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JOLED filed for civil rehabilitation due to financing problems, withdraws from OLED business

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JOLED

JOLED

JOLED filed for civil rehabilitation with the Tokyo District Court due to financing problems. As JOLED withdraws from the OLED business, it will close two factories in Japan and lay off about 280 employees. JOLED’s total debt is $257 million.

JOLED was born in 2015 by merging the OLED business units of Panasonic and Sony with the goal of accelerating the development and commercialization of mass production of OLED displays. However, due to a global semiconductor supply shortage, weak display demand, and extreme price competition, JOLED’s situation worsened and profitability was sluggish, so it filed for civil rehabilitation.

JOLED entered into an agreement with JDI(Japan Display Inc.) to support the revitalization of its technology development business at the same time as filing for bankruptcy. JDI said it has agreed to acquire JOLED’s technology development team and intellectual property, which consists of approximately 100 employees, to expand and accelerate its growth.

JOLED raised funds by receiving investments from companies such as Denso, Toyota and Sumitomo Chemical in 2018, and entered into a capital partnership with TCL CSOT in 2020. However, JOLED’s liabilities exceeded its assets in March 2022, with its production lines closed until the spring of 2021 due to the impact of the coronavirus, and continuing losses due to a global chip shortage. JOLED, which can only produce mid-sized OLED panels, has been hit hard by the corona as it is unable to capitalize on growing demand in other sectors.

▶ 2023 Medium and Large OLED Display Annual Report Sample Download

[China Trend Report] TCL CSOT delays new investment all at once

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<Display technology strategy announced by TCL CSOT at DTC 2021>

According to the China Trend Report published by UBI Research, the schedules of TCL CSOT’s 8.5G LCD line T9 and 6G LCD line T5 are expected to be delayed.
In early July, the T9-1 was put into operation, but overall equipment orders for the ph-2 were delayed. According to the report, the schedule is expected to be delayed by about six months.
The schedule of the T5 line is expected to be postponed indefinitely. The T5 line was expected to begin mass production in the second half of 2023, but the schedule is indefinitely postponed and the mass production schedule is also uncertain.
Accordingly, TCL Chairman Li Dong Sheng, who is scheduled to visit Korea at the end of July, is expected to seek the understanding of Korean equipment makers due to the delay of schedules for LCD lines as well as consultations due to Samsung Electronics’ decrease in TV panel volume.
After visiting Korea, he is expected to visit JOLED in Japan to check inkjet technology. According to this visit, it is expected that the outline of whether the T8 line will be applied with inkjet process or deposition technology will be revealed in the future.

China Trend Report Inquiry

[China Trend Report] TCL CSOT’s T8 Project to Invest in Generation 8.5 Inkjet Printing Technology

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According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, TCL CSOT plans to apply the generation 8.5 inkjet printing OLED technology to the T8 line. It is expected that some layers will be formed by vapor deposition in the inkjet printing method rather than the complete inkjet printing method. The location is likely to be Guangzhou.

TCL CSOT’s T8 line was scheduled to start construction in March 2022 using the inkjet method, but there were rumors that the schedule continued to be delayed due to investment scale and yield issues. There are also talks about the project being canceled altogether. However, it seems that TCL CSOT has continuously improved its technology by continuously collaborating with JOLED. They also announced related contents at DTC 2021 held in November 2021.

It is is expected that mainly OLEDs for IT and automobiles will be mass-produced at the T8 line. The investment schedule and details of the TCL CSOT T8 project can be found in the ‘March China Trend Report’.

Samsung Display’s QD-OLED Applied to Sony’s TV and DELL’s Monitor

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QD-OLED panels, which are being mass-produced from the second half of 2021 at Samsung Display, will be applied to new products for Sony and DELL.

First, Sony announced ‘A95K’, the first TV with QD-OLED in its 2022 TV lineup. A95K is available in 55-inch and 65-inch models, featuring 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

    <Sony’s QD-OLED TV ‘A95K’, Source: electronics.cony.com>

Meanwhile, Samsung Display’s QD-OLED is also applied to DELL’s 34-inch gaming monitor. DELL’s ‘Alienware AW3423DW’ monitor has a 34-inch size, 3440 x 1440 resolution, a refresh rate of 175 Hz, and a response speed of 0.1 ms. In addition, the monitor supports ‘DisplayHDR 400 True Black’. DELL said it will start selling around March 2022.

As Samsung Display’s QD-OLED enters the TV and IT markets, it is expected to compete fiercely with LG Display’s WRGB OLED and JOLED’s RGB inkjet printing technology in the existing mid-to-large market. Many have a huge interest as to which company’s technology will become the main technology in the mid- to large-sized market in the future.

[28TH FINETECH JAPAN] JDI and JOLED, announced Strengthening Cooperation for Mid-sized OLED Market

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At the 28th FINETECH JAPAN held in Tokyo, Japan from December 5 to 7, 2018, JDI and JOLED announced that they would intensify their cooperation in order to target the middle-sized OLED market.

JDI announced that it will actively promote JOLED’s solution process OLED to medium-sized OLED markets such as industrial display markets or automotive display markets through its own design know-how, production infrastructure, and sales channels,.

In particular, JDI announced that it will provide new value to next-generation automotive fields along with JOLED such as support for safety such as electronic mirrors and displays for A/B pillars, new interface functions, movie appreciation using 4-8K displays, and the displays that are harmonized with interior design such as curved surfaces and big screens.

JDI and JOLED also shared booths for exhibition. JOLED introduced 21.6-inch FHD OLED monitors for e-sports and medical applications. In addition, it introduced a number of medium-sized OLEDs such as 12.3-inch HD OLED for automobiles, 12.2-inch FHD flexible OLED, 27-inch 4K OLED for home interior, and 21.6-inch 4K flexible OLED with cylindrical form. It also showcased large OLEDs such as 54.6 inch 4K OLED.

On the other hand, JOLED announced in July, 2018 that it would open its Nomi office for mass production of solution process OLED. Based on 5.5 generation glass substrates, Nomi has production capacity of 20,000 glass substrates per month and plans to mass-produce in 2020.

JOLED raised 47 billion yen to spur solution process OLED business for automobiles.

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JOLED, the world’s first to successfully commercialize solution process OLED products, announced that it had raised a total of 47 billion yen as a third-party capital increase.

According to JOLED, Denso will invest 30 billion yen, Toyota Tsusho 10 billion yen, Sumitomo chemical 5 billion yen and SCREEN Finetech Solutions 2 billion yen. JOLED is known to cooperate with Denso to develop automotive displays and Sumitomo chemical to develop OLED materials for solution process.

In particular, Denso has been mainly using TFT-LCD for automotive displays, but it is expected to lead the development for applying lightweight and easy-to-shape OLED to automobile interior through this investment.

It is expected that this funding will accelerate the establishment of production system for the mass-production of JOLED’s solution process OLED. JOLED announced on July 1 that it would set up a “JOLED Nomi Office” in Nomi-city, Ishikawa, and aim to operate in 2020.

Major production products are medium-sized (10 to 32-inch) solution process OLEDs that will be used for cars or high-end monitors. Also, Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist of JOLED announced that they would target the middle-sized OLED market with solution process OLED, at the 2018 OLED Korea conference hosted by UBI Research in March.

 

[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.

 

Ink-jet printing OLED, Next-generation large-area display

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Ink-jet printing OLED is attracting public attention once again as a next-generation large-area display.

At the keynote session of Finetech Japan 2017 held at Tokyo Big Sight as from May 5, CSOT in China prospected that next-generation large-area display would be ink-jet printing. York Zhao, the CTO of CSOT said that when the price of a new product is 1.2 to 1.3 times that of an existing product, it is the right time for the existing product to be replaced with new one. This principle has been applied when the CRT and PDP market was replaced by LCD. He added, “The price of large-area OLEDs should drop 1.2 to 1.3 times lower than LCDs to lead to a full-fledged OLED era, and ink-jet printing technology is the best way to assist the drop in price of OLED.”

<CSOT, York Zhao CTO>

In 2016, CSOT established the printing display alliance called “Guangdong Juhua printing display technology” together with Tianma, and has been participated by kateeva, DuPont, ULVAC, Merck and Jusung Engeering.

Following the announcement of CSOT, JOLED introduced various OLED panels in direct application of ink-jet printing. One of the most interesting devices was the ink-jet printing 21.6 inch 4K (3840 x 2160, 204 ppi) AMOLED panel produced in Gen 4.5 line. Yoneharu Takubo, the CTO of JDI said, “Since the establishment of JOLED, we have been improving ppi, and developed a technology to stably produce up to 204 ppi resolution. We are targeting 350 ppi and expand its product range from small and medium to large area to secure a variety of applications with ink-jet printing AMOLED. ”

<JOLED, Yoneharu Takubo CTO>

Ink-jet printing process is a technology under continuous development of major panel makers as AMOLED panel of RGB structure can be manufactured without dividing the ledger in the mass production line higher than Gen8. Also, material utilization efficiency is theoretically close to 100% to save the OLED unit cost. However, some issues arise that mass production has yet to be fully verified, and the efficiency and life span of soluble light emitting materials are inferior to those of deposition materials; hence, there has been undergoing active development in the manufacturers of light emitting materials, equipment and panels.

Ink-jet printing OLED becomes the center of public attention as a next-generation display technology, and when it will be commercialized is a matter of a question.