, “This exhibition will showcase the quality and versatility of OLED microdisplay,” he said. “It will be a great opportunity to demonstrate Fraunhofer FEP know-how in electronic design.”

In the meantime, AR/VR devices have been developed mainly in the fields of entertainment and games. Fraunhofer FEP, however, is expected to support designers, engineers, surgeons, etc. and enable them to be used as educational media in almost every field.

On the other hand, augmented reality and virtual reality technology are attracting great attention as one of the main technologies of the 4th industrial revolution that has recently attracted attention, and products such as Oculus Rift and Gear VR are continuously being released. According to UBi Research, the AR/VR market will expand full scale in 2019, when 5G is introduced, which can mass-produce UHD contents and transfer large volumes of content fast and the total revenues of virtual reality and augmented reality products will reach $ 58.7 billion by 2021.

Cynora, TADF will contribute to high-resolution implementation of OLED devices and panel cost reduction

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At the Global Materials Tech Fair 2017 held on September 22 in COEX, CEO Ko Chang-hoon of EM Index, Cynora’s Korean partner, announced the development of the thermally activated delayed fluorescence, blue TADF, which is currently under development at Cynora.

<CEO Ko Chang-hoon of EM Index>

Generally, the blue light emitting material is insufficient in life and efficiency compared to red and green. For this reason, OLED panels for mobile devices are manufactured relatively large in blue pixel size compared to other pixels, in the OLED panel for TV, blue light emitting layers are laminated twice. The blue TADF is the material that is being developed to overcome the limitations of this blue light emitting material.

CEO Ko Chang-hoon mentioned “Applying blue TADF increases lifetime and efficiency, so it does not need to increase pixel size and it is advantageous for high resolution implementation” and emphasized “In mobile devices, it will be advantageous to reduce power consumption as well as realize high resolution and in case of TV, it will be advantageous to reduce the panel cost because only one layer of blue light emitting layer needs to be formed.”

He referred to the recent investments of € 25 million from Samsung Venture Investment and LG Display and explained that it was a proof that blue TADF is attracting a lot of attention.

It is also close to the efficiency, lifetime and color purity of the blue TADF required by major OLED panel makers and is expected to meet these requirements by the end of 2017.

<Cynora’s blue TADF development progress>

Finally, the company announced the development roadmap for the green TADF by the end of 2018 and the red TADF by the end of 2019, and concluded by emphasizing that TADF would contribute to high-resolution implementation of OLED products and panel cost reduction.

<Cynora’s TADF product development roadmap>

AUO unveils round OLED and foldable OLED for the smart watch in Touch Taiwan 2017

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AUO showed the OLED that can be collapsible and three kinds of round OLEDs (1.2-inch, 1.3-inch, 1.4-inch) for the smart watch in Touch Taiwan 2017 held on 20th.

The round OLEDs in 1.2-inch and 1.4-inch of AUO are 326ppi, and it lowers an electric consumption at 30% versus former production goods. AUO also improves the visibility capacity in outdoor by embedding the brightness increase mode to make a display screen of two kinds of round OLEDs be clear even under bright sunlight.

The 1.3-inch OLED aimed at the smart watch for kids is light in weight, and strengthens the usability with a power saving mode and an intuitive touch interface function.

AUO displays two types of 5-inch flexible OLEDs that can be rolled or folded. Such two types of 5-inch flexible OLEDs apply the plastic board and AUO self-developed structure (special structural layer).

<AUO, 5 inch foldable OLED touch panel>

The 5-inch foldable OLED combines a flexible touch screen sensor that is developed by AUO itself.  The company said “it would provide excellent image quality, even if the curvature radius of the folded part is 4mm and less”.

For 5-inch rollable OLED, they explained “The thickness of the panel is just 0.1mm and only 5g. This model with the rolling radius of 4mm will provide wide color gamut”.

In last SID 2017, AUO has announced about that they applied the structure locating the TFT (Thin Film Transistor) and TFE (Thin Film Encapsulation) at the neutral axis to stand the compression stress or tensions during being folded.

Fraunhofer Institute will introduce automotive flexible OLED lighting at ISAL 2017

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Specialized in development and manufacturing OLED module, Fraunhofer Institute will introduce Automotive flexible OLED lighting with adjusted color at ISAL 2017 which will be held in Darmstadt, Germany from 25th to 27th September. Fraunhofer Institute had released previously OLED which the color can be adjusted by rigid substrate in 2015.

Fraunhofer Institute has continued to develop flexible OLED lighting since then. Flexible OLED lighting which will be shown at ISAL 2017 is known to be changed to yellow and blue color. It can be shown as white light by making of yellow and blue color at the same time.

Fraunhofer Institute predicts that flexible OLED lighting will be replaced for car interior lights and it could also be used on the ceiling or winding parts where lights cannot be built easily. Commercial lighting is required to have heatsink and unfortunately it can not be easily built with lack of flexibility in design. However flexible OLED lighting is very light and thin which means it is expected to be widely used for Automotives interior with its flexible design. Fraunhofer Institute also made a comment that they may produce flexible OLED substrate glass, metal and plastic film as well.

OLED lighting has been recently used for Automotives interior and it is expected to be used more in the next generation. Customized Automotive service company, Changscustom showed OLED lighting built in the car at Seoul Auto 2016. Furthermore lighting companies including LG Display and Osram supplied OLED tail light with Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Meanwhile, according to 2017 OLED Lighting Annual Report which was recently published by UBi Research, using of Automotive OLED Lighting will be increased to $2.11 billion in 2025 from $6.4 million in 2017 with 107% of growth rate. Especially flexible OLED Lighting is expected to capture a higher market share more than 95% and flexible OLED Lighting will be widely used instead of rigid OLED lighting.

Starting to have mass production process in Gen5 OLED of LG Display from end of September, lighting market is expected to reach full growth. The growth of OLED lighting market is being watched with keen interest to compare with strong growth of OLED display market.

UBi Research, Lee Choong-Hoon, CEO, announce OLED market and forecast

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Mr. Choong-Hoon Lee, the CEO of UBi Research, OLED specialist presented the market trend and prospects of the OLED industry following last year at the Japan Conference, host by Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, from 5th to 7th of September in Tokyo, Japan. The annual conference was held for Merrill Lynch Securities customers, consisting of a forum-type presentation on major industry trends in Japan and small meetings with presenters.

The fact that Mr. Lee, the CEO of UBi Research was invited to the event indicates the importance of the display market, not just in the IT industry but also in the global market industry. Among investors in recent years, display is in the spotlight at as an emerging industry and participants have shown their interest in the latest OLED technology trend as well as current and future production scale of OLED panel manufacturers.

Mr. Lee was also had an interview with Nikkei Business Publication regarding “Global OLED Market Trend and Forecast” during the conference. The main interview question is focused on “OLED industry trend and future OLED TV market development”. According to Naoki Tanaka, editor of Ronny Keikyo Newspaper, Japanese electronics industry is expecting to revive the old glory of display industry, showing its interest in the OLED industry and OLED TV.

In the interview, Mr. Lee stressed, referring to the market data in the UBi Research OLED display report, that Japanese display manufacturers who still believe perpetuation of LCD need more reliable OLED market analysis.

In addition, he said that through the exhibition trend of OLED TV at 2017 IFA held in Berlin, Germany it is worthwhile paying continuous attention to the premium OLED TV market in the future. At the end of the interview, he emphasized how important OLED production by Japanese panel manufacturers would be to Japan’s entire display and set industry.

UBi Research publishes a monthly report on a variety of topics of OLED industry, market, and technology trend, and draws more and more attention along with the recent OLED market expansion. For more information, please contact UBi Research (info@ubiresearch.com); useful sample reports and information are provided.

UBI research publishes 2017 OLED lighting report : LG Display, ready to mass-produce OLED light panel, expecting OLED lighting market to grow fast

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LG Display starts mass production of 5G OLED panel for lighting from the end of September

■ OLED lighting panel market is projected to grow from US$ 1.9billion in 2021 to US$ 5.8billion by 2025

 

LG Display will start mass production of 5G OLED light panels from the end of September, therefore attention is focused on whether the OLED lighting market is growing rapidly. According to LG Display, monthly production capacity is 15K, and it is to be increased to 90K later.

 

According to the ‘2017 OLED Lighting Annual Report’ published by UBI Research on August 8, the global OLED lighting panel market is expected to grow to about US$ 1.9 billion by 2021. Furthermore, it is projected to have a CAGR of 85% for the period 2017-2025, and form a market of US$ 5.8 billion in 2025.

Because OLED lighting is thin, light and flexible, it does not limit the installation space and has excellent design autonomy. In addition, OLED lighting is used for automotive, exhibition, and medical as well as general indoor lighting because it can create a comfortable atmosphere with little heat and flicker.

 

However, the market for OLED lighting has been slower than that of OLED display, which is widely applied to mobile devices and TVs. Osram focuses primarily on automotive OLED lighting, and Philips sold its OLED lighting division to OLEDWorks. Also, Japanese panel makers such as Sumitomo Chemical and Konica Minolta have developed OLED lighting for industrial and medical applications. Nevertheless, it seems to take time for OLED lighting to become eventually a large market.

With LG Display’s mass production of Gen5 OLED line, the price of OLED light panel is estimated to drop below US $ 10 (100 x 100 mm). The significant price competiveness might enable OLED panels to be applied to various areas such as automobile and display lighting as well as indoor lighting. Owing to this expectation, attention is focused on whether the OLED lighting market, showing signs of slow growth, can be materialized.

UBI Research predicted that LG Display would account for about 70% of the world’s lighting OLED panel market in 2017, and will continue to lead the OLED lighting panel market with a 50% market share in 2020.

 

Meanwhile, ‘2017 OLED Lighting Annual Report’ describes trends of next-generation lighting market, promising applications, cost analysis upon the investment of LG Display and forecast of OLED lighting market. Since it analyses particularly OLED lighting market, materials market, and equipment market forecasts for OLED lighting from various perspectives, it is expected to help the related companies identify the OLED lighting market.

<Sales forecast for total OLED lighting panels>

LG DISPLAY, Will lead global TV market with OLED

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LG Display invited about 200 people of Chinese set makers, distributors and related experts and had ‘OLED Partner’s Day’ to share the status of premium TV market and OLED TV business development at Renaissance Capital Hotel in Beijing, China on September 12.

<Source : LG Display>

In the expert forum on the day, key executives from distribution and set makers such as LG Electronics, Sony, Philips, Skyworth, Suning and related organizations such as electronic committee and awards association participated and agreed that OLED will lead the TV market in the future. Forum participants, Liu Tangz(刘棠枝), CEO of Skyworth, said “The Chinese TV industry is currently in a state of saturation, but OLED TV, which can offer new value, will be a breakthrough in the display industry,” and commented “OLED TV will help increase brand awareness and market share.”

Yeo Sang-Deog, LG Display CMO, said, “OLED TV has already become the market trend” and emphasized “We will lead the market with OLED TV, a true future display that can deliver value beyond TV.”

Since LG Display began mass production of OLED TV panels in 2013, it has expanded its customer base to 13 major companies in Europe, Japan and China, starting with LG Electronics. World TV set makers such as LG Electronics, Skyworth, Concha, Philips and Panasonic have set OLED TV products on the front at the IFA (International Consumer Electronics Show) 2017 in Berlin in early September.

OLED TV’s market competitiveness is getting higher as major set makers in the world recognized the value of OLED TV, which has various advantages such as image quality, thickness, design, viewing angle and power consumption and aggressively launch products.

Yeo Sang-Deog CMO emphasized the confidence in quality, he added, “In addition to securing stable yields, we will increase the output to 1.7 ~ 1.8 million units in 2017 and 2.5 million units in 2018.” and explained that they finished all the preparations that OLED TV can influence in terms of production.

<Source : LG Display>

OLED TV has been rated as one of the best products by the world’s leading professional rating agencies such as ‘Consumer Report’, a nonprofit consumer organization in the US.

OLED TV can be used for interior decoration that displays pictures and photos even when not watching TV, and easy to apply on various AI platforms so that there is no limit to the range of applications. LG Display expects OLED TVs with infinite scalability to change the lifestyle of consumers.

“OLED is a true future display that can deliver new value to the TV market,” said Yeo Sang-Deog CMO and “LG Display plans to carry out a variety of promotional activities to enable more consumers to know and experience the value of OLED.”

LG Display plans to build an OLED landmark in Guangzhou Tower while operating an OLED experience center in the core city of China.

Meanwhile, Vincent Teoh, editor-in-chief and image quality expert at HDTV Test, explained that the TV picture quality test conducted recently proved the overwhelming superiority of OLED TV in all aspects such as contrast and color accuracy, famous Chinese photographer Tungmeong (童梦) shared the experience of use from the user perspective that OLED is the best display to realize the natural color.

On the he other side of the event hall, there prepared the experience zone that can compare structure and image quality of OLED, gallery that can be observed high-end products such as CSO and wallpapers TV and products released by customers allowing attendees to directly experience the benefits of OLED TV.

Material Science to develop blue dopant for OLED … OLED Efficiency ⋅ Lifetime Up↑

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A Korean venture company has succeeded in developing blue dopant for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) that a Japanese company has had its exclusive patent for. The dopant is an element that improves efficiency and life time by mixing with host that actually colors within the OLED.

In the meantime, many domestic material companies have developed OLED host, but it is the first case that a venture company has independently developed dopant on a commercial scale without receiving any support of large corporations.

 

Material Science (CEO Lee Soon-chang), an organic material developer for OLED has developed a technology that can replace Japanese I Company’s patent for blue dopant. Established in 2014, Material Science is supplying HTL( Hole Transporting Layer) and ETL (Electron Transfer Layer) to OLED panel makers.
Half of the 50 employees are R&D personnel. Last year, its sales were 6.6 billion won, and it is expected to exceed 10 billion won this year.

This time, due to the development of blue dopant by Material Science, OLED panel companies have an alternative to supply blue host and dopant besides I Company.

Japanese I Company has been developing blue dopant since 1995. At present, the company has more than 30 patents related to blue dopant (based on Japanese application for a patent), and its major 8 patents are valid until 2034. In particular, it has an exclusive patent for the combination method of blue dopant that includes blue host and pyrene with an anthracene structure (a compound in which three benzene rings are sequentially bonded). For this reason, the panel makers which purchase dopant from I Company must buy its host. If they mix I Company’s blue dopant with another company’s host, it is inevitable to infringe the patent in the case a host material has an anthracene skeleton.

Both Samsung Display and LG Display have been using I Company’s blue dopant and host.

The blue dopant developed by Material Science is designed to make molecules that are completely out of I Company’s compound patent. Conventionally, the method of applying an electron acceptor to a molecule has been used to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED and have a blue color.
On the other hand, Material Science introduces electron donor into molecules to improve the efficiency and lifetime while generating dark blue color. This dopant greatly reduces the solvent-dependent color development (solvatochromism) where emission wavelength changes due to the polarity of the surroundings. Therefore, the change of emission wavelength is also greatly reduced.

Jung Jae-ho, a researcher at Material Science said, “We have developed a new structure and a synthesis method, which makes it possible to produce its differentiated dopant.” “Panel companies are now able to utilize various types of blue hosts”. In addition, Material Sciences has been recently developing TADF(Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) that OLED panel makers are struggling to introduce for the longer life of blue-emitting phosphors.

<OLED emitting material market forecast, UBi Research>

According to UBi Research, the OLED organic market is expected to reach $ 3.36 billion by 2021 (about 3.8 trillion won). And blue materials account for 11.5% of total sales.

[iMiD 2017] Samsung Display, Huge release of application using OLED

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Samsung Display has received great attention by releasing a large number of applications using OLED such as VR and light field display in iMiD 2017 held in BEXCO, Busan from 28th to 31st August.

<Samsung Display booth>

First, Samsung Display comparatively exhibited a 3.5-inch OLED with 460ppi resolution for virtual reality and an 806ppi 3.2-inch OLED. A company official said “The higher the ppi, the better the experience of realism and immersion,” and mentioned “We are currently developing higher resolution OLEDs.”

<Comparison of 3.5 inch 460 ppi OLED and 3.2 inch 806 ppi>

In addition, Samsung Display exhibited OLED light field displays in the future display zone, and in the AMOLED zone, visitors can directly compare LCD and OLED.

A company official explained that “light field display is a technology that implements 3D by applying an optical lens on a panel, which is a little different from hologram using light interference effect.” And he said “We are developing a viewing angle that is wider than 30 °,” revealed “We now have pixel and lens alignment issues and optical design issues.”

<OLED light field display description and specification>

In the AMOLED zone, panels were displayed to directly compare the contrast ratio of LCD and OLED. The contrast ratio and color expressiveness of the OLEDs were clearly different from those of the LCDs, and a company official said, “These differences are the reasons why OLEDs are used in the Galaxy series.”

<Comparison of OLED (Left) and LCD (right) image quality>

Samsung Display has also introduced 1.3 inch circle OLED and 12 inch FHD OLED, which led to the great interest of the visitors during the exhibition.

[iMiD 2017] LG Display, Spur Development of 77 inch transparent flexible OLED

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LG Display’s Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher introduced the 77-inch transparent flexible OLED which had been introduced in June at IMID 2017 held in BEXCO, Busan on Aug. 30, and announced the applied technologies to realize this.

Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher mentioned, “OLED is self-luminous, so it can be manufactured with a thin thickness because it does not need a back light unit. The thinner the thickness, the more flexible the OLED can be so that it is easy to implement flexible displays with OLEDs.” and forecasted. “It can be used in various fields such as signage and smart desk.”

The 77-inch transparent flexible OLED which is released this time is a top emission type for improved luminance. The transparent thin film encapsulation layer is applied, different from the conventional OLED TV or large flexible OLED, and two polyimide substrates are used.

Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher said “We applied a transparent thin-film encapsulation layer instead of the existing metal encapsulation layer for the top emission method ” and explained “A white OLED light emitting layer and a color filter layer were formed on two polyimide substrates and cemented together. A barrier film and a multi-barrier were applied to the top and bottom of the polyimide substrates to prevent moisture and oxygen penetration.”

The Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher then states that “flexural rigidity of the panel is mainly affected by the thickness of the polarizer and the encapsulant layer, so it is necessary to reduce the thickness in order to improve the flexibility”, and emphasized “By reducing the thickness of the encapsulant layer from 100 μm to 20 μm, we can reduce the strain on the OLED module from 0.36% to 0.21%, along with improved flexibility”.

In addition, he mentioned that surface reflection due to polyimide birefringence phenomenon, laser wavelength selection according to polyimide properties in LLO (laser lift off) process, and use of flexible OLED module are all covered, and technical development is continuing.

Meanwhile, LG Display has developed the world’s first 77-inch transparent flexible OLED with UHD (3840 × 2160) resolution, transmittance of 40%, and radius of curvature of 80R as part of the national project.

[iMiD 2017] OLEDON, Disclose plane source FMM deposition principle for 2250ppi OLED manufacturing

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Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, a venture laboratory of Dankook University, presented a plane source FMM deposition technology capable of implementing 2250 ppi at iMiD 2017 held on the 28th.

According to Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon’s presentation, the plane source deposition technology developed by OLEDON differs from the existing organic material deposition method. The plane source FMM deposition technique is that the organic material is first deposited on the metal surface to form a donor film and then re-evaporate it to form an organic thin film on the substrate. Applying this technique, organic matter forms a vertical gas beam due to plane evaporation. (Source patent: 1012061620000 Republic of Korea)

The shadow distance when organics are deposited with a plane source developed by OLEDON is 0.38 μm – 0.59 μm. This is a level at which a 2250ppi device having a pattern size of 4 um can be manufactured.

Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon explained ‘applying the plane source deposition technique reduces the incidence angle of the organic material and dramatically reduces the shadow caused by the mask’. In addition, ‘using a plane source, the perpendicular organic gas beam can form a completely zero incident angle, so theoretically, the shadow distance can be zero um’.

<Principle of plane source deposition technology developed by OLEDON>

In addition, Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon emphasized that ‘plane source deposition technology is essential for high-resolution shadow masks’.

For linear source FMMs currently in production, the shadow mask opening distance is 80 μm. As a result, the incidence angle of the organic material gas is inevitably large, making it difficult to produce a shadow mask having a high density pattern.

Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon explained, ‘Using plane source deposition technology, shadow mask taping angle is 80 ° level’, and the distance between openings can be reduced to less than 20 μm so that plane source deposition techniques can solve the mask pattern density problems of linear sources’.

OLEDON is challenging fully shadow-free patterning conditions with plane source deposition technology, and plan to develop and install a plane source FMM evaporator capable of manufacturing 11K class micro OLED devices in cooperation with Prof. Jin Byung-Doo in Dankook University. (Reference: Homepage of OLEDON www.oledon.co.kr)

<The opening density change of the shadow mask when the plane source FMM deposition technique is used>

Meanwhile, OLEDON has 13 registered patents for plane source FMM deposition for mass production. Based on recent research results, they filed 7 new patents for mass production equipment in Korea and 3 applications are filed for PCT international application.

[iMiD 2017] AP Systems, Find FMM answers through USPL

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At iMiD 2017 in BEXCO, Busan on 28th, AP Systems announced that it succeeded in developing 1000ppi FMM with USPL (ultra-short pulse laser).

Since FMM plays a role of depositing pixels and RGB organic materials, FMM serves as a factor that determines resolution and yield of OLED. At present, FMM is mainly manufactured by etching method. This method has a problem that a shadow phenomenon due to the precision, thickness, and weight of the fine pattern occurs, in order to solve this problem, various FMM manufacturing processes such as laser processing and electro-forming have been developed.

Among these, laser processing method has an issue of forming burrs around pin-holes due to the thermal effect caused by laser irradiation. These burrs increase the shadow interval of the FMM, which causes overlapping of patterns during RGB organic deposition, thereby degrading the resolution of the OLED.

AP Systems has developed a burr-free laser process that does not have burr phenomenon and further controls the taper angle.

The Burr-free laser process is a short-time irradiation of unidirectional pulses at a constant number of times, since the laser is not continuously irradiated, it minimizes accumulated heat energy and prevents burr formation. In addition, by controlling energy of the laser, it accumulates energy and forms taper.

In this way, AP Systems explained ‘they produced FMM with various shapes of fine pin-holes such as square, diamond, and polygonal shapes, as well as 1170ppi FMM’, and ‘’We also developed large-area FMM manufacturing equipment with USPL method’.

AP Systems also added ‘multi-beam and USPL is equipped for FMM manufacturing equipment so that it can improve productivity and realize UHD’.

Since the launch of the Galaxy Note4 in 2014, the OLED resolution has remained at the QHD level yet. In order to manufacture an OLED having a high resolution (UHD level or higher), it is necessary to solve various technical problems faced by FMM. Accordingly, it is noteworthy how USPL technology of AP Systems will affect the future OLED market.

<1000ppi FMM produced by AP Systems>

<various type of FMM produced by AP Systems>

[iMiD 2017] TCL, Development focusing on Solution process OLED and QLED

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TCL’s Xiaolin Yan CTO addressed solution process OLED TV and self-emitting QLED TV as premium TV after white OLED TV at iMiD 2017 keynote address in BEXCO, Busan on 29th.

Yan CTO noted that white OLED TV, which is currently leading the premium TV market, meets all the requirements of premium TV due to its superior image quality, design differentiation, high resolution realization and nature-friendly characteristics compared to QD LCD TV.

In addition, the price that is higher than the current QD LCD TV is expected to be overcome by applying the solution process, and mass production is also expected in 2019.

Yan CTO predicted that the “solution process would be easy to produce 75-inch panels at Gen 10.5 because the process can be performed without splitting the ledger,” and “it is also possible to produce full-emission RGB OLED TVs.” However, he emphasized that the compatibility of materials and equipment and the development of ink forming process technology should be done.

Following to that, “QLED structure is very similar to OLED structure, so it is easy to apply the technology because of the low entry barriers,” he said. “The lifetime and efficiency of the blue light emitting layer compared to the current OLED is very low, and performance must be ensured without the use of cadmium.”

Lastly, He mentioned the establishment of printing technology in Guangdong JUHUA to promote the commercialization of solution process OLED TV and self-luminous QLED TV, and emphasized the cooperation of material, equipment and panel makers to develop next-generation premium TV.

[iMiD 2017] You Dream, We OLED

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LG Display is expanding in earnest in OLED market.

In the keynote session of IMID 2017 held in Busan on 29th, LG Display’s CTO Kang In-byeong pointed out the future plan of LG Display as “OLED is a strong candidate to lead the future display industry”.

Kang In-byeong, CTO, said that by 2020, large-area OLED will increase its production capacity by 7 times to 2020, thereby reducing the cost cap with LCD and leading the market on the basis of technology such as wall paper, sound integration, rollable and transparent flexible. LG Display recently invested in Gen8.5 in China and is expected to invest in Gen10.5 OLED mass production line at Paju P10 plant.

On the other hand, for small and medium-sized OLEDs, they have announced that they will use a fast follower strategy based on plastic OLED. LG Display is in mass production of plastic OLED panel to be applied for LG Display’s next smartphone, V30, next smartphone, and is ready for the mass production in the E5 line of Gumi. In addition, they plan to invest 10trn won additionally to Gen6 line, which is expected to increase 13 times the current capacity by 2020.

Based on this aggressive OLED investment, LG Display plans to raise its portion of OLED sales up to 40% in 2020 from current 5% in large-area OLEDs and small- and medium-sized OLEDs.

Currently, large-area OLEDs continue to increase capacity and yield and LG Display is likely to expand sales in the future, as it is dominating the premium TV market as it is expanding the camps of Sony, Philips and Panasonic as well as LG Electronics. The success of mass production in small- and mid-sized OLEDs will determine whether or not LG Display plans to achieve its plan.

LG Electronics leading OLED TV camp to premium sensation

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<LG OLED TV exhibited at IFA2016>

LG Electronics is expanding its OLED TV camp to dominate the premium market. LG Electronics decided to supply OLED TV since September to Danish prestigious audio company B & O (Bang & Olufsen), making a fruitful result of OLED TV expansion.

‘B & O’ held an OLED TV public event in Berlin on Aug 30th in local time. ‘LG OLED TV is equipped with its own sound technology and will be shown to visitors at ‘IFA 2017’ from September 1 to 6.

LG Electronics also emphasized that the OLED TV camp is on the constant rise. It is expected that there will be 13 manufacturers exhibiting OLED TV at ‘IFA 2017’. As the number of companies increased from 11 last year, it is said that these companies are planning to execute their premium marketing strategies by bringing OLED TV in front.

LG Electronics analyzed that mushrooming OLED TV sales among many companies are attributed to securing a stable profit structure. As Chinese and Taiwanese makers are investing heavily in LCD panel production, the price competition is likely to be intensified in the future and LCD technology has already reached the maturity phase, difficult to be differentiated with LCD. Taken the market environment into consideration, TV makers have been targeting a premium market with differentiated OLED TV.

LG Electronics announced that OLED TV makes the profit structure of LG Electronics stable and secure. The HE division in charge of TV business stated that it achieved 8.5% of operating profit (sales 8,561 billion KRW, operating profit 725.2 billion KRW) in the first half of this year. LG Electronics mentioned the premium OLED TV has brought the high profitability and noted that OLED TV sales accounted for 15% of sales in the first half of LG Electronics’ business operation.

The LG OLED TV currently being commercialized has swept the various awards by media and experts all over the world, and is ranking number one in the performance evaluation. The screen quality, sound quality and design have been complimented in the TV’s key elements.

Particularly, at ‘IFA 2017 in Berlin Germany, LG Electronics will aggressively approach and further strengthen the premium TV market from September 1 to 6, introducing the advanced screen quality technology of ‘LG OLED TV’. “We will enhance our leadership in the global market by bringing OLED TV presently reorganizing the premium market in front.”

 

Merck, presenting OLED materials for future cars at Frankfurt Motor Show

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Merck announced that it will exhibit automotive OLED tail lamp materials for the first time at the IAA (International Motor Show) 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Merck is a manufacturer specialized in electronic materials, supplying key OLED emitter materials to display companies; not content with a display materials supplier, Merck will be able to secure its leading market position of an OLED material manufacturer through this event in the OLED lighting industry which has been drawing attention as the next generation OLED industry.

Merck has exhibited OLED lighting panels using Merck’s luminous materials in L + B 2016, and has shown its ambition to expand into the OLED lighting market by exhibiting various automotive OLED materials at the IMID 2016 exhibition.

Meanwhile, Merck plans to show how the smart chemical materials, including OLED materials, will be applied to the “car of tomorrow” at IAA 2017 (Hall 3.1, stand A21).

“Materials from Merck are already used to provide functionality and aesthetics in many sections of

a vehicle,” said Dieter Schroth, automotive platform manager at Merck. “In times of digitalization and connectivity, however, the potential of our technologies is still far greater than we can show at the IAA”, he added.

Aside from OLED tail lamp materials, Merck plans to showcase a variety of innovative solutions such as smart headlight system, materials to be applied to smart satellite antennas, and pigment for interior and exterior surfaces.

<Merck OLED lighting panels exhibited at Light and Building 2016>

<Merck’s IMID 2016 exhibition booth>

iMiD 2017 Industrial Forum, a networking event to predict the next generation OLED market

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■ “Finding a new OLED market” – Discussing OLED replacement in view of OLED application development

■ Discussing new technologies of future display (LCD, QD-LCD, OLED)

The potential of future OLED development is inexhaustible as OLED can be applicable to all industries including VR / AR, automotive, aerospace, and lighting not content with smart phone and TVs. There has been growing public interest in OLED in many different industries. To meet the market demand, Ubi Research, a market research company co-hosts ‘iMiD2017 Industrial Forum’ with Korea Display Society (KIDS) in BEXCO, Busan on 30th of August.

The forum will proceed with a panel discussion among key specialists and presentation, which will enable people from many different industries to exchange information not only on the display market but also current OLED market status, technology and explore a new market potential generated in the future.
In the first session ‘look for a new OLED market’, OLED replacement will be presented in view of OLED application development. The key players include Dr. Teruo Tohma, WooSeok Jeong, principal research fellow at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Julian K chang, Managing director of Boeing Corporation, Professor TAKUYA KOMODA at Yamagata University, senior researcher, Michi Hisaishi, ALPINE Michihisa Onishi.

The second session, ‘Discussion of New Technologies in Future Display’ will provide insight into the latest products and technology trend of TV manufacturers competing with one another to dominate the next generation display market. Nam-Suk Oh, CEO of Samsung Electronics will present an updated LCD TV using Quantum dots technology under the title of “Quantum Dot and Advance of LCD-TV”.

In the OLED TV camp, under the title of “OLED, Now and Future”, Joon-Young Yang at LG Display will review the current status of OLED TV led by the current market trends, and also address OLED future implemented in a wide range of ‘flexible and rollable’ designs.

Weir Cao, senior researcher at TCL, will present both the technology status of the Colloidal Quantum Dots and TCL products applied to LCD in the market, under the topic of “TCL Display Technology with QDs”. The premium TV strategies are expectedly revealed. Lee Choong-hoon, CEO of Ubi research co-host of this forum, offered a time to summarize the premium TV market on the topic of ‘OLED TV market outlook by premium TV market expansion’ by analyzing the presentations of the companies that presented earlier.

For more information on the 17th iMiD2017 Industrial Forum, please visit iMiD2017 official website (http://imid.or.kr/2017/indi_forum.asp).

 

2Q OLED panel shipments, continued to rise

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■ Panel shipments of smartphones grew 2.6% YoY to 95.3million units

■ TV OLED panel shipments reached 370,000 units, up 165% YoY

 

According to Ubi Research, OLED panel shipments for smartphones in the second quarter of 2017 were 96.3 million units, up 2.6% from 92.9 million units in the same period last year.

Compared to the previous quarter (94.7 million units), it increased by 0.6%.

<OLED panel shipments for smartphones>

Samsung Display has a market share of 96.7% in the second quarter of 2017 and is the number one player in the small and medium sized OLED market. Galaxy S8 and S8 + are showing robust sales, and Samsung Display’s small to medium sized OLED market is expected to continue to remain strong for the time being with OLED adoption of Galaxy Note 8 and some models of the iPhone 8.

OLED panels are also applied to LG Electronics’ V30, which is expected to be released on the 31st, and major smartphone makers in China are also expanding their OLED panels. The OLED panel market for smartphones is expected to grow steadily, and the trend for smartphone displays is expected to gradually shift from LCD to OLED.

<TV OLED panel shipments>

On the other hand, TV OLED panel shipments are growing 370,000 units, up 165.0% from 140,000 units a year earlier. Compared to the previous quarter (306,000 units), it increased 21.2%.

The OLED TV market is expected to expand gradually this year with Sony’s participation in OLED TV camps.

LG Display’s Paju E4 new line is expected to be fully operational from 3Q and TV OLED panel production is expected to increase steadily.

LG OLED TV, Has Won the ‘EISA Awards’ 6 Years Straight

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On August 15th, LG Electronics’ premium TVs including OLED TV received EISA’s most prestigious award in Europe.

<LG OLED TV (model: OLED65E7), Source: LG Electronics>

LG OLED TV (model: OLED65E7) was selected as ‘EISA OLED TV’ by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA). LG OLED has once again proven its advanced technology by winning the ‘EISA Award’ for six consecutive years since 2012.

The association commended “LG OLED TV has the ability to deliver perfect black for an incredible picture as well as vivid color expression and wide viewing angle”. “And black expression and brightness has improved compared to last year.” In addition, the judges were also impressed by its diverse HDR such as Dolby Vision and HDR10, ultra-slim design, rich sound of Dolby Atmos, and convenient usage.

<LG Sound Bar (model: : SJ9), Source: LG Electronics>

LG Sound Bar was recognized with the ‘EISA Sound Bar Award’. It was cited as being one of the rare products with both luxury design and sound. The judges also said it is well harmonized with surround sound and rich medium-low sound due to Dolby Atmos technology.

The ‘EISA Award’, held by EISA(European Imaging and Sound Association), is highly recognized worldwide in the field of imaging and sound. EISA is the Europe’s largest multi-media association of AV experts from 20 countries. Since 1982, it has selected the best products in the field of sound, imaging, photography and mobile devices every year. The jury, composed of reporters and external technical experts, selects the winners so it is highly credible.

“We will continue to lead the premium TV market with the products that are recognized for their advanced technology,” said Kwon Bong-suk, vice president of LG’s HE business.

Stretchable OLED commercialization is on the rise

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Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have steadily been releasing smartphones and smart watches using flexible OLED since 2013, and electronics companies in China have begun to put out one of them. In particular, Apple, the leader in the smartphone industry, is also seeing the launch of iPhone with flexible OLED, and the flexible OLED market is expected to grow further.

The shape of the flexible OLED was expected to be changed to foldable and rollable beyond the bendable. Recently, however, the display industry has surpassed this trend and has been focusing on the development of stretchable OLEDs.

<Development Roadmap of OLED, Source: Ubi Research>

A stretchable OLED is a type of a flexible OLED that is finally evolves, which means OLED having elasticity as like rubber band.

 

Samsung Display unveiled this stretchable OLED at SID 2017. Samsung Display’s stretchable OLED is 9.1 inch and implementable both convex and concave shapes. At the time, Samsung Display announced that it realized the world’s first technology to maintain the existing image quality while increasing the screen size to 12 mm in concave mode.

<9.1 inch stretchable OLED displayed by Samsung Display, Source: Samsung Display>

LG Display will also develop the stretchable OLED. LG Display announced on June 6 that it will develop backplane and photoluminescence materials, devices, and process source technologies with elasticity of more than 20% for a total of four years through a consortium with Korea University.

 

In addition, LG Display has developed flexible plastic substrate materials, flexible wiring materials and transparent electrode materials, stretchable organic light emitting materials, and flexible encapsulates, they will also acquire essential process technologies including thin film transistors (TFTs) and process architectures that enable low-temperature processing.

 

At present, stretchable related technology is not yet applied to production, or elongation is only about 5%, and the number of repeated stretching is limited. In addition, most of the source technology is in overseas, it is expected that Samsung Display and LG Display will be able to secure technological gap with latecomers.

Stretchable OLED is free of form restrictions and expected to produce applications in new areas when applied to a variety of applications such as smart phones, tablets clothes and human skin when they are commercialized.

UDC, whose total revenue increases by 59% in Q2 2017 with royalty and license fees

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UDC(Universal Display Corporation) has announced the financial performance of the 2nd quarter of 2017 as of Aug 3rd.

UDC’s total revenues in the second quarter of 2017 has been recorded as US $125millon, increased by 59 percent, compared to that of the previous year, US $ 64.4 million. Material sales has been also increased by 110 percent to $ 46.8 million; the profit from royalties and license fees increased by 28 percent to $ 53.7 million; $ 26.5 million was contributed to the operation profit to make US $ 60.5 million, and net profit for this term has been increased from US $ 2,540 to US $ 47.2 million.

The UDC has seen its total revenue contributed by royalty and license fees and the material revenue by the increase in sales of blue and green phosphorescent materials.

As the OLED market grows, the OLED material market co-prospers, leading to business growth of UDC. According to 2017 OLED Emitting Materials Market Report of UBI search, the global OLED emitting materials market shows great prospects with the market size worth $ 960 million in 2017, and it is anticipated to reach the annual average growth rate 37%, enlarging the market size as $ 3.36 billion by 2021.

<Market Forecast of Emitting Materials>

LG Electronics, watching bigger and clearer on ‘OLED FullVision’

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<Source: LG Electronics>

LG Electronics will have a strategic premium smartphone equipped with OLED in the 2nd half this year.

LG Electronics will apply OLED FullVision, an 18: 9 aspect-ratio OLED display completely filling the entire screen panel to a strategic premium smartphone in the 2nd half. The size of the display is 6inch wide- larger than 5.7 inches of the previous model LG V20, but the size of the product is rather smaller by reducing the size of the bezel.
Based on the display technology obtained from LG OLED TV, which has been recognized as the world’s best premium TV, LG Electronics plans to provide a different level of visual experience of smartphone; “With OLED technology which has been accumulated over the years, we have completed the differentiated high-class design of the subsequent strategic premium smartphone.”
In the LG Electronics’ strategic premium smartphone, the “bezel bending” technology has been embedded in, which makes the circuit and insulating layers at the bottom of the panel bent backwards and the lower bezel reduced by about 50% compared to the previous model V20. Toughened glass on the outer layer of display is curved all around edge and is smoothened along the contour line of the backside to emphasize a sense of unity on the design,

OLED FullVision has a QHD + (1,440×2,880) resolution and an optimized screen quality algorithm equipped with a color gamut of 148% based on sRGB, default color space for photography and internet, and 109% based on digital cinema color standard DCI-P3.

LG Electronics stated that OLED FullVision should present a deep and vibrant screen with excellent contrast ratio and fast response time will provide a full-fledged screen without afterimages for fast-moving video or games.

LG Electronics also said, “The durability of the display has been upgraded as well, considering the portability of smartphone. OLED Full Vision is stronger than glass substrate displays because it is based on P-OLEDs with pixels placed on plastic substrates,”; “Cutting edge technologies are embedded in such as Corning®’s latest tempered glass ‘Gorilla® Glass 5’ and shatter-resistant technology that prevents the glass powder from scattering when the glass breaks. ” LG added.

Additionally LG Electronics said, “We have applied hardware and software technology to enhance durability. Also encapsulation technology that minimizes oxidation by covering the pixels with a protective film to prevent air contact, and pixel scanning program that identifies heavily used pixels and reduces their power consumption. OLED technology has minimized the burn-in phenomenon that can occur on the display. ”

Joon-ho Cho, president of LG’s MC business director emphasized, “We will provide a high end smartphone with a different level of design and screen quality, integrating the world’s best display technologies proven by LG OLED TV.

Truly and FlexEnable sign License Agreement to bring low-cost, scalable flexible display production to China

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31 July 2017 – FlexEnable, the leader in the development and industrialization of organic electronics for flexible displays and sensors, has signed a technology transfer and license agreement with Truly Semiconductors, one of the leading display makers in China. The deal aims to bring FlexEnable’s flexible organic liquid crystal display (OLCD) technology into mass production on Truly’s lines within 2018.

 

Due to its high performance and low cost manufacturing process, OLCD is the only display technology today that can deliver flexible displays with large area, low cost and high brightness with long lifetime. With a bend radius that can go below 20 millimeters, OLCD meets the market needs for a range of applications across consumer electronics, smart home appliances, automotive, digital signage and beyond.

 

OLCD is based upon FlexEnable’s flexible low temperature organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane technology, which can be manufactured on existing TFT LCD production lines using low cost plastic substrates such as TAC and PET. The OTFT backplane has better electrical performance than amorphous silicon, giving plastic LCDs the same display quality and reliability as glass-based LCDs, while making it thinner, lighter, shatterproof and conformable to surfaces.

 

Truly, the first display manufacturer to adopt OLCD, will implement the process into its existing production lines in Shanwei, China. The first product samples will be available to commercial partners in early 2018, with volume production expected in late 2018.

 

Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable, says, “Truly is a leader in displays manufacturing and a top-level supplier of displays to key market segments to which FlexEnable’s technology can bring great commercial advantages. We are already working with brands who use OLCD in their product concepts and who now need access to a volume supply chain to realize some very exciting new product offerings with designs that simply aren’t possible with other types of display. We are excited that Truly has become the first display manufacturer to implement FlexEnable’s game-changing OLCD platform and meet market demand for flexible displays.”

 

KK Ho, General Manager, R&D center, Truly Semiconductors Ltd, says, ”FlexEnable’s OLCD technology is a breakthrough in the TFT-LCD industry and with its characteristics of thinness, lightweight, and more durability it is going to create lots of possibilities for innovative product design. We have been receiving many enquiries for flexible display from the market, specifically, wearable devices, smart home appliances, electric cars and self-driving cars etc. This is a pretty exciting display technology and we do believe there is a considerable potential market size.”

OLED Encapsulation, TFE is the Top Trend

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  • Expected application of TFE to all edge type and full screen use flexible OLED
  • PECVD manufacturing equipment, 62% of total encapsulation manufacturing equipment market

According to 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report published by UBI Research, of OLED encapsulation technology, TFE (thin film encapsulation) will be applied to approximately 70% of total OLED panel in 2021, and become the key encapsulation technology.

OLED display trend is heading toward minimizing bezel for full screen actualization from edge type, and flexible OLED is being considered as the most optimal display for full screen. As such, Chinese panel companies, as well as Samsung Display and LG Display, are concentrating on flexible OLED mass production line investment rather than rigid.

Flexible OLED must be thin and bendable; glass using frit encapsulation Is not suitable and TFE (thin film encapsulation) or hybrid encapsulation must be applied. TFE is a structure that is formed via laminating thin inorganic and organic materials. In the early stages of development, it had 11 layers of complex organic and inorganic material deposition with low yield. However, it now has been reduced to 3 layers and greatly improved productivity, yield, and cost and it is being applied to most of flexible OLED.

<Thin film encapsulation development history, 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report>

Hybrid encapsulation, which uses barrier film, is being applied to some flexible OLED. However, due to the high cost of barrier film and relatively thick thickness, recent investment is focused on TFE application.

According to UBI Research analyst Jang Hyunjun, TFE encapsulation is expected to continue to be applied to edge type and full screen type flexible OLED panel, and related manufacturing equipment and material market will carry on their growth.

The report explains that TFE’s key manufacturing equipment are inorganic material forming PECVD and organic material forming ink-jet printer. In particular, PECVD is used in inorganic material film formation of hybrid encapsulation as well as TFE. Therefore, PECVD market is estimated to record US$ 6,820 million in 2017-2021, and occupy approximately 62% of the total encapsulation manufacturing equipment market.

<PECVD manufacturing equipment market volume, 2017, 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report>

The report includes encapsulation related key manufacturing equipment and material market in addition to encapsulation development history and trend, and key panel companies’ trend.

LG Electronics, “Sales of the Premium TV in 2017 would hold 60%”

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LG Electronics spoke that “The portion of premium TVs in total TV sales will be increased from about 40% in 2016 to around 50% in first half of 2017 and up to 60% in the end of this year.” at the conference call in Q2 2017, which was held on 27th.

The performance in Q2 for HE area of LG Electronics showed 4 trillion and 234.9 billion won in sales, and 343 billion won in operating profit. The QOQ on sales was declined to 2.1%, and the demands of the global TV market are continuously reducing, but the sales of the same quarter in last year showed 1.9% growth through the sales expansion of the OLED premium TVs.

Jin-ho, Ha, the HE director of LG Electronics said that “The Q2 performance was slightly decreased in QOQ and same quarter in last year due to the panel cost increase and marketing promotion for the new product launching, but we sustained healthy profit structures through the expansion of the premium TV sales and the improvement of cost structures consistently.” And also expected, “There are concerns on the slowdown in growth of worldwide TV market for the interest rate hikes and the oil price decrease, nevertheless, the premium TV market will steadily grow according to the demand increase on OLED TV and UHD TV.”

Subsequently, he answered on the question of the counterstrategy for the SONY, “It is not just right time to judge the OLED TV of SONY yet, but until now, we think that the OLED TV of us is quite superior regarding the aspect of design of products, image quality, and its lineup and so on.”

On the recent investment for large-sized OLED of LG Display, “LG Display and LG Electronics, both of us, will wisely take and proceed the world best strategy together of premium TVs by strengthening the premium status of OLED TV.”

He explained on the TV business of LG Electronics, “We have been improving the profitability focusing on the premium lines, and also completely avoiding the quantitative competition. We plan to continuously sustain the quality-oriented rather than quantity.” He added, “We will pursue the activities to intensively keep the premium image of OLED.”

They stated to be maintaining the stable profit structures with aiming at continuous sales expansion of premium products through the marketing promotion for the premium TV-oriented to prepare the high-season for the TV market in second half.

Samsung Electronics’ Display Business Recorded Operating Profit of 1.71 Trillion KRW in Q2, 2017

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Samsung Electronics announced that it reached sales of 61 trillion Korean won and operating profit of 14.07 trillion Korean won, and the display business recorded 7.71 trillion won and operating profit of 1.71 trillion won, through the Q2 2017 Earnings Conference Call on 27th. Its display business has recorded more than 1 trillion won in the black, for 4 consecutive quarters since Q3 2016.

 

According to Samsung Electronics, its earnings for Q2 2017 has increased compared to the previous quarter due to the expanded sales of flexible OLED panels and high value-added LCD products.

 

The OLED division saw its earnings improvement on the back of flexible products sales increase due to the expanded sales of major customer flagship models, and accounted for low 60% of sales. The LCD division also improved earnings by expanding the sales of high value-added products, mainly UHD and large TVs.

 

The OLED division is expected to see sales growth for the second quarter of this year due to the expanded supply of flexible products compared to the last quarter. However, there will be fiercer competition with LTPS LCD in the mid to low-end market and a risk of cost increase resulting from ramp-up of new capacity lines. Accordingly, Samsung plans to improve profitability by aggressively responding to major customer demand through stable ramp-up of new lines and improving product mix.

 

The LCD division is anticipated to be in a supply-demand imbalance due to set companies’ stock increase of panels and panel suppliers’ supply expansion, but premium TVs such as high resolution and super-size TVs are expected to continue to grow. Samsung has a plan to increase profitability by promoting yield and cost improvement activities and by expanding the sales of not only high value-added products such as UHD and large-size products but also differentiated design products such as frameless and curved products.

 

Samsung Electronics recorded sales of 93 million mobile phones and 6 million tablets in Q2 2017, and in the third quarter, the sales of mobile phones and tables are likely to increase slightly and remain flat, respectively quarter on quarter. The sales volume of LCD TVs is expected to reach 9 million units and grow at low single in the third quarter.

 

Samsung Electronics invested a total of 12.7 trillion KRW in its facilities in the second quarter, of which 4.5 trillion KRW were invested in the display. This year’s investment plan for facilities is yet to be determined, but investment is expected to increase substantially from last year, especially for semiconductors and displays. The display division plans to invest in production expansion to meet the increasing demand for flexible OLEDs.

 

Director Lee Chang-hoon of Samsung Display said, “The smartphone set makers’ OLED adoption will continue to increase with the constant strong demand for it. The current OLED line is being resiliently operated in line with market and customer needs”. He added “We will continue to use and operate OLED lines strategically in accordance with market demand and customer needs.”, and explained they are not considering the plan to further shift LCD lines into OLED.

LG Display, Expects 40% of OLED out of total sales in 2020.

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LG Display spoke that they plan to change the sales structure by focusing on the OLED sales at the conference call in Q2, 2017 which was held on 26 July, and they expected that the OLED sales portion among the total sales would be from 10% in this year to 40% in 2020.

Sang-don, Kim, the CFO of LG Display said that they will invest about 15 trillion won of production line for the Gen10.5 OLED and the Gen6 POLED(Plastic OLED) at Paju P10 factory against 4 years. He said that “The investment of Paju P10 is a leading task for the mass production and the improvement of efficiency because the demand of OLED TV is rapidly increasing by the forecasting of 2.5 million units in 2018 and 6 million units in 2020. We will take the P10 factory as an OLED hub.”

The CFO also said that “We plan to order and install the necessary equipment from July 2017 to January 2019 for the Gen10.5 OLED line in Paju P10 factory, and through test period for 6~12 months, the 1st target will be to mass-produce the OLED of 30,000 units per month based on single unit. 5 trillion won will be invested to the P10 factory to install new lines of the Gen6 POLED with 30,000 units per month and it would be started to produce it in 2019.”

Accordingly, LG Display announced that E5 in Gumi, which was previously invested, plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in this year, E6 in Paju plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in Q2 2018. In addition, they mentioned that at the OLED new line in Guangzhou, China, will mass-produce the Gen8.5 OLED with monthly 60,000 units of scale from the first half of 2019 by the investment of the 5 trillion won. For concerns on the technology leakages about the investment of the Gen8.5 OLED in Guangzhou, the CFO, Sang-don, Kim, said “There was no cases of technology leakages in the LCD line of Guangzhou until now from last 2013 since the OLED is complicated technology to copy, and there would be much benefit by the localized equipment and all investment instead of it.”

Meanwhile, the sales of LG Display for the Q2 this year were reduced QOQ 6% (7,620 billion won) as 6,629 billion won, but, increased 13% versus same quarter of last year (5,855 billion won). The portions by the products are following: 46% for TV panels (QOQ +3%p), 22% for Mobile panels (QOQ -4%p), 17% for Monitor panels (QOQ +2%p), 15% for Laptop/Tablet panels (QOQ -1%p). LG Display explained that the performance in first half declined due to the seasonality impact, but the shipments in second half considered as high-season, will be increased versus first half.

What is the next-generation display poised to outshine OLED?

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The micro LED, QLED and hologram, which are referred to as the next generation displays, were presented at the seminar entitled ‘Recent Trends in Display and Vehicle Display Technology’ hosted by UBI Research on the 14th.

Under the theme ‘Technical Issues of micro LED Display and Market Trend’, professor Moon Dae-gyu of Soonchunhyang University said, “Micro LED can be realized in high resolution and it is easy to implement curved display or flexible display because there is no limit of panel shape and size” He added “When applying micro LED to a display, high resolution is feasible even on a small substrate size, so that it can be applied to VR, etc.” and expected “When applied to a public display, it will be able to escape from the method of tiling many display panels”. However, there remain some technical problems such as the problem of transferring and connecting millions of LED chips quickly and accurately, the deviation problem of color and luminous efficiency between LED chips, and the technical problem of implementing an active matrix for the application of a display.

<Professor Moon Dae-gyu of Soonchunhyang University>

Next, Dr. Hwang Do-Kyung of Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST), Dr. Bae Wan-ki, senior researcher of KIST, and Dr. Oh Min-Suk of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI) announced the manufacturing principle of quantum dot and the possibility of self-emitting QLED using it. Dr. Hwang said, “The quantum dot has the advantage of not only color change depending on the size and but also narrow half width.” “Self-emitting QLED can display higher color purity than OLED.” he added.

Dr. Bae expected “If research is carried out on an enterprise scale, the speed of technology development will increase more rapidly.” saying that “At present, the efficiency of quantum dot devices is continuously improving, but the life span is insufficient compared to OLED.”

“We need the next generation display technology to follow the LCD and OLED,” said Dr. Oh Min-Seok of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI). He added “QLED is attracting much attention as a next-generation display, but there remain such issues as too much focus on the development of emitting devices, the lack of solution process-related devices and technologies, and the non-cadmium-based high-efficiency blue light emitting devices”.

<Dr. Oh Min-Seok of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI)>

As the last speaker, Kang, Hoon-Jong, team leader of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI) explained the digital hologram technology and its application, and emphasized that a display panel capable of expressing the hologram is necessary to implement it. He said “We have a holographic printer or a microscope but there is no enough technology to apply it to TV”. Then, he closed his presentation saying “We need to develop a film for hologram first and then a functional design that can implement the screen.”

During the presentation about the next generation display, many of the speakers emphasized the importance of cooperation and participation among schools, research institutes and companies in order to overcome technical problems and realize them as actual displays. The display competition is expected to become even more intense in the future, as R&D in micro OLED, QLED, and hologram, which are considered as the next generation display, is concentrated.

The OLED is the best automotive display

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The seminar on the trend of the up-to-date technology for the next generation display which was themed ‘The technology trend for latest display and the automotive display’ hosted by the UBI Research, was held on July 14th at COEX in Seoul.

In the seminar, Sun-hong, Park, a senior researcher of automotive parts, said that “The attention to the display is increasing due to the importance of the visual intelligence, and its application will also grow because the OLED is able to easily realize the flexible deign and the transparent display.”

In addition, he expected that “The digitalization for the automotive will be lasting, and the China will take 50% and more of the worldwide consumption market for automotive in 2020, and the application of display including OLED will increase in accordance with the attributes of the Chinese who prefer colorful design.”

During the briefing of a car not having a side mirror which became an issue in recent, “The application of the OLED which has rapid response speed and wide viewing angle is highly likely to be employed. If it can just overcome the reliability, the OLED will be the best display for the automotive.”

In the other side, according to the “Automotive Display Report – application & market trend analysis and the market forecast” published by the UBI Research, it expected the OLED panel will be started in earnest applying to the cluster or CID of the automotive from 2018, and the automotive display is expected to grow about 17% annually, reaching around US$ 25,000 million by 2022. The AMOLED panel market among this will be account for about 20%.

<Forecasting of the market share by the automotive display 2017~2022>

AR and VR Market, Active Expansion in 2019 – What Propels the Growth?

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  • Forecast of US$ 58,700 million of total revenue of AR and VR in 2021
  • Active expansion expected in 2019 with UHD contents mass production and fast transfer of large size content for VR through introduction of 5G

 

With recent ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) progress, fourth industrial revolution is receiving attention as the new growth engine. Along with the increased interest in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), products such as Oculus Rift and Gear VR continue to be released.

Released AR products include glass types such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google’s Google Glass. HMD (Head Mounted Display) based VR type products include Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift, HTC’s Valve, and Sony’s PlayStation VR, and smartphone based VR types include Samsung Electronics’ Gear VR.

According to AR and VR Display Market Report published by UBI Research on 7th, AR and VR product shipment is expected to record 17 million units in 2017 with US$ 3,900 million revenue. UHD contents mass production and introduction of 5G for fast processing large size VR content are expected from 2019. Accordingly, total shipment of AR and VR products is estimated to increase at approximately 54% CAGR, and show 96.4 million units of shipment and US$ 58,700 million revenue.

The report divided the market by product and display for AR and VR market analysis, which is further categorized into AR and VR product total market, market by VR product, AR and VR use display total market, AR and VR use OLED, and market by other display type.

For immersive virtual reality experience without dizziness, display conditions such as latency, FOV, refresh rate, and high resolution were selected as key issues and were analyzed. AR and VR products released between 2014 and 2016 were arranged by types, categorized by display type and key companies and analyzed.

Furthermore, business status of key IT companies, including Apple and Facebook, is included handling AR and VR product release status, related patent, and related company takeover. With the information on key panel companies’ AR and VR product exhibition status, the report is expected to be conducive to understanding key trends of related companies.

UBI Research estimates AR and VR use OLED shipment to be 2.6 million units in 2017, with 2.4 million units of other displays. OLED is expected to show 52% of market share with 48% of other display. In 2021, AR and VR use OLED is expected to show shipment of 52 million units and occupy 80% of the market.

<Shipment Forecast by AR and VR use Display Type>

LG and Samsung at the International TADF Symposium in Germany

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TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) is an exciting new technology to provide highly efficient and stable emitting materials for OLED devices. TADF emitters are poised to contribute to the next material-driven advancement of the OLED industry, making OLEDs ideal for even more applications. Right now, TADF technology is receiving much attention as it will lead to major improvement of OLED displays again. The importance of TADF technology and its impact of the Next-Generation OLEDs will be highlighted at the International TADF Symposium in Frankfurt, Germany. (www.tadf-symposium.com)

Directly after the well-known IFA conference, the world’s leading researchers from European and Korean universities will discuss aspects related to the development of TADF OLED materials from modelling through synthesis to analytics and device fabrication. In addition, the leading OLED manufactures LG and Samsung will reveal some of their views on the OLED industry and what impact high-efficiency TADF materials will have on it. Furthermore, CYNORA, the leading TADF materials provider, will present an update of its status and its finals steps in commercialization of first blue TADF emitters.

The registration for the International TADF Symposium will be open till 15th August. The TADF event is sponsored by Lesker Tool, Schrödinger and CYNORA.

Meet the leading experts from OLED industry and academia on September 7th in Frankfurt, Germany.

Reduce OLED manufacturing time to 1/10

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Manufacturing technology has been developed to quickly fabricate OLED.
The Korea Research Foundation (KFRI) announced the Yun, Hongseok research team at Hanbat National University has developed a high-speed transfer technology that can effectively transfer multiple thin OLED layers to desired locations through high-pressure air jet injection.

The OLED transfer separates multiple layers of thin film from the substrate all at once and combines them with other thin films to produce a device. At this time, the thin film is ripped apart or wrinkled, and the corner is torn off, which make it difficult to mass-produce.

<A conceptual diagram of energy transfer process of polymer OLED multilayer thin film using air jet, Source: Korea Research Foundation>

The team used the principle of effectively controlling the bonding energy between the thin film and substrate by a high-speed peeling technique using the air jet technology,. An air jet close to the sonic speed is injected between the substrate and OLED thin film to effectively reduce the bonding force with the substrate, thereby enabling the transfer without damaging the thin film. The high-speed transfer method through the air jet requires only short time to transfer the OLED; the processing time takes about 1/10 of production time. OLED thin films can be manufactured at low cost by coating them with a solution.

Professor Yoon, Hongseok explained, “This research has developed a technology that can rapidly manufacture OLED device because they can be effectively transferred all at once by using an air jet without damaging the OLED thin film. The unit production cost of OLED can be significantly reduced, which has been used in a wide range of applications such as OLED lighting, advertising and display. It is expected to be applied to basic electronic devices in the future such as solar cells and semiconductor devices. ”

The research was carried out with the support of the Researcher Support Project for the Basic Research Support Program of the Korea Research Foundation and was published in the international journal on nanomaterials applications, Nanoscale.

OLED TV is the competitive TV covering the whole areas such as the design and the sound quality as well as the image quality.

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“While the existing OLED TV is focused on the image quality, the current OLED TV is not only picture quality but also covering any areas including the design and the sound quality.”

In the keynote address for the workshop of ‘the 12th Display National R&D Projects’ held on 5 July in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do, Soo-young, Yoon, a director of LG Display, introduced the advantages of OLED TV such as superior image quality, design freedom, and sound quality improvement including the capacity of the light and shade, and color implementation.

He said, “It is unlike LCD, OLED is the self-emitting, and be able to be controlled by a pixel unit, so that it is capable of expressing the perfect black, and implementing the unlimited contrast range. Therefore, OLED is the best display to express the stars or a bright moon in the darkness.” And also, he emphasized that “OLED TV is free to express the middle gradation through the precise color expressiveness, so that it is able to realize the vivid color as realistic.”

 

Subsequently, he introduced the wallpaper and CSO (crystal sound OLED) which attracted lots of attention in last CES 2017, “If the existing OLED TV is an image quality-oriented, the current OLED TV goes through any areas such as the design, sound quality but also the image quality. Especially, the embedded speaker methods are able to realize the high level of immersion, by agreeing the position of the mouth and the sound along with the effect of design advancement.”

A director, Soo-young, Yoon, also introduced the transparent flexible OLED which can implements the radius of curvature 80R, 40% penetration ratio, and 77-inch UHD, that developed for the commercialization, and mentioned that the transparent and flexible display will be a future display. He also said that they are on-going to develop the devices and materials for solution process, and it needs to be discovered the new application and new form factor.

Finally, he mentioned the P10 factory at Paju, “We expect to ultimately produce new OLED TV at P10 factory which plans to be completed by the end of this year through thorough preparation.”

OLED Highly Polarized OLED, A New Approach to Improve OLED Light Efficiency,

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Professor Kim Jae-Hoon of Hanyang University announced at the seminar, ‘OLED market analysis and latest technology’ for the first half, host by UBI industry research last June that a small amount of chiral molecule added to the polymer OLED emissive layer controls the polarization of light emission to improve light efficiency by 60%.

Two linear polarizers applied in orthogonal form to LCD are used to transmit or block the light from the back light unit through liquid crystal movement while one circular polarizer of OLED prevents reflection of external light, which is applied as a role to increase outdoor visibility

Display companies have focused on development of device structure, optical extraction technology and material, and luminescent mechanism to compensate for more than 50% luminescent light loss due to the polarizer. We need a way to improve the efficiency of OLED using polarized light. Professor Kim, Jae-hoon has presented a method and research results to improve the OLED light efficiency in use of polarized light, emphasizing ‘the need of a new approach in a new perspective’.

<Simulation of chiral molecules-added OLED structure>

Professor Kim, Jae-hoon explained, ‘Polymer materials of OLED generate high linearly polarized light with high liquid crystallinity in general. When this light passes through a light emitting layer inclusive of chiral molecules, it becomes a circularly polarized light’. “Theoretically, the light efficiency can be increased by 100%,” he added. “This way, we can implement brighter OLED with lower power consumption.”

In application of this principle, Professor Kim, Jae – hoon and his team members have developed the OLED with luminous efficiency 60% higher than existing OLED and further research will be continued on circular polarization based on low molecular materials.

Meanwhile, the research was sponsored by the ‘Future Display Core Technology Development’ project, and the research outcomes have been published in the recent issue of an international journal, ‘Advanced Materials’.

How about the future OLED market performance?

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At the seminar titled “OLED market analysis and the latest technology” host by the UBI Research at the FKI last June, the president, Lee Choong Hoon predicted the market through analyzing the OLED industry investment and mass production in the first half of 2017.

President Lee Choong Hoon emphasized that China will lead the OLED equipment market by 2021 due to increase in OLED demand of Chinese set makers. Accordingly, the Chinese equipment market is expected to account for about 48% of the entire equipment market in 2021, investing approx. US $ 40.5 billion.

It is anticipated that such movement of Chinese companies will affect the OLED smartphone market. In 2019, OLED smartphones will reverse the LCD smartphone market, accounting for 80% of the total smartphone market by 2021.

On the other hand, as for the flexible OLED, between 2017 and 2019, Samsung Electronics expects to invest heavily in BOE to be ranked second in the flexible OLED market, which should cope with the increasing demand on flexible OLED of Samsung Electronics and Apple.

President Lee analyzed that the premium TV market will be formed with larger than 65 inches as the 65-inch panels will be mass-produced at BOE’s Gen10.5 LCD plant from 2018. Consequently, panel makers without Gen10.5 will produce 65 inch panels on the Gen8 line in MMG (multi-model on a glass) method. On the other hand, LG Display is expected to continually produce TV OLED panel at Gen8, and since 2020 at Gen10.5 line.

According to ‘2017 OLED Manufacturing Equipment Annual Report’ published by the UBI research, from 2017 to 2021, it is anticipated that TFT equipment will account for 45% of the market share, followed by OLED pixel forming equipment 17%, encapsulation equipment 13%, cell equipment 13% and module equipment 12% respectively. As the demand on flexible OLEDs is expected to increase remarkably in the future, the market share of cell and module equipment will accordingly increase by 25% with high importance.

OLEDON, Find the future of AMOLED in plane source FMM!

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Three years have passed since the first QHD (about 515 ppi) OLED applied to Galaxy Note4 in 2014, but OLED resolution is still in QHD. In order to manufacture high-resolution OLED over UHD, FMM of less than 15 μm is required, but it is not applied to mass production due to various technical issues.

Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, a venture business of Dankook University, proposed that the plane source FMM deposition technology is the only solution for a high-resolution OLED manufacturing process over UHD at the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technology” held on June 30 (Fri) at Yeouido FKI Conference Center.

Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon said, “To improve the resolution of AMOLED, the angle of flight of organic molecules should be reduced to less than 10 degrees and the aspect ratio of TFT devices should be maintained at 1.0 level.” and explained “The evaporation angle (incidence angle) of the currently known linear source is about 40 degrees, and the shadow distance is about 3 um. Therefore, the ratio of the pattern width, the shadow distance, and the aspect ratio can be increased at the SUHD level AMOLED patterning process. Ultimately, the current patterning technology loses the flatness of the film. “.

In addition, Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon said, “Linear deposition technology has limitations in achieving resolution higher than QHD, and development of plane source FMM deposition technology is the only way to manufacture OLED with 2000 ppi or higher.”.

<Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon announced the 2250ppi AMOLED technical problem, Source: the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar>

The shadow distance measured by OLEDON’s plane source FMM deposition technique ranges from 0.68 to 1.05 μm and the angle of incidence is 13 to 19 degrees and converting this result to resolution makes it possible to fabricate a device with a maximum of 1500 ppi. On the other hand, with the newly developed Xplane source, the shadow distance was 0.38 ~ 0.56um and the incident angle was 7.2 ~ 8.0 degrees, it is possible to manufacture up to 3300 ppi device by converting it to the resolution. In the last SID2017, Prof. Jin Byung-Doo and Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon introduced the world’s first measurement of sub-micron-scale shadow distance using plane source patterning technology, it has been announced that it is possible to manufacture a micro AMOLED device having a Super Ultra (SUHD) resolution of 11K (2250 ppi) or more if scale-up development is applied to large-area OLED display production industry in the future. (Paper title: Plane source evaporation techniques for Super ultra high resolution flexible AMOLED)

Sub-micron Shadow data and incident angle data obtained by plane source FMM deposition technology, Source: the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar

On the other hand, based on the development results, OLEDON announced that it plans to develop and install planar source FMM evaporator for research, which can manufacture ultra-high resolution micro OLED devices using plane source deposition technology, in Dankook University. (Refer to: OLEDON homepage www.oledon.co.kr)

[LED & OLED EXPO 2017] OLED lighting in a broad range of applications

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‘International LED & OLED EXPO 2017’, the largest international lighting exposition in S.Korea, opened for three days in KINTEX, Goyang City, S.Korea on March 27. A large number of OLED lighting companies participated in this event and presented various OLED lightings.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology organized a booth for OLED lighting industrial cluster project and displayed many different OLED lightings of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Hausand, Vawoodesign and so on, together with Korea Photonics Industry Promotion Association, Korea Photonics Technology Institute, and Korea Institute of Lighting Research.

<Mirror desk OLED lighting of Hausand>

A researcher of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology said, “The average life time of OLED lighting is currently 15,000 hours at LT50 and the target life time will be 40,000 hours. From the lighting point of view, flexible and transparent design and slim thickness can generate an unlimited number of applications”. Also “In Europe, OLED is in the spotlight due to the limit of LED illumination. The lighting market has been already saturated by Chinese LED manufacturers while OLED has much more market potential.” “As the market grows, OLED lighting made in relatively simple manufacturing process will be less expensive than LED, “he anticipated.

“The lifetime of currently commercialized OLED lighting is 40,000 hours at LT50 and sufficient to use on a daily basis,” said a manager of JW M Tech, who introduced various flexible and rigid OLED lightings.”OLED emits less blue light and is superior to LED in different design applications. We will soon develop flexible OLED lighting and be most competitive in the international lighting industry,” he added.

<Flexible OLED mood light of JWM Tech>

Sungkyunkwan University introduced its self manufactured flexible OLED lighting in use of roll-to-roll process. An official of SungKyunKwan University expectantly said, “the roll-to-roll process reduces the production time and because of its thin and flexible design, it will be applied to various lightings.”

In addition, Oclass introduced mirror OLED lighting to draw great attention, and Woori Lighting’s stand-type OLED lighting in application of the wireless charging function of cell phone has been awarded by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, proving its competitiveness of OLED, the next-generation light source.

<Stand type OLED lighting of Woori Lighting>

UBi Research first half year closing seminar ” OLED Market analysis and latest technology”

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■ Review the technical issues & market in the OLED industry in the first half of 2017

■ Market outlook and change points forecast for the 2H of the year thru 1H issue analysis

 

UBI Research will hold an OLED market analysis and latest technology on June 30 (Fri) at the FKI Conference Center in Yeouido, Korea, to finalize the OLED market in the first half of 2017 and forecast the market in the second half of 2017.

 

In this seminar, we will look at the investment trends and future of major panel makers and look at OLED market trends and latest technologies such as development status of luminescent materials of TADF and Iridium phosphorescent materials, technology issues for flexible OLEDs, and surface patterning deposition technology for high resolution so that it will be a place to preview how OLED markets and technologies will change.

 

In this seminar, (Kwon Seong-Ryul, head of Dongbu Securities Industry Analysis team will be presenting on changes in OLED portion in smartphones, TVs, and signage, and polarization of major OLED panel suppliers by country, forecasts of major OLED equipment and materials markets, possibility of foldable display and technical difficulties and etc.

 

Following this, Chang Jung-Hoon, a member of Samsung Securities Tech team is responsible for Samsung’s line expansion, analyzing the current status of OLED panel makers in China, analyzing value chain of OLED equipment makers and material companies, changing supply chain driven by OLED application of Apple iPhone, demand forecast for small and medium-sized OLED panels from investor point of view.

 

Next, Lee Jun-Yeob, professor at SungKyunKwan University will mention the development process of TADF OLED, technical issues of TADF dopant, technical issues of TADF OLED, and current situation of hyperfluorescence.

 

Kim Jae-Hoon, professor at Hanyang University, will disclose the experiment result in which the luminous efficiency is improved by 60% compared to conventional OLED by applying circular dichroism technology to improve the light efficiency of OLED.

 

Lee Choong-Hoon, president of UBi Research, will explain investment prospects and investment trends of major OLED companies, overall equipment market forecast for OLED manufacturing, OLED luminous material market forecast, overall OLED market outlook, available panel shipment to the market and sales forecasts.

 

Jin Sung-Ho, professor at Pusan National University will present the experiment result showing high luminous efficiency while simplifying the OLED structure by introducing a functional substituent having electron transfer property into a red iridium phosphorescent material and developing an iridium-based phosphorescent material for OLED capable of solution process.

 

Lee Ki-Yong, professor at Hanyang University will explain display trends, technical issues of flexible OLED components, and concept design of flexible displays.

 

Lastly, Hwang Chang-Hoon, professor at Dankuk University and a representative of OLEDON, will explain the plane source patterning deposition technology that can improve the OLED resolution by about 8 times by implementing 0.38 um shadow distance (SD).

Convention team (Lee Seul-Ji Assistant Manager)/ Tel: 02-577-4903 /Email: sjlee@ubiresearch.com

LG Display, marking its successful development of the world’s first 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display

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<source : LG Display>

LG Display announced in the “Large-Size Transparent Flexible Display R&D Performance Report on 22nd that it has succeeded in developing the world’s first 77” UHD transparent flexible OLED display under government initiative “. The 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display developed by LG Display is equipped with UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution, implementing 40% transmittance and the radius of curvature 80 mm (transformable into a 80 mm radius cylindrical shape); the product features outstripped the initial development plan of 60” large screen and the curvature of radius 100 mm.

Along with the 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display, LG Display presented a 55 inch transparent display equipped with the optical shutter film to block transparency.

Lee In-ho, the first deputy of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, “With the development of transparent flexible technology in S. Korea’s OLED industry, the top in the world, the potential applications of OLED panel, which had been used only in smartphone and TV, will expectedly expand into the medical, architecture and automobile field. “He emphasized that this will serve as a ground for securing S.Korea’s competitive technological talents and advantages.

Kang In-byoung, LG Display CTO said, “We expect to contribute to the expansion of the OLED camp and new markets by enhancing the large-area OLED technology, operating the government-initiative project”. As a most leading company in the future display market, we will do our best to provide better values and qualities of the advanced technology. ”

Meanwhile, the government initiative project of the transparent flexible display project was organized under the supervision of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology to support continuous development of the display industry and securing the national’s strongest competitiveness. Accordingly, LG Display has developed an 18 inch transparent flexible OLED display in 2014, 18 inch roll-able display with a curvature of 30 mm radius in 2015, and 55 inch display with 40% transparency in 2016.

LG Display, Awarded ‘Achievement Award’ for development of OLED TV at Japan OLED forum

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LG Display announced on the 16th that it received the ‘Achievement Award’ for the first time as a foreign company in recognition of the superiority of WRGB technology that enabled the production of large OLED TV and the pioneering of the large OLED TV market at the 24th Japan OLED forum held at the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo.

55-inch transparent OLED, LG Display unveiled at CES 2017. Source : LG Display

The Japan OLED forum is an academic society where experts from Japan’s major industries and academia gather together to discuss and discuss solutions for academic, applied research, and practical applications related to OLED, such as Tokyo University, Kyushu University, Sony, JDI and JOLED.

According to the Japan OLED forum, LG Display is recognized for its technological ability to produce large-size OLED TVs and for pioneering large OLED TV market and won the award for achievement for the first time as the overseas company.

The technology that LG Display recognized for its achievements is WRGB technology that builds up R, G, B organic materials on a thin film transistor (TFT) vertically and adds white elements to make four subpixels, not the RGB methods that arrange R, G, B organic materials on a thin film transistor (TFT) horizontally..

LG Display used this technology to mass-produce OLED TV panels for the first time in the world in January 2013 while pioneering the large OLED TV market.

LG-Display emphasized “this award is significant because it acknowledged the technology of LG Display, which produces large-sized OLED panels in Japan, which is the mainstay of flat panel displays”.

Oh Chang-ho, Managing Director of LG Display’s OLED TV Development Group, said, “I am extremely honored that LG Display has been recognized for its OLED technology by industry-leading experts”, and “We will make efforts to contribute to the development of the display industry by developing differentiated OLED products in the future,” .

On the other hand, LG-Display was not only able to realize excellent image quality with 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel in SID 2017 but also received the Display of the Year this year as an innovative product that presents new possibilities for display in terms of application scope and design.

UBI Research , Published the Market Report on OLED Manufacturing Equipment

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■The OLED equipmentmarket is expected to reach $84.9 billion in 5 years.

■Korean and Chinese panel companies will take over 90% of investment in panel equipment.

 

According to ‘2017 OLED Manufacturing Equipment Annual Report’ published by UBI Research, the entire equipment market of OLED is expected to total$84.9 billion(about 93trillion KRW) from 2017 to 2021. In 2017, $16.4 billion(about 18 trillion KRW) will be invested in OLED equipment.

The OLED equipment for the market analysis is largely categorized by process into 5 kinds of equipment; TFT, OLED, encapsulation, cell, and module. The investment costs including distribution equipment and test equipment of each process are calculated, and touch-related equipment is excluded from the market analysis.

Hyun Jun Jang, a senior researcher of UBI Research forecasts that the two countries will lead the OLED market due to the massive investment from both Korean panel companies occupying the OLED industry and latecomers Chinese panel companies.

According to this report, China and Korea will actively invest in OLED equipment from 2017 to 2017, showinga 48% and a 42% OLED market share, respectively. In particular, the two countries are expected to make the largest investment of $32.8 billion(about 36 trillion KRW) in 2017 and 2018.

Samsung Display has been expanding small and medium OLED lines to be applied to Galaxy series and Apple, and LG Display has been investing in both small & medium and large-size OLED lines. China’s BOE and CSOT are likely to invest heavily in OLED line because especially BOE has decided to invest more than 30K in small and medium OLED lines every year since 2017.

<left) OLED Equipment Market Share by Process,    right) OLED Equipment Market Share by Country>

From 2017 to 2021, itis forecast that TFT equipment, OLED pixel patterning equipment, encapsulation equipment, cell equipment, and module equipment will have a 45%, 17%,13%,13%, and 12% market share, respectively. In near future, the demand for flexible OLED will be likely to increase so that cell and module equipment will gain more importance having a 25% market share.

Corner Stone Foundation for Novaled Premises in Dresden

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<Source : Novlaed>

June 12, Novaled celebrates the corner stone foundation for the new company premises at Elisabeth-Boer-Strasse 9 in Dresden. On the 10,200 m² site in the north of Dresden, the Old Mill, which is under monument protection, will be renovated and transformed into a prestigious office building. As a new building, a 110-meter-long R&D plant with the best-equipped research area, clean rooms of class ISO5 and ISO7 as well as laboratories are being built. Works for the floor plate and walls of the R&D plant as well as the partial de-coring of the mill have begun. The new company headquarters offers Novaled enough space for further growth. After completion of the construction measures, the team will be able to use an area of 6,160 m² in the buildings – the best conditions for the development of materials for premium OLEDs and organic electronics.

With the purchase of the property and the decision to invest over 25 million euros in the Dresden location, Samsung SDI as Novaled parent company has made a very clear commitment to the economic region and to Novaled. Together with the city of Dresden and the state of Saxony, this step was successfully launched.

“The advantages of the new company location are obvious: best accessibility for customers, suppliers and employees; a very good infrastructure; state-of-the-art equipment and ample space for our creative team, “says Gerd Günther, CEO of Novaled. “These are the best prerequisites for driving innovation, opening up new markets, winning customers and their applications, and ensuring sustainable growth in Saxony.”

Novaled is currently worldwide the only supplier of organic dopants for OLED display mass production. The doping technology of the Samsung subsidiary Novaled is meanwhile a quasi-industry standard. Dresden’s know-how and materials are thus found in most smartphones, tablets and other devices with OLED displays. Also OLED lighting applications like Audi TT tail lights or applications like organic solar cells use Novaled technologies and materials for being high performant.

Source : Novaled

CYNORA presents record results for high-efficiency blue OLED emitters

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CYNORA, a leader in TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence) materials for OLEDs, has reached new performance records with its newest blue emitter material. With the current performance, the company is getting close to commercialization of its first product by the end of 2017.

 

Despite urgent requests by the OLED display panel makers for a high-efficiency blue emitter material in the last few years, no material supplier has yet been able to produce such a material. High-efficiency blue emitters are needed to reduce power consumption and increase the display resolution further. At SID 2017, CYNORA presented a blue emitter with a performance that was very close to the requirements of the panel makers. Using TADF technology, the company has achieved 15% EQE at 1000 cd/m² with an emission peak at < 470 nm and a LT97 of > 90 hours (at 700 cd/m²) on a device level.

 

“CYNORA’s latest patent-protected materials show a performance in the range of the customer´s specifications for blue” said Thomas Baumann, CYNORA´s CSO, “This is the best overall performance of a high-efficiency blue emitter so far from what CYNORA has seen. In the finalization of CYNORA’s product development, CYNORA will now focus on moving the emission peak slightly towards 460 nm.”

 

“CYNORA’s progress in the last few months makes us very confident that CYNORA can commercialize CYNORA’s first highly efficient blue emitter by the end of this year, as planned” said Andreas Haldi, CMO at CYNORA. “But CYNORA’s goal is to become a leading OLED material supplier by providing emitters of all display colors. Therefore, CYNORA is planning to follow up on the blue emitter with a green emitter by 2018 and a red emitter by 2019.”

UBI Research holds the 1H Semester Seminar “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technology Seminar (June 30, 2017 Federation of Korean Industries Head Office Building)

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■ 2017 1H general review of the technical issues and the market of OLED industry.

■ 2H09 market outlook and change point forecast through 1H issue analysis.

UBI Research will hold the 1H semester seminar: OLED market analysis and latest technology seminar which will be able to forecast OLED market issues in the first half of 2017 and predict market outlook and change points in 2H07 on June 30 (Fri) at Yeouido FKI Conference Center.

It will be analyzed the technical issues and market in the OLED industry in the first half of the 17th year under the theme of “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technologies”. In addition, it seems to forecast the 2H OLED market and change points for 2H through 1H issue analysis.

In this seminar, technology development status and prospects of TADF OLED, Soluble OLED, and Flexible OLED technology that are emerging as next generation OLED technology will be intensively introduced with the key experts in related fields. It will be a place to look at the latest OLED technologies and to see in advance how OLED future technologies will evolve.

▲ Market forecasts by analyzing OLED industry investment and mass production in the first half of 2017(Lee Choong-Hoon, representative of UBI Research), ▲ A new display paradigm ‘OLED'(Kwon Seong-Ryul, team leader of Dongbu Securities), will intensively analyze future display industry with the theme. ▲ Recent trends of TADF OLED luminescent materials(Prof Lee Jun-Yeob of Sungkyunkwan University), ▲ A New approach to improve OLED luminescence efficiency(Prof. Kim Jae-Hoon, Hanyang University), ▲ Development of Highly Efficient Multi-Functional Emitting Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Diode Application(Prof Jin Sung-Ho of Pusan National University), ▲ Flexible Display Technology Development Trends and Challenges(Prof. Lee Ki-Yong, Hanyang University), ▲Plane Source Evaporation for Very High ppi AMOLED (OLEDON/Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon of Dankook University). With the theme of ‘It is time to challenge’ he will present the latest technology issues and directions for further growth of the display industry.

In this seminar, we will take a comprehensive view of the market and technology from the overall OLED industry, investment perspective, and economic perspective, it is expected to be a place where various high-quality information and networking exchanges will be formed along with domestic core experts, and the status and future of display technology can be forecasted.

The 4th Generation Emitting Material, Hyperfluorescence

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Thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF), still under development to complement OLED emitting materials insufficient as both fluorescence and phosphorescent materials, takes time to be commercialized at the present stage. Even Kyulux considered the most advanced company in terms of TADF technology hasn’t yet to commercialized TADF dopant suitable for display.

Adachi, CTO of Kyulux said the unprepared TADF host material is an obstacle to the commercialization of TADF, so the full width at half maximum of emitting peak is too wide to be applied to display. To solve this problem, the 4th generation hyperfluorescence is under development to commercialize the TADF material.

<Kyulux CTO Adachi>

Hyperfluorescence aims at having the effect of a phosphorescent material by adding TADF dopant to existing fluorescence host and dopant.

<Hyperfluorescence Effect>

This effect has a structure that can solve both the full width at half maximum of TADF and the low brightness of fluorescence materials as seen in the above figure, Adachi emphasized.

<Hyperfluorescence vs General fluorescence>

As seen in the above photo, Kyulux’s OLED made of general green fluorescence material and OLED made of hyperfluorescence by adding TADF to this material have a distinct difference on the same substrate.

Kyulux’s goal is to commercialize hyper fluorescence by 2017. Its target is PMOLED.

LG Display’s OLED lighting ‘Medusa’ OLED wins the MIAW awards

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During Euroluce 2017 held in Milan, Italy, LG Display showcased two OLED masterpieces called ‘Medusa’ and ‘Pyrosome’ made by Ross Lovegrove, known as ‘Captain Organic’. The collaboration with flexible LG OLED light panels attracted the attention of many visitors and many designers, architects, and lighting experts were inspired by the unique and aesthetic design.

‘Medusa’, one of the most outstanding collaboration masterpieces made with flexible LG OLED light panels, has won the MIAW (Muuuz International Awards) organized by the ArchiDesignClub in partnership with Muuuz magazine.

The awards intend to identify every year the most outstanding new products for Construction & Architecture Layout, Coatings & Materials, Home furniture, Lighting, Kitchen & Bath, and Outdoor, and Lovegrove’s ‘Medusa’ has proudly won the Lighting category.

LG Display said that by winning the award, LG OLED light will be promoted through an extensive communications distribution package and flexible LG OLED light panels will have a greater chance to develop the OLED market and provide massive benefits to future OLED design features.

<LG Display’s flexible OLED lighting ’Medusa’>

The award ceremony will be held in June, 2017 at the Grand Hotel Intercontinental Paris Opera.

OLEDON with Dankook University succeeding in developing next-generation ultra high resolution patterning deposition technology

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Chin Byung-Doo, professor at Dankook University and Hwang Chang-Hoon, professor at Dankook University and CEO of OLEDON announced that they have succeeded in developing evaporation pattern deposition technology which can realize 0.38um shadow distance (SD) at SID 2017.

Mr. Hwang, CEO of OLEDON announced at 2016 IMID Business forum that he succeeded in implementing plane source evaporation and 1.1um shadow distance with 100um-thick shadow mask. At that time, Mr. Hwang said, ‘If we reduce the step height to 3μm, theoretically, we can implement the shadow distance down to 0.38 um, so the OLED panel resolution will be possibly more than 2250ppi.’

At the SID 2017, OLEDON’s solid result of implementing SD 0.38um in application of actual plane source drew great attention from people in relevant industries regarding the possibility of mass production.

Current OLED panel production technology has the limits on implementing the resolution higher than QHD (about 600ppi) for about 3 um thick shadow which causes overlapping micro patterns in the UHD (over 800ppi) AMOLED patterning process to degrade the fine pattern density. Consequently, OLED panels are produced only at QHD level.

If OLEDON’s surface source patterning deposition technology is applied to mass production, the shadow distance can be reduced to 0.38 ~ 0.56um, which can improve the resolution about 8 times higher. In addition, if scale-up development is applied to a large size OLED display production in the future, it is possible to manufacture a micro AMOLED device equipped with super ultra resolution (SUHD) resolution higher than 3300ppi.

<Shadow data from the surface source deposition technology>

Hwang Chang-hoon, CEO of OLEDON said, ‘using the idea of primarily evaporating the organic material and its deposition on the metal surface in the vacuum environment to form organic molecular film and re-evaporate it for the second coating deposition, we have found a condition to minimize the evaporation angle of the organic molecular beam. ”

<The principle of film source presented by Mr. Hwan at the SID>

With the recent focus on display resolution, OLEDON’s research results are expected to bring significant impact on the relevant industry.

Meanwhile, Prof. Hwang Chang-hoon has been developing new deposition technology for 25 years via a deposition specialist company. He holds the original patent of surface source deposition technology (Linear organic device mass production equipment with top-down thermal induction deposition: Registration No. 101206162000).

OLED, the mainstream of HMD devices for VR

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The ‘PlayX4’ opening ceremony, a next-generation augmented game show, was held at Kintex exhibition hall 2, Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi-do on the 25th. During the event, a number of companies presented VR contents, using HMD (head mounted display) devices in application of OLED, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Gear VR to improve immersion and reduce motion sickness.

Realitymagiq, a professional of VR game developer, introduced a multiplay game. In reply to a question on immersion into VR, “Device performance is essential for immersive in VR, and to reduce latency, the major culprit for sickness, OLED is more than enough,” said Kim Sung-kyun, the CEO of Realitymagiq. “However, resolution needs to be further developed and so does GPU performance.”

Motionhouse Co., Ltd. has introduced MotionGear for users to experience tilting and engine vibration during actual driving. Oculus Rift OLED-applied headset, was used; “Oculus Rift was the one that could minimize the motion sickness most”, said a participant.

Latency refers to the time length for the CPU to receive information from the tracker and output, which is related to the response time of the display and the information processing of the graphics card. The response time of the display required in VR is known to be less than 3ms. Samsung Display compares the response time between OLED and LCD on the blog and emphasizes that OLED is the optimal display for VR HMD device.

The Response time between OLED and LCD, Source: blog.samsungdisplay.com

In fact, many VR content companies used OLED-applied HMD devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Gear VR, and users seemed to enjoy VR game, not suffering from dizziness

Recently, aside from Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, many HMD makers such as recently launched Sony’s PS VR and Royole’s Royole Moon are OLED-based, not LCD, and surely the OLED application is expected to expand further.

[SID 2017] BOE, Unveiled the World’s First True QLED

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BOE attracted the big attention of visitors by unveiling the world’s first 2 types of QLEDs(5 inch, 14 inch) based on electroluminescence quantum dot technology.

BOE’s 5 inch QLED has a resolution of 320 x 240 (80ppi) with LTPS TFT. On the other hands, 14 inch QLED has a resolution of 960 x 540 (80ppi) with oxide TFT.

<BOE’s 5 inch (left) & 14 inch (right) QLED display>

BOE’s QLED display this time is special because it is an ‘electroluminescence quantum dot technology’-based display without backlight, unlike Samsung Electronics’ SUHD TV based on ‘photoluminescence quantum dot’.

In general, quantum dot-based displays are categorized into two types of mechanisms: photoluminescence quantum dot and electroluminescence quantum dot.

Photoluminescence quantum dot technology has a mechanism where the material stimulated by external luminescence emits light again. Samsung Electronics applies this technology to its LCD TV by using the QD sheet attached on blue light emitting from backlight.

On the other hands, electroluminescence quantum dot technology has a mechanism that emits itself when electricity is put, and its material is inorganic and structure is similar to OLED.

Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research said in analyst column that “photoluminescence quantum dot technology is applied to current LCD TVs to improve color reproduction of display. It must be the best product as LCD TV, but electroluminescence quantum dot-based display is a true QLED display”

A BOE employee explained “QLED display improves its reliability by using inorganic matters for existing OLED structure instead of organic matters, featuring better color gamut than OLED. 100% inkjet printing-based QLED is better in terms of manufacturing cost saving and large scale, compared to deposition-based OLED”.

The industry has expected that it will take more than 5 years to mass-produce QLED display, so according to BOE’s research, there’s a keen interest on how much the commercialization of electroluminescence quantum dot-based QLED is moved up or how much it influences the display industry.

2017 Q1 AMOLED Performance Analysis

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According to UBI Research, sales of AMOLED in the first quarter of 2017 were US$ 4.31 billion, up 15% from the same quarter last year (Q1 2016). Shipments amounted to 99.1 million units, up 9% from the same period last year.

AMOLED accounted for 88% of smartphone sales and 7% of TV sales. Especially, TV sales market share grew by 5% YoY and it shows big growth of OLED TV market.

With Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S8 and S8+ launches and mass production of AMOLED panels for Apple, and joining OLED TV market of Japanese companies such as Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic, the AMOLED market will continue to grow even after Q2. Mobile AMOLEDs are expected to ship more than 100 million units each quarter, and TV AMOLEDs are expected to ship more than 300,000 units per quarter.

UBI Research estimates that the total AMOLED market will grow to a CAGR of 33% by 2020, reaching US$ 59.3 billion.

<Total AMOLED market sales forecast>

JOLED, Production of 21.6 inch OLED by the world’s first inkjet printing process

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JOLED announced on last 17th that it developed the world’s first 21.6 inch 4K OLED panel with RGB inkjet printing process and shipped the prototype from April.

Developed by JOLED’s RGB inkjet printing process, the thickness of the panel is 1.3mm, weighs 500g, brightness is 350cd/m2, and contrast ratio is 1,000,000: 1. According to JOLED, this panel was applied to medical monitors.

<21.6 inch OLED and its specifications developed by JOLED, source: JOLED>

JOLED said ‘Ink-jet printing is a technology for printing by applying a light emitting material, which the production process is simple and easy to expand to diverse screen size, so it has been put into practical use. The top emission, viewing angle and color reproducibility of OLED panels will be improved.’

 

In addition, JOLED has announced its plans for the future ‘to expand its inkjet printing-type small and medium-sized OLED applications (such as gaming monitors, automotive applications, etc.) or suppliers continuously.’

JOLED is a company established by INCJ, JDI, Sony and Panasonic, and is actively developing inkjet printing process. Among the panel makers, JOLED is the only company that has released a product developed by inkjet printing process in 2016.

<55inch 4K flexible AMOLED panel unveiled by JOLED in 2016>

According to Ubi research’s ‘ Market Entry Analysis for Solution Process OLED -The Possibilities and Opportunities‘, ink-jet printing is one of the process methods of the solution process, in which the ink-jet head is used to drop ink onto each pixel. Major panel makers are developing a solution process using this process, and JOLED is expected to take a lead in the future.

The solution process is capable of realizing large-area OLED panel with RGB pixel structure in Gen8 and above, has high material utilization efficiency, and is developed as a simple layer, which is advantageous in cost reduction in mass production success.

Meanwhile, Lee Choong-hoon, CEO of UBI Research, said, “Although the large-area OLED market is targeting the premium market with the WRGB method, the solution process will be the core technology since low-cost and high-production technology is key to replacing LCDs with OLEDs.”

[SID 2017] Samsung Display, Unveil the world’s first 9.1inch Stretchable AMOLED

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Samsung Display unveiled the world’s first 9.1inch stretchable AMOLED, including touch, on SID 2017, boasting the world’s best AMOLED technology.

In addition to presenting a paper entitled “9.1-in-stretchable AMOLED display based on LTPS technology” at SID 2017 symposium, Samsung Display has attracted great interest in visitors by exhibiting real objects in the future display zone at Samsung Display’s.

In this 9.1 inch stretchable AMOLED, the PI is formed on the shrinkable film substrate, and then the stretchable region is patterned. And it is structured that TFT and OLED are formed on the patterned PI, and multi-touch sensor is realized at the same time.

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED structure of Samsung Display>

In addition, stretchable AMOLEDs can be implemented in both convex and concave shapes, and up to 12 mm in concave shapes.

Stretchable display is the final technology of flexible display, so it is expected to be applied to various fields such as clothing and human skin because it does not receive any form restrictions and it is expected to create applications for new areas.

Samsung Display, which is leading the AMOLED market for mobile devices with flexible AMOLED, is expected to maintain its technological gap with latecomers once again, and also is expected how would it stimulate latecomers who are pursuing AMOLED technology at high speed.

<Samsung Display’s exhibition booth with 9.1inch stretchable AMOLED>

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED specification of Samsung Display>

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED displayed by Samsung Display, Source: Samsung Display>

[SID 2017] Premium TV market, LCD vs OLED war re-ignition

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In the premium TV market in 2017 OLEDs seemed to catch up early with LG Electronics’ OLED TV sales volume growth and Sony’s OLED TV market gains. However, with the announcement of AUO, Taiwan’s leading LCD maker, that LCDs are more advantageous in the premium TV market than OLEDs, once again, competition between OLED TVs and LCD TVs is expected to intensify.

In the keynote session of SID 2017 held in Los Angeles, USA from May 22, AUO CEO Paul Peng made a presentation with the theme of “The warring states of display technologies” that LCDs would continue to outperform OLEDs in the premium TV market.

Paul Peng has three major claims that LCD is more dominant.

First is the performance that LCD is superior to OLED in terms of maximum size, peak brightness, ambient contrast ratio, color gamut, image sticking, and lifetime.

Second is the cost. In the black Friday in 2016, 65-inch HDR 4K narrow bezel LCD TV was US $ 1,099, while OLED was more than double with US $ 2,800.

Lastly, eco friendly. The industrial water used in the manufacturing process is used more for OLED manufacturing than LCD, and the power consumption of OLED is about twice that of LCD. The replacement cycle is 2 to 4 years for OLED, but LCD is 5 to 8 years which is more than twice as high as LCD, so is more environmentally friendly than OLED.

Since the launch of OLED TVs, there has been intense competition between LCD and OLED camps, but OLED market share continues to rise in the premium mobile market, and even in the premium TV market OLED seemed to be ahead of LCD. However, with AUO’s announcement in the keynote of SID 2017, the world’s largest display society, it is expected to intensify the fierce battle between OLED and LCD in the display industry.

 

LG Display, Will Unveil Its Next-generation Displays at’ SID 2017’

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LG Display will unveil future displays at ‘SID 2017’ to be held at Los Angeles Convention Center, USA from May 23 to 26. LG Display will prepare its own booth under the theme of “Our Technology, Your Innovation” and showcase its unique displays at three Zones of OLED TV, IT & Mobile, and Automotive.

First of all, LG will display its paper-like ultrathin 77-inch UHD Wallpaper TV. Due to OLED Technology, this TV has an excellent resolution and is so thin and light that it can be tightly attached to the wall, thereby maximizing the design effect. LG’s 65-inch UHD Wallpaper TV panel which will be unveiled was selected as ‘the Best Display of This Year’ for its highest technology at the SID.

<LG Display’s 65” UHD Resolution CSO(Crystal Sound OLED), Source : LG Display>

In addition, LG Display will showcase its 65-inch UHDCSO(Crystal Sound OLED) with a new function of display producing sound and 55-inch FHD transparent display making natural and transparent screen, which can show at a glance future displays that are being developed by LG Display.

LG Display applies in-TOUCH technology with a touch sensor embedded in panel to 24-inch monitor as well, while providing differentiated values to the IT market through its large and high-resolution displays. in-TOUCH technology doesn’t need Touch Cover Glass, so it features not only a light and excellent touch function but also a more sophisticated design by reducing the thickness of panels and bezel.

LG Display will also unveil state-of-the-art IT products such as the world’s largest 37.5-inch 21:9 curved monitor that maximizes immersion and 31.5-inch 8K monitor with high-resolution like reality.

<LG Display’s 12.3-inch automotive front display (Down), Transparent(Up), Source : LG Display>

LG Display suggests the future of automobiles, with its sophisticated design and excellent resolution in the rapidly growing automotive display field. By featuring multi-layers of 12.3-inch front display and transparent display, LG’s automotive display provides a sense of three-dimensions similar to existing analog Cluster. Also, LG Display will prepare a display booth for visitors to experience various displays in car such as mirror display that can replace Room Mirror due to its high reflectivity of more than 75%.

LG Display’s CTO(Chief Technology Officer), Kang, In Byeong said, “LG Display has made the world’s first display’ including IPS and OLED TV, and “LG Display will lead the next-generation display market with its continued technology development”.

Samsung Display, shows advanced product such as stretchable display in SID 2017

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Samsung Display participates in ‘SID 2017’ exhibition hosted by the world-renowned Society for Display Experts ‘SID (The Society for Information Display)’ to show advanced future display products.

Samsung Display will exhibit advanced display products that have never been revealed before, such as a stretchable display and a non-eyewear 3D OLED at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles on 23rd (local time).

Samsung Display participates in this SID 2017, and is showing the unrivaled display technology leadership and confidence by showing high-tech products and publishing outstanding papers.

Samsung Display unveiled a 9.1 inch stretchable OLED product with stretching screen.  The stretchable display is the next generation display technology that extends the screen flexibly, and it is considered to be the most suitable technology for wearable, Internet (IoT), AI (AI), and car display.

<source : Samsung Display>

Compared to the existing flexible OLEDs that can be deformed in only one direction, such as bending, folding, or rolling a screen, a stretchable OLED can be deformed in more than two directions.  This is a much higher level of implementation difficulty and is often referred to as the end point of flexible display technology in the industry.

The product displayed this time, when the screen is pressed from above, the screen is dented like a rubber balloon, and then returns to its original flat shape.  On the contrary, when pressed from below, the screen stretched up and had the elasticity to recover.  Samsung Display has developed a high level of stretchable technology that maintains the original picture quality while increasing the screen to a depth of up to 12mm when the display is pressed through steady research and development.

In addition, Samsung Display will exhibit ‘non-eyewear 3D OLED’ products. This 5.09-inch product realizes a real-life image that looks a bit different depending on the viewer’s position on the display, and expresses a more realistic 3-D image.

Especially, due to the contrast ratio close to infinity of OLED, it shows more natural stereoscopic image than LCD product. This technology is expected to be utilized in various fields requiring 3D image technology such as 3D pop-up book, 3D game, VR and etc.

 

On the other hand, this exhibition will have booths that enable users to experience the OLED technologies of Samsung Display. Including 3.5-inch size, 858ppi optimized for VR devices, 120Hz for wearable and tablet OLED products for smooth picture quality are exhibited.

In addition, much improved image quality of OLED, HDR (High Dynamic Range) and low power consumption technology can be confirmed.  Samsung Display also offers a ‘Design Innovation’ corner that introduces the development of smartphone display design, a unique flexible OLED technology.

From round OLEDs applied to mobile phones for the first time in the world after the successful production of flexible OLEDs in 2013, to recent full-screen OLEDs with the highest picture quality rating of ‘Excellent A +’ from DisplayMate, an image quality evaluation agency, it is able to show the flexible OLED technology accumulated by Samsung Display at a glance.

In addition, a high-resolution 65-type frameless LCD curved TV that minimizes screen reflections by applying ultra-low reflection POL (polarizer) and achieves 100% color expression power (DCI-P3 standard), 34-inch QHD + (3440X1440) LCD curved monitor with 21: 9 aspect ratio maximizes information transfer efficiency and 27-inch FHD (1920X1080) LCD curved monitor capable of 144 Hz high-speed screen operation are exhibited as a product that embodies innovative technology

Meanwhile, a paper entitled “Extendable Screen with Stretchable OLED Display” of Hong Jong-ho, researcher of Samsung Display Research Institute selected as SID 2017 Distinguished Paper.

Meet Prof. Adachi, the initiator of ‘Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence’

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We visited Adachi’s laboratory at Kyushu university that published the TADF (abbr., Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) thesis firstly to ‘Nature’ in 2010. He looked like a naive graduate student rather than a professor.

<Prof. Adachi , source : OLEDNET>

The reason that Prof. Adachi’s showing a full of enthusiasm for the TADF materials is that he convinces it is the best materials to lower manufacturing costs of OLED panel. Luminescence materials used in present are divided like fluorescence materials as 1st generation, and phosphorescence materials as 2nd generation. Fluorescence materials as 1st generation have a cost-effective and a low-efficiency, whereas phosphorescence materials as 2nd generation have both high-efficiency and also high-costs. This is because it utilizes the rare-earth metal, iridium. TADF as 3rd generation which Prof. Adachi has been driving, is as a structure of 1st generation materials and it has the merit of achieving the efficiency of 2nd generation materials.

TADF materials have special features that are theoretically capable of reaching 100% inter-efficiency and being free to plan molecular. It means that TADF can raise external light-efficiency up to 40%, because it is possible to form oriented materials by rod-shaped molecular planning.

About the question of the timing of commercialization of TADF materials, Prof. Adachi said that it is still insufficient to apply to OLED of Galaxy, while it’ll be possible to utilize it for products with somehow low specification from next year. It is especially expected that green or red dopant may be available. However, he also emphasized that it is essential to increase the electron transfer speed by reducing the band gap of T1 and S1 in order to be the ultimate TADF for use in displays. The electron transfer speed is currently around 1μsec, but if its speed goes up to 10-1 ~ 10-2 μsec, the lifetime would be secured due to reducing molecular degradation. He expressed about that it is necessary to actively attend by manufacturers of luminescence materials, because there are no dedicated host materials that can sufficiently demonstrate the efficiency of TADF dopant due to difficulties in developing TADF materials.

He recently put a thesis, deep blue TADF with a color coordinate of (0.148, 0.098) and external light-efficiency of more than 19.2% at German journal Angewandte.

Chinese panel makers BOE and Tianma started small and medium sized AMOLED production, acceleratedly chasing Samsung.

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It is the first time for China to produce Gen6 flexible AMOLED; it is expected that BOE’s mass production not significantly affected by yield due to the tremendous support from the Chinese government will cause such impact on the small and medium-sized AMOLED market where Samsung has monopolized so far.

B7 line, which was built in May 2015 with the investment of approx. 465 yuan, is expectedly used in high-end mobile display in China, with 48K- large monthly capacity based on Gen6. In Dec last year, 45K investment was confirmed in Mianyang’s Gen6 flexible AMOLED production line B11 and mass production is expected to operate in 2019.

<5.5 inch FHDfoldable AMOLED launched at CIDC 2016>

In addition, Tianma successfully lighted up the rigid AMOLED panel manufactured in Gen6 LTPS AMOLED production line in Wuhan for the first time in China on April 20th. Tianma has first built the Gen 4.5 AMOLED pilot line in China as well as Gen 5.5 AMOLED production line in Shanghai for mass producing small-medium AMOLED display.

Also CSOT aims to mass-produce in the fourth quarter of 2018 as the investment in Gen6 rigid and flexible AMOLED production lines at Wuhan’s T4 plant has been proceeding. Visionox plans to additionally expand Kunshan’s Gen5.5 line (V1, presently 4K) phase1 11K and Phase2 15K investment is being proceeded. ROYOLE also invested in the Gen 5.5 flexible AMOLED mass production line, and LOI of the SFA deposition equipment was announced last January. The expected capacity is 15K.

In the Korea-dominated AMOLED market, Chinese panel makers are taking up the market share rapidly through the Chinese government support and their huge domestic market. Lee Choong-hoon (chief analyst) at UBI Research specialized in AMOLED market predicts that by 2021, Chinese AMOLED panel makers will record their second largest shipment volume with approx. 16% of the entire market share via full-fledged shipment from 2018, followed by Korea by 2021 “.

<forecast of AMOLED panel shipment by country>

OLED of Samsung•LG Display, Selected as the Display of the year

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Samsung Display and LG Display announced on the 18th that their technology were recognized as OLED respectively in the Society for Information Display (SID), the world’s largest Display society.

 

According to the two companies, in SID awards, Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED is selected for ‘DIA, Display Industry Awards’ and LG Display’s 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED TV panel is selected for ‘Display of the Year’

 

SID awards the prize to promising innovative display products, components, and applications that unveil the future of the global display industry among the products launched last year.

<Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED, source: Samsung Display>

According to SID, Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED in Galaxy S7 Edge was the first in the industry to display the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the display in a curved shape, and won the Display Industry Awards for its outstanding technology.

 

This product uses a BM (black matrix) area minimization design technology to further reduce the bezel by 0.2mm, the upper and lower end portions (curvature radius 25R) were finely changed to realize a gentle curved shape. In addition, for the aesthetics and comfortable grip, the left and right edge portions of the panel were subjected to four different curvatures (curvature radius 35R → 9.4R → 5.4R → 3.8R).

For this award, Jeon, Seok-jin, marketing director of Samsung Display mentioned “Samsung Display has introduced differentiated products in the market through the state-of-the-art flexible OLED technology,” and said “We are pleased to continue to lead the display market with quad-edge flexible OLEDs.”

<LG Display’s 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel, source: LG Display>

On the other hand, LG Display’s 65-inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel, which was selected as the display of the year, was evaluated as an innovative product that not only realizes excellent image quality by adopting OLED technology but also presents new potential of display in terms of application range and design.

 

The OLED TV with this panel has already won numerous awards from the world’s leading media such as ENGAGET and SINET as well as CES 2017, On the 16th, it received 89 points (TV evaluation part) which is the highest point from the consumer report, American consumer media.

 

OLED panel applied to 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED TV is less than 1mm thick and when it is made in TV set, thickness is less than 3.55mm and weighs only 7.4kg so that it can be brought into close contact with the wall like a frame. In addition, maximizing the design effect increases the immersion feeling when watching TV.

 

Yoon, Soo-Young, managing director of LG Display Research mentioned “LG Display has been innovating differentiated products, technologies and core competencies and providing new value to customers and consumers,” and said “As a company representing the global display industry, we will continue to do our best to lead the next generation of technology.”

2017, Will be the Year of OLED TV?

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On 16th, Consumer Reports, an American consumer magazine rated LG Signature TV W 89 scores in the TV quality category. It was an all-time high, overtaking LG OLED TV(OLED65C7P) that ranked number 1 with 88 scores in the ‘4K TV(Best 4K TVs to Buy Right Now)’ category in April.

 
LG Signature TV W features not only the thinnest display(4mm including a wall-mounted TV stand) by applying OLED panel and specially-designed finishing materials, but also the greatest immersion by eliminating unnecessary factors. Due to that reason, LG Signature TV W won ‘Best of the Best’ and ‘Best TV Product’ awards at CES 2017 and was once acclaimed as ‘a beautiful TV like a work of art’ from Engadget.

<LG Signature TV W, Source : mybroadband>

Meanwhile, LG Ultra OLED TV and Sony OLED TV came in second. Among the 11 TV models from top 1 to 10 selected from Consumer Reports, 10 out of 11 were OLED panel-based TVs, whereas a LCD-based TV was only Sony’s BRAVIA.

 
OLED TV is receiving lots of attention of consumers due to its great picture. In last March, Director Yoon Soo-young of LG Display said at the 3rd OLED Korea Conference hosted by UBI Research that “OLED TV on display has been moved from the corner to the center of the Best Buy LG store”, and OLED TV is becoming the mainstream of the premium TV market. Accordingly, many second movers are joining the trend of OLED TV and have released OLED TVs or announced a plan to release.

 
Toshiba launched 55 and 65-inch OLED TV Regza last march, and German luxury AV brand Loewe lunched its new flagship Bild 9 series, 55 and 65-inch 4K OLED TV on May 1, beginning to release OLED TVs in the premium TV market in earnest.

 
In addition, Sony, which attracted big attention for its OLED TV unveiled for the first time at CES 2017, officially announced on May 8th that they will firstly sell 55 and 65-inch sizes of 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E series. Panasonic also announced on May 14th that they will firstly sell EZ900, 950, and 1000 among 4K OLED TV in Japan from June.

<Sony’s 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E,  Source : Sony blog>

Meanwhile, Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research(senior analyst) analyzed at the Topic seminar in April that Sony’s OLED TV is expected to sell about 400,000 in 2017. Accordingly, he expected Sony’s OLED TV will have about 27% market share in the OLED TV market and about 38% in 2021.