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Merck Has Completed the Development of Organic Material Samples for Low Dielectric Constant TFE Below 2.5 [2022 Second Half OLED Seminar]

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Touch of flexible OLED for smartphones is divided into add-on and on-cell. Add-on is a method in which a touch electrode is formed on the top of the film and the touch film is adhered to the top of the encapsulation layer through OCA.

On-cell is a method in which touch electrodes are created directly on the encapsulation layer, and is a mainstream technology applied to Samsung Electronics’ “Galaxy” series and Apple’s “iPhone” series.

The on-cell method reduces material costs because it creates electrodes directly without using films and OCA, while the absence of films and OCA shortens the distance between touch electrodes and TFT, increasing signal-to-noise (SNR).

Merck, Low-K Organic Materials for TFE(Second half of 2022 OLED Seminar)

Merck, Low-K Organic Materials for TFE(Second half of 2022 OLED Seminar)

At the “2022 Second Half OLED Seminar” held at the FKI Hall in Yeouido on November 9, 2022, Merck announced that it is developing a low dielectric constant organic material for TFE to reduce SNR and is currently developing a 3.1 dielectric constant value for TFE to below 2.5.

Merck noted that blocking noise from TFTs is ultimately the role of organic matter, which occupies the thickest part of TFE, and revealed that it has developed a sample material available in the N2 environment.

Lastly, Merck concluded its presentation on organic materials for TFE, saying that the lower dielectric constant of organic materials can affect reliability due to lower membrane density, but that reliability has been secured in the Lab environment, and that they will secure reliability in mass production through cooperation with panel companies.

Merck, Low-K Organic Materials for TFE(Second half of 2022 OLED Seminar)

Merck, Low-K Organic Materials for TFE(Second half of 2022 OLED Seminar)

▶ 2022 OLED Emitting Material Report Sample Download

Merck, now it is time to consider the refractive index of common layer materials.

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At the ‘OLED settlement seminar for the first half of 2022’ held at COEX on June 23, Merck’s Kim Jun-ho, head of research institute, said, “The concept of the refractive index of the emitting layer is often applied to the capping layer on the cathode, but now it is also required for HTL” and mentioned that the light extraction efficiency can be improved through the optimized refractive index design of HTL.

Next, Kim said, “Because the refractive index of HTL has a trade-off relationship with the hole transport capacity, it is difficult to adjust the refractive index,” and “Even though it was lowered to 1.77 from 1.85, the light extraction efficiency could be improved by 7% without an increase in the driving voltage or a decrease in electron mobility.”

Recently, panel makers are continuously developing the OLED light extraction efficiency. This is because by increasing the light extraction efficiency, as a result, the battery life can be increased. Representative examples include a high-refractive capping layer and micro lens array, and an on-cell film that removes the polarizer and uses a color filter.
The concept of the refractive index of the light emitting, which had been concentrated on the capping layer, is extended to the common layer, and it is expected that panel makers will intensify technological competition, and that there will be many changes in the supply chain of emitting materials of panel makers in the future.

Merck acquires OLED patents for display applications from Konica Minolta

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Merck announced that it acquired the OLED patent portfolio for display applications from Konica Minolta Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative solutions to businesses and society on 24th April. The acquired portfolio comprises over 700 patent families.

“Adding Konica Minolta’s patents to our already strong portfolio will further boost our OLED development pipeline”, said Kai Beckmann, Member of the Executive Board of Merck and CEO Performance Materials. “With this step we will further strengthen our power to drive innovations in the fast-growing market of OLED displays.”

For more than 15 years, Merck has conducted research and development in the OLED technology field, and, as a result, became one of the leading OLED material suppliers.

The acquisition of Konica Minolta’s OLED patents for display applications is effective immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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>

Merck-Idemitsu Kosan made an agreement on OLED Materials

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Merck and Idemitsu Kosan announced on November 7 that they made an agreement to use a part of patent rights of both companies’ OLED materials.

The two companies are the representative manufacturers of OLED materials with a long history of development and many patents while providing many clients with OLED materials.

This agreement was signed to develop long-durable and high-efficient OLED materials.

With this agreement, Merck and Idemitsu Kosan are able to develop, manufacture and sell OLED materials using some of each other’s patent rights under the stated terms, while focusing on R&D in high-performance OLED materials.

Besides, both companies announced that they will continue to discuss the scope expansion of their shared patent rights in order to secure more OLED markets.

Meanwhile, according to the OLED Emitting Material Annual Report published by UBI RESEARCH, the OLED material market is expected to grow at 46% each year on average between 2016 and 2021 and record US$ 4,323 million due to the production of newcomers and the expansion of the TV OLED panel market.

<OLED materials market prospect>(Source: UBI RESEARCH)

LG Display Opens 2015 Tech Forum in Collaboration with Other Companies

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Source : LG Display

LG Display set out to discover new technology through open innovation in collaboration with other companies.

 

On September 15, LG Display invited top global display material and component companies to Paju factory and opened 2015 LG Display Tech Forum. The invited companies included Merck, Asahi Glass, and Sumitomo.

 

Under the heading of ‘OLED, New Opportunity and Challenge’, 13 key collaborating companies in material, process, glass, and circuitry sectors participated. They promised to share market trend, and LG Display’s OLED and LCD technology development direction and cooperate regarding future technology.

 

LG Display increased emphasis on OLED; LG Display revealed detailed business strategy for large and small size OLED, and discussed technology and products that should be developed together in collaboration with companies in each stage.

 

Additionally, LG Display newly established Technology Innovation Award for collaborating companies that contributed to LG Display’s product improvement with innovative technology. The award was presented to Asahi Glass for developing glass light guide panel used in thin panel actualization, and display material companies Merck and Nitto Denko.

 

LG Display’s CEO Han Sang-beom explained that LG Display could pave the way for OLED with world’s first technology due to much effort and enthusiastic corporation from R&D partners. He also entreated each company to continue to change and evolve through their own R&D competitiveness and creativity and lead the future display market.