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OLED Smartphone Launch Products Slows Down In The First Half of 2022

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The number of OLED smartphone launches, which had steadily increased from 2019 to 2021 reached only 110 units in the first half of 2022. 137 units had been released in 2019, 166 units in 2020, and 225 units in 2021. If this industry trend continues in 2022, OLED smartphones expected release will only be similar to 2021 or even slightly fewer than it had been last year.
Most of the smartphones released in the first half of 2022 were made in China. 98 products from China accounted for 89% of market share, followed by 9 products from Korea, 2 from Japan, and 1 from India.
By size, 6.6-inch products were the most with 34 types, followed by 6.4-inch products with 31 types and 6.7-inch products with 21 types. The largest sized product was Vivo’s ‘X Fold’, which was an 8.03-inch foldable. Not including the foldables, Vivo’s ‘X Note’ was the largest at 7.0 inches. The smallest product was Sony’s ‘Xperia 10 IV’, which was 6.0 inches.
By design, 102 types of punch hole models were released, with 4 narrow bezel types, 2 notch types, and 2 UPC types. There were two types of smartphones with UPC (Under Panel Camera) applied: ZTE’s Axon 40 Ultra and Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro.

By resolution, 51 products with 300ppi range, 50 products with 400ppi range, and 9 products with 500ppi or higher were released. No products under 300ppi were released. The product with the highest resolution was Sony’s ‘Xpeia 1 IV’, which had a resolution of 643ppi.
There were three foldable phones released in the first half of the year: Vivo’s ‘X Fold’, Honor’s ‘Magic V’, and Huawei’s ‘Mate Xs2’. All three types of foldable phones have a punch-hole design. The resolution of ‘Mate Xs2’ was 424ppi, which is 10ppi higher than the average OLED smartphones released in the first half of the year. Whereas ‘X Fold’ and ‘Magic V’ were two products with the lowest resolution among OLED smartphones released in the first half of the year.

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.

Choong-Hoon Yi, CEO of UBI Research, “Korean display companies must have price competitiveness as well as OLED technology competitiveness”

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Although there is still a gap in display technology between Korea and China, it has been argued that Korean display companies should have price competitiveness as soon as possible.

On the 23rd, at the ‘OLED Settlement Seminar for the first half of 2022’ held at COEX in Samsung-dong, Seoul, UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Yi made a presentation on ‘Forecast of the small OLED market, which China is chasing fiercely’.

CEO Yi announced, “Currently, the media reports that the technological gap between Korea and China has almost narrowed, but making and displaying products and mass-producing products are two different things, and the technological gap between Korea and China is still significant.” He continued, “Samsung Display is planning various products such as slideable and Z-folding based on technological competitiveness. However, it will be difficult to commercialize it immediately because the slideable phone invades the existing foldable phone market.”

CEO Yi said, “It is very important not only to develop technological competitiveness, but also to increase price competitiveness. The reason Korean companies closed the LCD business is not because of the good technology of Chinese companies, but because they were pushed back in price competitiveness.”, and “As the technology advances, the performance difference felt by ordinary consumers becomes insignificant, so products with good price competitiveness are inevitable in the market,” he analyzed.

Finally, “China’s OLED industry is growing under the enormous support from the government. In order not to lose the lead in the OLED market like LCD to China, it is essential for domestic companies to prepare for price competitiveness and the government’s support policy,” he concluded.

GrapheneLab surpasses the ppi limit with a plated metal mask

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GrapheneLab, a graphene commercialization technology company, announced that it is possible to manufacture FMMs over 800ppi using graphene.

At the ‘UBI Research First Half 2022 OLED Settlement Seminar’ held at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul on the 23rd, GrapheneLab CEO Yong-duk Kwon said, “In the early 2000s, FMM technology, which started in the early 2000s, was not interested in the plating method. It is changing,”, and “After 2013, many patents related to the plating method FMM manufacturing technology have been applied, and it is easier to apply the plating method than the currently used etching method in order to go to high resolution.”

Next, CEO Kwon said, “We moved away from the existing limiting etching method FMM and applied the plating method FMM. Compared to the etching method, where 400ppi was the limit at the same thickness, the plating method realized more than 600ppi.”, “Etched metal mask has a dead zone of 8um in length due to the INVAR structure that becomes sharp like a dot when etching at a depth of 20um, whereas there is no dead zone during pattern plating of the plated metal mask.”

Lastly, CEO Kwon said, “For the MSAP electroforming technology, a low coefficient of thermal expansion with a thin thickness is required. As a result of measuring the coefficient of thermal expansion using TMA on the plated sample, it was measured up to 3.1ppm, and it went down to 2.5ppm without heat treatment.”

Will BOE Resume iPhone 13 Production?

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iPhone13/Apple

It seems that BOE has started line operations for iPhone 13.
Back in March, most of the iPhone 13 shipments were canceled due to an issue with Apple. BOE will now resume production. With this new development, BOE’s forecast for iPhone 13 production this year is expected to increase after being adjusted down in March.
BOE has a total of 20 iPhone module lines at its B11 (Mianyang) plant. BOE’s production of the iPhone 13 is believed to have begun in early June and production of the iPhone 14 is expected to begin as well. The B11 factory has iPhone 13 line to produce iPhone 12 and 13 and iPhone 14 module line exclusively for iPhone 14, as the process is quite different from iPhone 13 line.
Details of BOE’s iPhone 13 and 14 production volume, panel unit price, and module line by product can be found in UBI Research’s ‘China Trend Report’. UBI Research’s ‘China Trend Report’ can be inquired on the UBI Research website.

1Q of 2022 OLED Emitting Material Market $420 million, up 9% Compared to the Same Quarter of the Previous Year

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According to “2Q22 OLED Emitting Material Market Track”, a quarterly report published by UBI Research, the sales of emitting materials in the first quarter were $421 million, down 21.1% (QoQ) from $533 million in the previous quarter but was an increase by 9% (YoY)when compared to $386 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Although sales of emitting materials for TV and mobile devices decreased compared to the previous quarter, IT sales recorded a meaningful figure of $6.6 million. Although sales fluctuate depending on seasonal demand for applied products, if the sales of emitting materials are analyzed by application product, TV use is gradually increasing.

The top 3 companies in 1Q sales were UDC($86.6 million), DuPont($41.3 million), and Duksan($37.5 million). Duksan became the number one company in sales as a Korean company. The overall sales of luminescent materials in the first quarter decreased compared to the previous quarter but only UDC’s sales increased. Sales decreased to $421.5 million in 1Q22 from $533.8 million in 4Q21. However, UDC’s 1Q22 sales increased to $86.6 million from 4Q21’s sales of $85.5 million. It is estimated that this is due to the rise in the price of rare earth metals, a key material for manufacturing dopant.
Estimated sales of emitting materials in 2022 are $1.77 billion and are expected to grow to $2.4 billion in 2026.
By application product, the projected sales of emitting materials for smartphones this year are $1.4 billion, accounting for 79% of the total.
Of the projected sales in 2026, emitting materials for TV are expected to reach $550 million, which is expected to increase by 23%. In addition, emitting materials for IT are expected to account for 9% of $210 million.

“OLED Emitting Material Market Track” surveys and analyzes the market for quarterly OLED emitting materials. The total market of light emitting materials was identified by examining sales by light emitting layer and common layer. Performance analysis was categorized by country, panel maker, application product, layer, and OLED method (RGB, WRGB, QD-OLED). In addition, OLED market information for the next five years (up to 2026) was forecasted by predicting the amount of emitting material usage and sales by company. The quarterly market track provides necessary information to industry professionals who lead the OLED industry.

Chinese Panel Makers in Crisis! Will the Display Business’s Deficit Increase This Year?

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<Honor 70 With Panels Supplied by Visionox>

Chinese panel makers such as Visionox and BOE are expected to face losses due to cost pressures.
The operation rate of Visionox was analyzed to be high. This is because Visionox is exclusively producing 70-80% of Honor, a large Chinese smartphone manufacturer.
However, despite the high operation rate, Visionox’s business status is precarious at best. Through cooperative efforts, Visionox was allocated most of Honor’s panel production quantity, but it is known that Honor has requested additional panel price reduction. According to some sources, Visionox is currently facing a loss of about 200 million yuan per month due to the reduced panel price.
BOE, the largest panel maker in China is also facing trouble. BOE along with Visionox had previously been in charge of panel production for Honor but received almost no allocation of production volume from Honor. Earlier this year, BOE faced tremendous difficulty due to the cancellation of existing iPhone 13 shipments to Apple. In April, BOE’s CEO Gao Wenbao felt a sense of crisis due to pressure on OLED and LCD volume and price and gave direct orders on cost reduction. Currently, BOE’s OLED line operation rate is less than 40% and it is estimated that the OLED business unit may incur a loss of about 10 billion yuan this year.
LCD, which is one of the main businesses of Chinese panel makers, is continuously falling in prices and the supply and demand of panels from smartphone set makers are sluggish. If an appropriate countermeasure is not found, Chinese panel makers will continue to experience a growing deficit in the display business.

Samsung Display Unveils World’s First High Refresh Rate 240Hz OLED

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□ OLED supporting 240Hz, installed in new MSI notebooks
□ Emerging as a ‘game changer’ in the gaming laptop market with high refresh rate OLED

<World’s first 240Hz OLED laptop from MSI featuring Samsung Display OLED delivers game changing lifelike immersiveness>

 

Samsung Display today announced the start of mass production of the world’s first OLED displays for laptops with high refresh rate of 240Hz. The new panel will make its debut in MSI’s latest 15.6-inch gaming laptop, Raider GE67 HX, upping the ante in the fiercely competitive gaming market for high-performance displays.
Samsung Display’s OLED exceptional advantages of wide color gamut, high contrast ratio, true black and low blue light are not only recognized by smartphone users but by discerning laptop users as well. Beyond visual elements, specifications that affect actual gameplay such as response time and refresh rate, are more critical to gaming laptop users and the reason many players are opting for OLED products.
Refresh rate, or the number of times a display can update its image in one second, is a key factor in display performance. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the movements on a screen without afterimages. As displays featuring higher refresh rates present better image transitions, they are the tools of choice among first-person shooter (FPS) players who need to perceive fast-changing game situations as quickly as possible.
“OLED with high refresh rate is the perfect combination for a premium gaming experience, with super-low response time, super-wide color gamut, and super-high contrast ratio. In addition, it balances well between high resolution and high refresh rate performance,” said Clark Peng, Vice President of MSI Notebook Product Management Division. “Therefore, the latest 240Hz OLED display is suitable for high-performance enthusiasts and content creators as well as for gamers enjoying premium games,” he added.
“Our new 240Hz refresh rate OLED meets and exceeds the demand of consumers who have long been waiting for a laptop with a high refresh rate OLED panel,” said Jeeho Baek, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Display Strategic Marketing for Small and Medium Business. “The clear advantages offered by high refresh rate OLED panels compared to LCDs will be a game changer for the gaming industry.”
To introduce Raider GE67 HX to the world, MSI will hold a new product launching event on its YouTube channel on June 7, 2022, 10:00 a.m. PDT under the theme “MSIology: Ahead of the Curve.

What is the future change of WRGB OLED to respond to QD-OLED?

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2As Samsung Display’s QD-OLED begins to be applied to TVs and monitors in earnest in 2022, technological changes are being detected for LG Display’s WRGB OLED, which has been leading the large OLED market.

LG Display’s WRGB OLED has produced a WBC structure consisting of two blue layers and one red+yellow green layer in Paju by the end of 2021, and a WBE structure consisting of two blue layers and one red+green+yellow green layer in Guangzhou. Deuterium substitution technology was applied to the blue of the WBE structure.

Since 2022, LG Display has stopped producing WBC panels from its Paju line and has been producing ‘OLED.EX’ panels with deuterium substitution technology applied additionally to green of WBE produced in Guangzhou.

<Photo of OLED.EX presented by LG Display at the 2022 OLED Korea Conference>

At SID 2022, LG Display also exhibited a large OLED panel with micro lens array technology. Micro lens array technology was applied to Samsung Electronics’ ‘Galaxy S Ultra’ series, and it is the first technology applied to large OLEDs. LG Display is known to expect a 20% improvement in luminance compared to the previous one by applying micro lens array technology. Panels which micro lens array technology is applied are expected to be produced in Paju from the second half of this year.

Lastly, it is known that LG Display is developing a structure in which yellow green is removed from WRGB OLED. By eliminating yellow green, material and processing costs can be saved, and color gamut is expected to be improved.

Attention is paid to how LG Display’s WRGB OLED will evolve to compete against QD-OLED.

<OLED panel with micro lens array technology exhibited by LG Display at SID 2022>

SID Display Week 2022

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[SID2022] PlayNitride Booth

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[SID2022] NANOSYS Booth in Display Week

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[SID2022] Corning Booth in Display Week

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[SID2022] Samsung Display Tour 2 Display Week 2022

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[SID 2022] E Ink Gallery™3 Display Week 2022

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Rollable 8” Display
300 ppi color and black and white

[SID 2022] AUO 14 6” Rollable Micro LED Display Display Week 2022

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Resolution (pixel) : QHD (2560 x RGB x 1440)
Pixel Density : 202PPI
Brightness :1,000 cm/m²
Contrast Ratio : 1,000,000 : 1
Color Gamut : 100% NTSC
Pixel Configuration : Color Conversion
Viewing Angle : 179° / 179° / 179° / 179°
LED Size : 30um

[SID 2022] TCL CSOT 14” Riseable Inkjet Printing OLED Display Week 2022

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Resolution : 1920(H) * RGB * 1080 (V)

Frame Rate : 60Hz

Active Area(mm) : 309.12(H) X 173.88(V)

Color Gamut : DCI-P3 → 99%

Color Temperature : 6500K

Brightness : 200nits

Contrast Ratio : 1,000,000 : 1

Crimp Radius : R20mm

Crimp Life : 100,000 times

 

[SID 2022] Samsung Display Booth Display Week 2022

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[UBI Research China Trend Report] Will BOE Provide UPC Panel with Transparent PI Substrate to Oppo?

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BOE, the largest display maker in China, produces UPC (Under Panel Camera) panels with transparent PI substrates.

UPC is a technology that makes a full screen of a smartphone possible by placing the front camera under the screen. The UPC technology that is currently commercialized is a method of patterning the cathode electrode and changing the resolution near the camera. However, this time it is expected that a transparent PI substrate will be additionally applied to the UPC panel supplied by BOE to Oppo.

Existing transparent PI substrates had difficulties in mass production due to the high process temperature of LTPS TFT. Yet, the recent test results of the panels with the transparent PI substrate produced by BOE reached most conditions of satisfactory levels even at the LTPS TFT process temperature.

The UPC OLED panel with the transparent PI substrate developed by BOE is expected to be installed in Oppo’s upcoming products.

 

Introducing iPhone 14 Display Specifications and Panel Vendors

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<Apple iPhone 14 Series Specifications>

 

Samsung Display, LG Display, and BOE are expected to supply panels to Apple’s new iPhone 14 series in 2022. It is expected that Samsung Display will supply panels to all models in addition to iPhone 13 series. LG Display will supply 6.12-inch LTPS models and 6.69-inch LTPO models. BOE will supply panels only to 6.12-inch LTPS models.

The existing 5.4-inch mini model has been removed from the iPhone 14 series and a 6.69-inch Max model has been added. The size and resolution of iPhone 14 Max are the same as iPhone 14 Pro Max and LTPS TFT is applied instead of LTPO TFT.

In terms of design, the iPhone14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will have a punch hole design instead of the conventional notch. Apple’s punch hole design is expected to be applied as a double punch hole design due to various sensors and cameras.

Meanwhile, the total OLED panel supply to Apple in 2022 is expected to be about 215 million units, with Samsung Display expected to supply 135 million units, LG Display 55 million units, and BOE 25 million units. However, shipments are expected to be organically controlled due to market conditions and Apple’s policies.

 

[2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE] LG Display’s OLED 3.0 Captures Brightness and Lifespan Simultaneously

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At the keynote session of UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held from April 6th to 8th, Sang-Hyun Ahn, Managing Director of LG Display, announced, ‘The Present and Future of Automotive OLED Display: LG Display’s Future Outlook’.

Director Ahn announced, “The future will transform people and vehicles, and vehicles and vehicles to be connected, autonomous, shareable, and electrically driven. In order to respond to these changes, vehicle displays are getting bigger and more diverse in design, and displays are being applied to various locations to provide sights and information”.

Director Ahn continued, “The automotive display industry was led by LCD, but the OLED market is also gradually expanding its area.” He predicted, “The automotive OLED market will be worth $1.2 billion in 2025, It is also possible to grow to $6 billion.”

In addition, Director Ahn said, “LG ​​Display has already introduced an OLED 1.0 structure that satisfies the minimum requirements for automotive display: brightness of 800 nits and lifespan of 10,000 hours. Unlike OLED for smartphones, OLED for automobiles requires brightness of 800 nits or more to grasp accurate information even during the day, and lifespan of 10,000 hours or more is essential because the use cycle is more than 10 years. Although there is a trade-off between brightness and lifetime, we plan to develop OLED 3.0 with a brightness of 1,000 nits or more and a lifetime of 10,000 hours or more by overcoming this through development of materials and structures.”

Lastly, Director Ahn mentioned about future displays such as extra-large and transparent, slidable, and rollable that are applied to vehicles and said, “Many companies want large and many screens, but they want to hide those screens inside the vehicle. Slidable panels, which can be a solution to this, are already technologically stable and can become common around 2025. On the other hand, rollable panels, such as those that come down from a vehicle sunroof, still have a long way to go, but we will continue to develop them.”

 

[2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE] LG Display Executive Vice President Hyun-Woo Lee, Advancements in the Display Market with Technological Innovation that Suits Changing Lifestyles

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Executive Vice President Lee explained OLED technology innovation, future application fields, and market changes. He mentioned that COVID-19 has increased everyone’s time at home and changes in life display is necessary to match it.

Executive Vice President Lee first explained LG Display’s OLED.EX, and said, “LG Display’s OLED.EX is the most advanced OLED panel to which EX technology is applied. OLED.EX applies deuterium to increase brightness (an important element in OLED panels) by 30%. Through personalize algorithm based on AI and big data, reliability will be increased.” He also emphasized that “LG Display’s OLED.EX will be applied to all OLED TVs in the second quarter of 2022 and LG Display will lead the display market with innovative technologies including OLED.EX.”

Next, Executive Vice President Lee announced about life displays applied to everyday life, and said, “OLED is applied to life displays such as gaming, transparent, and portable displays. OLED realizes 100% original color to increase the sense of reality and enables excellent interaction with eye care, making it suitable as a gaming display.” Also “Transparent OLED maximizes the advantages of OLED, enabling the highest level of transparency and picture quality. By applying it to signage, it provides an effective experience to customers, and by applying it to mobility, it can use the dead space to indicate the current operation status or use it for advertisements. In addition, it is possible to create a space of new value and change a creative lifestyle by applying it to life”.

‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ was a conference for exchange of ideas, business relationships, and partnerships with renowned speakers from major companies in the display industry from all over the world. ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held a business conference on the 7th and 8th, beginning with a tutorial on April 6th.

[2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE] Samsung Electronics Joins the OLED TV Market, and the TV Panel Market is Expected to Exceed 20 million Units in 2025

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At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held on April 6th-8th, UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Lee gave a presentation on, ‘OLED Market Review’.

CEO Lee presented the status of the entire OLED industry, market, and outlook with a focus on issues in 2022.

CEO Lee first announced the OLED TV business, a major issue in the recent OLED industry. CEO Lee said, “The biggest issue that has been heating up the OLED industry since the end of last year is OLED TV. There are topics such as Samsung Display’s re-entry into the large OLED business, sales of QD-OLED TVs between Samsung Electronics and Sony, and visualization of collaboration between Samsung Electronics and LG Display.”

In the TV OLED panel demand and supply forecast, CEO Lee said, “If Samsung Electronics purchases OLED panels from LG Display and conducts OLED TV business, LG Display and Samsung Display can supply a total of 12 million TV OLED panels this year. Among them, demand is 11.7 million units, and oversupply accounts for only 3%.” In addition, “With the joining of Samsung Electronics, the demand for OLED TV panels is expected to expand to 13 million units in 2023 and 20 million units in 2025. According to the expanding market, companies need to expand their facilities by the third quarter of this year” he predicted.

CEO Lee continued, “LG ​​Display has been working hard to secure funds for 8.5 generation OLED line expansion since last year, and it is estimated that it will secure additional funds for 45K expansion within this year. With LG Display’s additional measures, the TV OLED panel market is expected to reach 13.5 million units in 2023 and 16 million units after 2024. However, to secure a market of more than 20 million units, it is necessary to plan to invest in the 10.5 generation by next year” he analyzed. He also said, “If Samsung Display invests, 10.5G investment is desirable, but 8.5G investment is expected.” He said, “Whether LG Display invests or Samsung Display invests, a long-term supply contract with Samsung Electronics for 10.5G investment should take precedence. If the investment proceeds, Samsung Display is expected to secure its own funds, but LG Display is expected to require joint investment with Samsung Electronics.”

‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ was a conference for exchange of ideas, business relationships, and partnerships with renowned speakers from major companies in the display industry from all over the world. ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held a business conference on the 7th and 8th, beginning with a tutorial on April 6th.

 

[2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE] What New Technology Will Advance OLED for Mobile Devices?

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At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference Tutorial’ held on April 6th-8th, Dr. Jae-Jin Yoo from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University gave a presentation on, ‘An Overview of OLED Materials and Devices’.

Dr. Yoo explained the paradigm and market prospect of OLED for mobile devices, the structure of each layer, and the light emitting material. Although LCD is still leading the market by introducing mini-LED and other technologies, it is predicted that OLED will lead the display market in the future.

Dr. Yoo explained that among the latest technologies, “LTPO TFT is a technology newly applied to mobile by supplementing the shortcomings of LTPS TFT and oxide TFT process. LTPO TFT is a double-designed display with low electron mobility but no leakage current by changing at least one transistor to oxide in the LTPS TFT process”. He also explained, “In still images, LTPS TFT needs to be driven at 60Hz to maintain the brightness of the screen due to high leakage current, but for oxide TFTs, 1Hz operation is possible because of low leakage current.” Dr. Yoo added, “Although there is an issue that the process of LTPO TFT is more complicated than that of LTPS TFT, it can reduce the total power of mobile devices by 10~15% and it has the advantage that it can be applied to AOD (Always on Display).”

Next, introducing the OLED deposition method and vapor deposition machine, he explained that if the 8.5 generation vertical deposition method, which is currently an issue for IT, is commercialized, it has many advantages in terms of productivity and is a much anticipated technology.

‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ was a conference for exchange of ideas, business relationships, and partnerships with renowned speakers from major companies in the display industry from all over the world. ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held a business conference on the 7th and 8th, beginning with a tutorial on April 6th.

 

 

[2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE] Expected iPhone Shipments to Remain Strong at 249 Million Units in 2022

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At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held from April 6th to 8th, Yasuo Nakane, senior analyst at Mizuho Securities, presented ‘Consumer Electronics/Flat Panel Display Industry What is the Outlook for Turbulent 2022?’ .

Regarding Apple’s iPhone industry, Senior Vice President Nakane said, “The strength of iPhone continued in 2021. iPhone production in 2021 was 234 million units, which was 3 million less than shipments of 237 million units. Sales were 240 million units which made it so that no inventory was accumulated.” He also announced that “In the first quarter of 2022, 62 million iPhones were produced, a 13% increase compared to the same period last year, and 53 million units are expected to be produced in the second quarter”. He analyzed the outlook of 2022, “Considering the strong first half of 2022 and the impact of new product price hikes in the second half of 2022, annual iPhone production in 2022 is estimated to be 249 million units, a 6% increase from the previous year, of which iPhone 14 is estimated to be 83 million.”

Next, regarding the older iPhone models, he analyzed that “iPhone13 series is expected to continue sales for the time being except for iPhone13 Mini. Among iPhone12 series, only iPhone12 will continue to be sold”. He also announced, “Samsung Display supplies panels for all models of the iPhone series, LG Display supplied LTPO models for the first time, and BOE’s panels will continue to be used in iPhone12.” In addition, he predicted, “Suggestions to apply not only LCD but also OLED to iPhone SE3 would continue and iPhone 11’s camera is expected to be used. Face ID would not be applied.”

Regarding the timing of OLED application for iPad and MacBook, Nakane said, “It is expected that two models of iPad air with OLED will come out in the second half of 2024 at the earliest and OLED will be applied to MacBook Air in the second half of 2025 at the earliest.” Finally, “the business plan for the foldable model has not been decided, but it seems that they are interested in a PC-size foldable model rather than a smartphone-sized foldable model. The plan is to release them after 2026.” he predicted.

2022 OLED KOREA Conference Day2 (Session highlights)

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2022 OLED KOREA Conference Day1 (Session highlights)

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[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’.

Analysis of 65-inch Premium TV Price Trends in the First Quarter of 2022

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We analyzed the prices of 65-inch TVs of Samsung Electronics’ QLED TVs, OLED TVs from LG Electronics and Sony, and LG Electronics’ QNED TVs until March 2022.

The models we investigated at Samsung Electronics were 4K high-end model QN90A, 4K entry-level models QN85A and QN80A, and 8K models QN800A and QN900A. The models at LG Electronics were OLED TVs A1, C1, and G1 models and QNED TVs QN90UP and QN99UP. The models at Sony Electronics were OLED TV XR65A80J and XR65A90J.

The prices of Samsung Electronics’ 4K models QN90A, QN85A, and QN80A were $2600, $2200, $1700, respectively and the 8K models QN900A and QN800A were $5000 and $3500, respectively. The launch prices of LG Electronics’ OLED TVs A1, C1, and G1 were $2000, $2300, and $3000, respectively while the QNED TVs QNED90UP and QNED99UP were $1600 and $2700, respectively. Sony’s OLED TVs XR65A80J and XR65A90J were priced at $2800 and $4000, respectively.

 

As of March, the highest-priced 65-inch premium TV model was Sony’s XR65A90J. The lowest-priced model was Samsung Electronics’ QN65QN80A.

The prices of most of Samsung Electronics’ products have been falling since December. As of March, Samsung Electronics’ 80A, 85A, and 90A models are priced at $150, $200, and $500 lower than LG Electronics’ A1, C1, and G1 models, respectively, to induce consumption.

The price of LG Electronics’ OLED A1 and G1 models did not change after the last $100 price reduction in January and the C1 model has maintained the price of $1800 since October 2021. The price of LG Electronics’ QNED90UP did not change and the QNED99UP maintained a price of $2500, down $200 from its launch price.

Sony’s XR65A80J, which had dropped to $1800 in October 2021, recovered to $2000 in December and has maintained it until March. The XR65A90J has been steadily dropping in price since December 2021, forming a price of $3000 in March.

 

[China Trend Report] Honor Magic4 Series, Panel Supply from BOE and Visionox

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According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, Honor, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, announced Magic4 and Magic4 Pro at MWC 2022 held on February 28th.

Both products are 6.81 inches in size. Magic4 has a resolution of 1224×2664 and Magic4 Pro has a resolution of 1312×2848. The peak brightness of both products is 1,000nits and the refresh rate is 120Hz. LTPO TFT and 1,920Hz high frequency PWM dimming technology are applied.

The display panel is supplied by Chinese panel makers BOE and Visionox. The DDIC is supplied by Taiwanese IC chip maker Novatek. BOE supplies panels of three models: Magic4, Magic4 Pro, and Magic4 Pro plus. Visionox supplies panels of two models, Magic4 and Magic4 Pro.

Detailed mass production line and quantity estimation of Honor Magic4 series are included in ‘China Trend Report’. The ‘China Trend Report’ provides various information on the Chinese display industry trends, such as the latest issues of major Chinese display companies, line trends and shipments, equipment disclosures by company, and introduction of new products in China. The report can be inquired on the UBI Research website.

Simbeyond enters new phase of growth with investor and partner ECFG

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Eindhoven, 25 February 2022. ECFG has acquired a minority share in Simbeyond through Eindhoven Venture Capital Fund II (EVCF II). Simbeyond has developed simulation software (Bumblebee) that can very accurately measure the effects of OLED materials at the device level. This is the first financing round for Simbeyond. The financing will be used to accelerate company growth (R&D and sales organization).

 

The software

Simbeyond offers a software tool, Bumblebee. The software tool is a computer simulation for the use of materials in the engineering process of OLED materials. The current process is often based on trial & error, which means that this is expensive and involves time-consuming and experimental efforts. The software is developed for companies that want to simulate the effects of organic light-emitting or light-emitting diodes at the device level. Customers include research & development (R&D) companies and departments of large tech companies and other relevant R&D institutes (such as universities). The unique approach allows customers to analyze, predict and improve device performance. This leads to a shorter time-to-market and to reduced R&D costs for the electronic devices of today and tomorrow.

Investment objectives

Simbeyond is a technology-driven organization. The past few years have mainly been dominated by product development. The goal in this new growth phase for Simbeyond is to become the preferred supplier of organic materials simulation software for the high-tech industry. Additionally, two more application areas will be materialized into an expansion of the current product line: batteries and nanolithography.

Cooperation

“Simbeyond is entering a new growth phase with ambitious goals and a drive for new opportunities. This investment and collaboration mean not only securing the resources to become the number one simulation tool in the OLED market, but also taking a step forward into new products,” said Siebe van Mensfoort, CEO of Simbeyond.

Hans Bloemen of ECFG: “To measure is to know and Simbeyond does that in its purest form. Bumblebee is only just getting ready to really enter the market. It now needs the right commercial attention with the most suitable profession. The investment ensures that this step towards growth can be realized. In addition to further developing the current market, a step can also be taken in a new market, battery technology. Together we hope to bring this technical gem to fruition.”

About ECFG | Ecfg.nl

ECFG is an independent fund manager that advises, guides and invests in SME companies active in the business-to-business segment. The activities are primarily aimed at strategically and financially supporting innovative, sustainable and promising companies. The broad entrepreneurial investor base and relevant network also offer additional added value. Since the start of ECFG in 2008 and has guided more than 400 entrepreneurs and companies in business development, financing and strategy and realized more than 30 participations. ECGF operates in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The ECFG team consists of fourteen people and is located in the center of Eindhoven.

About Simbeyond | simbeyond.com

Simbeyond is a simulation software company which accelerates development of advanced materials and high-tech devices as used in state-of-the-art display, lighting and signage applications. Organic electronics, such as the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays of present-day smartphones, paves the way for mechanically flexible electronics. The unique approach provided allows customers to analyze, predict and improve device performance. This leads to a shorter time-to-market and to reduced R&D costs for the electronic devices of today and tomorrow. Simbeyond was founded in 2015, as a spin-off launched by the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e). The company is located in Eindhoven and its team consists of thirteen people.

 

More information

Simbeyond | Polina Vasilkovska | Simbeyond |  marketing@simbeyond.com

ECFG |  Silvia Dekkers | +31 6 288 30 330 | communicatie@ecfg.nl

[China Trend Report] Significant Reduction of BOE’s Panel Supply to Apple in February and March due to Touch IC Supply Issue

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According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, BOE B11 (Mianyang) plant is experiencing difficulties in supplying quantities to Apple due to the supply and demand problem of Touch IC. The report analyzed that BOE’s shipments to Apple have decreased significantly due to the supply and demand problem of Touch IC. As a result, shipments are expected to fall far short of the 2022 target set by BOE.

Along with the Touch IC supply issue, the overall shipments of major Chinese panel makers are also on the decline. According to the report, the total shipment of OLED panels for smartphones in China in January this year was 12.7 million units, a decrease of 27% compared to 17.4 million units in December last year.

The ‘China Trend Report’ provides various information on China’s display industry trends. It covers the latest issues of major Chinese panel makers, including BOE’s reduced shipments to Apple, line trends and shipments, equipment disclosures, and new product lists. The report can be inquired on the UBI Research website.

Foldable Phones Predicted to Exceed 100 Million Units by 2026

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According to UBI Research’s “1Q22 Small OLED Display Market Track” Small OLED Display (10-inches or smaller watch, smartphone, foldable phone, etc.) shipment in 2021 was 746 million, a 34.4% increase from the previous year’s 555 million. The reason for the increase in shipments compared to 2020 can be attributed to the increased sales of iPhone 12, iPhone13, and the unexpectedly strong sales of Galaxy Z’s Fold 3 and Flip 3.

Compared to the previous year, Small OLED sales in 2021 was up from $26.5 billion to $38.1 billion, a 43.9% increase.

Graphs are categorized by application product; Watch, Smartphone, Foldable Phone.

Since 2019, foldable phones have been on an upward trend. The market for foldable phones in 2021 exceeded 10 million units, accounting for 1.4% of all small displays. It is predicted that foldable phones’ yearly upward trend will result in exceeding 100 million units by 2026, accounting for 9.7% of all small displays.

“1Q 2022, Small OLED Display Market Track” analyzes the production capacity for 10-inches or smaller OLED Displays. Quarterly sales market and shipment market were investigated by these categories; major panel makers, country, generation, substrate, TFT technology (LTPO and LTPS), and by application products (watch, smartphone, foldable phone).

An analysis of ASP and OLED supply/demand by application is also provided. Small OLED Display market forecast data is predicted until 2026 on Excel.

[UBI Research China Trend Report] Chinese Panel Makers’ Total Shipments of OLED Panels for Smartphones in the Fourth Quarter of 2021 Increased by 26% Compared to the Third Quarter

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26% Increase in Total Shipments of Chinese OLED Panels for Smartphones in the Fourth Quarter compared to the Third Quarter

 

According to UBI Research’s ‘February 1st China Trend Report’, total shipments of OLED panels for smartphones by Chinese panel makers in the fourth quarter of 2021 were 44.8 million units, a 26% increase from 35.57 million units in the previous quarter. By company, BOE shipped 20.9 million units and occupied a 46.7% share, followed by Visionox with 9.7 million units, EverDisplay Optronics with 5.5 million units, CSOT with 5.5 million units, and Tianma with 3.1 million units.

 

By substrate, flexible OLED panel shipments were the highest for BOE with 20.9 million units, followed by CSOT with 5.5 million units, Visionox with 4.7 million units, and Tianma with 3 million units. BOE’s panel shipments increased the most compared to the previous quarter with an increase of 5.3 million units, followed by Visionox by 1.9 million units and Tianma by 1 million units. CSOT’s panel shipments decreased by 300,000 units from the previous quarter.

In the field of rigid OLED panel shipments, EverDisplay Optronics shipped 5.54 million units, a decrease of 80,000 units compared to the third quarter, but maintained the No. 1 position in rigid OLED panel shipments with a market share of 52%. Visionox, in second place, shipped 5.04 million units, up 43% QoQ, chasing EverDisplay Optronics. Tianma’s rigid OLED panel shipments were 120,000 units, accounting for only 1%.

The details can be found in the ‘UBI Research China Trend Report’, and inquiries can be made on the UBI Research website.

China Aims for the Foldable Phone Market with Multiple Foldable Phone Launches

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Samsung Electronics widely successful release of its foldable phones, Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 last year has risen expectations for establishing foldable phones into the mainstream. Chinese companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo are also releasing multiple foldable phones.

As the first foldable phone in China, Huawei has been releasing the Mate X series every year since its launch in 2019. The Mate X and the Mate Xs released in 2020 are 8 inches in size and folds outward. The external display is 6.6 inches with a resolution of 1148×2480 and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9.

Mate X2 was introduced in February 2021 with 8 inches for the internal display and the external display is 6.45 inches OLED with a resolution of 1160 x 2700 and an aspect ratio of 21:9. Colorless PI was applied to the cover window. Mate X2 folds inward instead of Mate X’s outward folding display.

P50 Pocket released in December 2021 is a clamshell phone similar to the Samsung Flip 3. The internal display is 6.9 inches with 120Hz refresh rate and an aspect ratio of 21:9. The cover window is 1.1 inches circular type.

Honor released a foldable phone, Magic V on January 10th 2022.

The internal display is 8 inches with 90Hz refresh rate and the external display is 6.5 inches with 120Hz refresh rate. The cover window is colorless PI. Both internal and external panels are made in BOE B11(Mianyang) line. The initial production is estimated to be 50,000 and the estimated total production volume is 100,000 to 200,000.

According to the sales result, the Visionox panel might be applied to the product.

Vivo is about to release a new foldable, the NEX FOLD. Vivo filed patents for NEX FOLD, NEX ROLL, and NEX SLIDE.

NEX fold’s internal display is 8.03 inches with QHD 120Hz and the external display is 6.53 inches with FHD 120Hz. Both internal and external display has the same refresh rate. The display panel is Samsung Display’s LTPO, and the cover window is planned to be 30 um thickness UTG.

It is planned to be released in March 2022, but no official announcement has been made.

Samsung Display is using UTG(Ultra Thin Glass) for the cover window and most Chinese panel companies are using Colorless PI. Many Chinese companies are introducing foldable phones, but durability issues are reported on many social network media posts. Chinese panel makers still have much to go in terms of quality in technology and production cost when compared to Samsung Display.

SDC, 4Q2021 The Highest Smartphone Shipments 125 million units, Highest market share of flexible OLED 50.1%

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According to UBI Research Weekly Report, Samsung Display’s OLED shipped 480 million units in 2021. The highest number of shipments were in the 4th quarter at 133 million units and the second highest was in the in 3rd quarter at 129 million units.

Samsung Display OLED application products shipped in 2021 were smartphones, watches, tablet PCs notebooks and TVs. OLED for TVs started shipment in the fourth quarter of last year. It was the first OLED for TV shipment in eight years since 2013 when they had discontinued mass production.

Samsung Display OLED for smartphones shipped 456 million units, which was 94% of the total shipments. OLED for watches shipped 14 million units, just 2.9% of the total shipments.

OLED for notebooks had the most significant growth in 2021. 5 million units were shipped, representing a 2.5 times higher growth than the 1.9 million Tablet PC units shipped.

According to a quarterly analysis of Samsung Display smartphones shipments in 2021, 125 million units were shipped in the fourth quarter, showing the highest performance. This is mainly due to high shipments to Apple in the fourth quarter for OLED for iPhone. In 2021, 102 million units of OLED for iPhone were shipped and 45.4 million units were supplied to Apple in the fourth quarter. Therefore, the market share was the highest at 50.1% in the fourth quarter for flexible OLED shipments.

Flexible OLED and rigid OLED shipments were 190 million units and 257 million units respectively in 2021. The annual shipment market share was 41.6% and 56.5% respectively. Foldable OLED shipments were 8.7 million units, a market share of 1.9%.

 

LG Display Achieves Record Sales in 2021, Swinging a Profit after Three Years

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As LG Display posted the highest sales ever, at the same time it also made a sharp pivot into a profit for the first time in three years. On the 26th, LG Display announced that it had achieved annual sales of 29.878 trillion won and operating profit of 2.23 trillion won in 2021. “This is the result of the large-sized OLED panels in the premium market, the strengthening of the small and medium-sized OLED business base, and the innovation of LCD structures centered on IT products,” LG Display goes on the explain. While the overall TV market experienced negative growth last year, LG Display led the large-sized OLED business. OLED TV panel shipments grew by more than 70% compared to the previous year, which turned to profit in the second half of the year. This helped reach a break-even point.

Following the previous year’s earnings announcement, LG Display stated, “This year, we plan to expand profitability in stages based on shipment growth of more than 20% compared to the previous year and strengthened business capabilities,” and “From the second quarter, ‘OLED.EX’ will be applied to all OLED TV panel series to accelerate the trend toward OLED in the premium TV market.” OLED.EX is a TV panel that increases screen brightness (luminance) by 30% and reduces bezel by 30% by applying ‘deuterium technology’ and ‘personalization algorithm’ to organic light emitting devices. These are the core elements of OLED picture quality. In the case of small and medium-sized OLEDs, the mobile sector plans to improve profitability by expanding new models and high-end products in the second half of the year and expand to the overall mobility industry. The LCD division will continue its strategy of selection and concentration focusing on IT products.

LG Display also expressed confidence in Samsung Display, which has emerged as a new competitor in the OLED market. When asked about LG Display’s competitiveness compared to Samsung Display’s QD-OLED, Large-Scale Marketing Manager Lee Tae-Jong remarked, “Our competitor’s products have not been released yet, so an accurate comparison will be possible only after the actual launch.” He continued, ”LG Display, which has been in business for more than 10 years is far superior in our overall competitiveness in our products and cost, economies of scale, and customers. We will continue to widen the gap in the future.”

Analysis of 65-inch Premium TV Price Trend in 2021

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Analysis of 65-inch Premium TV Price Trend in 2021

This is an analysis for the 65-inch TV prices for Samsung Electronics’ QNED TV, LG Electronics’ OLED TV, and Sony’s OLED TV in 2021.

Samsung Electronics started with the 4K high-end models QN90A and the 8K models QN800A and QN900A. The entry-level models QN80A and QN85A were released sequentially. The 4K models QN90A, QN85A, and QN80A were priced at $2,600, $2,200, and $1,700 respectively. The 8K models QN900A and QN800A were priced at $5,000 and $3,500.

Starting with the high-end model G1, LG Electronics launched the entry-level models A1 and C1 models. The launch prices were $3,000, $2,300, and $2,000 for the G1, C1, and A1, respectively.

Sony launched two models, the XR65A80J and XR65A90J. The starting price was $4,000 for the XR65A90J.

In 2021, events such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Black Friday played a major factor in aggressive marketing by companies.

Samsung Electronics’ 8K models QN900A and QN800A had two prices cuts, the first one for the Tokyo Olympics and then for Black Friday. In the end, the QN900A was lowered by $1,700 and QN800A by $800 than their launch prices. Similarly, the 4K models 90A cut its price by $700, the 85A by $800, and the 80A by $500 from the launch prices, forming an average price of $300 lower than LG Electronics’ comparable models.

LG Electronics’ TVs had also began marketing in June when they were affected by the Tokyo Olympics and averaged a $300 price cut on all their OLED products. In anticipation for Black Friday,  in October they lowered their prices by another $200 on average when compared to their launch prices.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics’ 8K QNED TV 65QNED99UP model was priced at $2,500, the lowest price among 8K models.

Finally, Sony’s XR65A80J model dropped to $1,800 in November, which was a $1,000 price cut from the launch price, but recovered its price to $2,000 in December. No price changes for the high-end model, the X65A90J other than one $200 price cut a month after its launch.

 

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.

[CES2022] Samsung Press Conference

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Chinese OLED smartphones released in 2021, 62% increase compared to 2020

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Of the total 226 OLED smartphones released in 2021, China released 175. This is an overwhelming 77.4% share in the market. Korea released 20, which is half of the 39 in 2020. The United States released 16 and other countries released 15.

By size, there were 218 products in the 6-inch range, accounting for 96.5% of the market share, indicating that 6-inch products have established themselves as mainstream. In addition, 3 products in the 8-inch range, 2 products in the 5-inch range and 7-inch range, and 1 product in the 4-inch range were released. All 7-inch and larger products were foldable.

By display design, the punch hole model was released at an overwhelming 173, followed by the notch model at 31, the narrow-bezel model at 15, the under display camera (UDC) and pop-up camera at 3 models each, and 1 product with a home button was released.

Finally, in the display area (D.A), which is the display area to the size of the smartphone, 194 products belonging to 80-90% accounted for 85.8% of the product, 29 products above 90% and 1 product under 80% were released. The home button is now gone, the notch design is reduced, and the average D.A. has increased due to the continuous launch of full-screen smartphones. The product with the highest D.A was 94.9%, which occupies the Honor’s Magic3 series.

[CES2022] Sony Press Conference at CES 2022

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[2021 Visionox Technology Innovation Conference] Chief Executive Officer Zhu Xiujian, “We will provide the ultimate experience through form innovation, basic performance enhancement, and function integration”

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At the Visionox Technology Innovation Conference in 2021, Zhu Xiujian, Chief Executive Officer of Visionox Technology Product Engineering Center, gave a presentation on OLED industry trends and Visionox’s advanced technology exploration.

In the OLED industry trend, Chief Executive Officer Zhu emphasized, “Flexible OLED is expected to occupy more than 30% of the panels for mobile devices after 2023, and cost reduction is the only way to expand the market.”

In the OLED technology change for mobile devices that followed, “From 2011 to 2018, a full screen with a notch or a narrow bezel became a trend, from 2019 to 2020, we pursued morphological differentiation such as camera pop-up, punch hole, U-notch, and under panel camera,” he said. He also announced, “After 2021, basic performance such as high refresh rate and low power consumption has been strengthened, and more differentiated technologies such as foldable and advanced UPC are being developed.”

Finally, the Chief Executive Officer mentions form innovation, basic performance improvement, function integration and advanced technology innovation for Visionox’s product innovation solution, full screen and various folding technologies for shape innovation, visual experience and low power consumption with improved pixel structure and color performance for basic performance improvement, cost reduction through layer integration, fingerprint recognition or touch pressure sensing technology for functional integration, and advanced technology In Innovation, he finished the presentation by mentioning micro LED and saying that it will provide optimal solutions to users.

[UBI Research China Trend Report] BOE Dominates OLED Shipments for Smartphones in October

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According to the ‘China Trend Report for the 1st week of December’ published by UBI Research recently, Among Chinese companies, BOE maintained the No. 1 position with an overwhelming share in OLED panel shipments for smartphones in October.

According to the report, in the flexible OLED shipments by Chinese companies in October, BOE had the most with 5.2 million units, followed by CSOT with 1.6 million units, Tianma with 1 million units, and Visionox with 940,000 units. In terms of market share, BOE was 59%, followed by CSOT, Tianma, and Visionox with 18%, 12%, and 11%, respectively.

As for Rigid OLED shipments, EverDisplay Optronics had the most with 1.7 million units and Visionox mass-produced 950,000 units. In terms of market share, EverDisplay Optronics accounted for 65% and Visionox 35%. Tianma, which previously mass-produced a small amount of rigid OLED, did not mass-produce rigid OLED panels in October.

As autonomous driving technology advances, the adoption rate of OLED will increase

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At UBI Research’s ‘OLED Settlement Seminar in the second half of 2021’ held on the 19th, Park Seon-hong, head of the Korea Automobile Research Institute, gave a presentation on ‘the status and outlook of future automotive display development’.

Responsible Park said, “If the autonomous driving technology is advanced, the number or time of driving will decrease, and the change of the interior space is essential because the driver pays attention to the interior environment of the vehicle. Through the change of the vehicle display, the change of the steering wheel to secure space, and the change of the seat, the efficiency of the space that can utilize the interior space can be increased.”

Among the changes resulting from the development of autonomous driving technology, Responsible Park said, “With the change of the display inside and outside the vehicle, the degree of freedom of space within the vehicle can be improved as buttons, switches, and gear knobs inside the vehicle are applied to the display.” In keeping with, the display mounted on the vehicle is also changing to a large-screen, large-area curved display.”

Responsible Park said, “Displays that secure the reliability of autonomous driving by communicating with the outside such as pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles through external communication as well as the inside of the vehicle are gaining prominence. By displaying information about the vehicle’s condition (acceleration or deceleration, whether it is stopped, etc.), safety issues can be controlled.”

Currently, automotive displays have a high adoption rate of LCD, but OLED can realize flexible displays, and its thin thickness, high contrast ratio, fast response speed, and wide viewing angles make it possible to apply it in complex and diverse spaces inside automobiles in line with the era of autonomous driving. expected to increase. LG Display is already mass-producing POLED for automobiles, and Samsung Display and Chinese panel makers are also preparing for mass-production of OLED for automobiles.

As autonomous driving technology develops, automobiles are emerging as a new concept of ‘rest and comfort’ out of a means of transportation. While the evolution of in-vehicle displays is essential in such a leisure space, expectations are being raised on how much influence OLED will have on the market as a display for automobiles in the future.

Smartphone and foldable OLED shipments expected to exceed 700 million units in 2025

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At UBI Research’s ‘2021 OLED settlement seminar for the second half of the year’ held on the 19th, UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Yi gave a presentation on the settlement of small/mid-large OLED industry and future market prospects.

CEO Yi said, “The total sales of OLED for mobile devices in the third quarter was $10.3 billion, up 23.6% from the second quarter and 64.1% from the same period last year. OLED for phones grew to a meaningful number for the first time to $540 million in the third quarter.”

According to the announcement by CEO Yi, the total shipment of smartphones and foldable phones in the third quarter was 167 million, up 22.7% from the previous quarter and 55.3% from the same period of the previous year. “The smartphone market contracted in 2020 due to the spread of Corona 19 and sanctions by Huawei, but the market is growing out of this situation in 2021 thanks to the popularity of Apple’s iPhone 12,” said CEO Yi.

Comparing OLED shipments for smartphones in the third quarter by panel maker, Samsung Display took 72.9%, followed by BOE and LG Display with 9.4% and 5.8%, respectively. CEO Yi mentioned, “Samsung Display maintained 80% level just a year ago, but BOE is gradually gaining strength as BOE’s production lines are being prepared step by step.” and “In terms of sales, Samsung Display accounted for 79.0%, which is higher than the shipment share, and BOE, 8.8%, which is lower than the shipment share. This result appears because the panels of Samsung Display and LG Display are sold to Apple at the highest price.”

Next, CEO Yi predicted, “In terms of OLED shipments by country, Korea dominates the market with 78.7%, but the Chinese market, which currently accounts for 21.3%, will gradually grow and the shipments of the two countries will become similar in about five years.” He also predicted, “In order for the industry to grow, the top-level set makers in the supply chain are important, and based on China’s numerous set makers and the large domestic market, it is highly likely that the leadership will be transferred to China in about five years.”

In the smartphone market forecast analysis, CEO Yi said, “In 2021, OLED shipments for smartphones and foldable phones are expected to reach 580 million units, and the market will grow by 100 million units in the next two years, reaching 600 million units in 2023 and 700 million units in 2025. We will overcome it,” he predicted.

LG Display Wins Presidential Award for its Automotive P-OLED at the Korea Technology Awards

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SEOUL, Korea (Nov. 17, 2021) – LG Display, the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that its Automotive P-OLED display won the Presidential Award, the highest honor for the most revolutionary technology of the year, at the 2021 Korea Technology Awards in Seoul, Korea. This is LG Display’s second Presidential Award after first winning the coveted honor for its outstanding 65-inch Rollable OLED panel at the 2019 Korea Technology Awards.

Hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the nation’s most prestigious technology awards ceremony recognizes companies, research institutes, and universities that have developed groundbreaking technologies and products boasting excellence in performance and domestic industry impact.

Thanks to the self-emissive nature of OLED technology, LG Display’s award-winning Automotive P-OLED display provides incredible picture quality with real black to give drivers high clarity and outdoor visibility during both day and night. In addition to being more eco-friendly than its LCD counterpart, P-OLED has no need for a backlight which gives it a lighter, sleeker, more premium and flexible design.

Notably, it has received the High Visibility Automotive OLED and Eye Comfort Display certifications from TÜV Rheinland, a global independent inspection service. To leverage the diverse benefits of such an innovative and next-generation technology, leading automakers around the world are incorporating this display into their latest vehicles’ infotainment systems.

LG Display’s Automotive P-OLED display is touted by major global automakers, especially when it comes to high reliability even in the harshest environments. The company’s Automotive P-OLED is already globally recognized for its innovative technology, earlier this year picking up the Best New Display Component award at Display Week 2021 which was hosted by the Society for Information Display (SID).

In tandem with the rapidly growing market that is turning out more and more cars with larger multiple displays, LG Display aims to continue leading the market with its unique, differentiated P-OLED technology.

“We are grateful to have been recognized for the Automotive P-OLED technology we developed to bring enhanced safety, design innovation, and ESG values to our consumers,” said Kim Myoung-Kyu, Executive Vice President and Head of the Mobile Business Unit at LG Display. “We will continue to create new and innovative OLED technologies that provide unique and differentiated values to customers, thereby leading the market.”

Merck’s Blue Ink Material Lifetime Announced 65% Improvement Year-over-Year.

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At ‘Display Insight 2021’ held online on November 4th, ‘Joachim Kaiser’, global application manager of Merck, presented ‘Our OLED solutions – livilux®’. When presenting the ink portion of livilux’s OLED materials, Kaiser noted that “Inkjet printing is the only technology that combines RGB parallel pixel layout with scalability for large display sizes”.

Kaiser announced “Maximizing the performance of IJP devices requires a thorough understanding and optimization of state-of-the-art OLED materials, ink formulations optimized for each application, and the entire device stack” and “Merck can get a lot of benefits from IJP performance improvement from its experience in developing materials for deposition”.

Comparing the performance announced by Merck last year and this year, the luminous efficiency (cd/A) of red increased by 46% compared to the previous year, green by 10%, and blue did not change. External quantum efficiency (EQE) was 34.1%, increased by 20% for red, and 28%, increased by 5% for green, and there was no change in blue like the luminous efficiency. In terms of lifespan, 20% for green and 65% for blue were greatly improved. The lifespan of the red is 4,000 hours based on LT95 (last year’s red’s lifespan was 8,300 hours based on LT95), and it is being optimized to increase the lifetime reduced by improving efficiency.

Kaiser emphasized, “At Merck, we are constantly working to provide solutions to the problems of OLED panel design, such as improving the efficiency of Blue OLED, a new kind of emitter, and RGB side-by-side printing technology.”

BOE will start mass production of iPhone 13 panels from October.

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BOE will supply OLED panels for Apple’s iPhone 13 in the US. Samsung Display and LG Display were supplying two 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch 60Hz panels with LTPS(Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) TFT for the existing iPhone 13 panels. And Samsung Display was exclusively supplying 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch 120Hz products to which LTPO(Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxid) TFT was applied. The panel that BOE is supplying with approval to Apple this time is a 6.1-inch LTPS TFT panel. BOE’s panel is expected to start mass production at the end of October if Apple approves it soon.

As for the panels that BOE supplied to the iPhone 12, EVEN process was carried out on the B7 (Chengdu) line, and the module process was carried out on the B11 (Myeonyang) line. The process was carried out separately due to the yield issue of the B7 module line, but from the iPhone 13, the deposition yield of the B11 line has improved and both the EVEN process and the module process are carried out on the B11 line. The total amount of panels that BOE will supply for iPhone 13 is estimated to be 15 million units, and although BOE has a target of producing more than 5 million units within this year, it is expected to be in the range of 2 to 3 million units in reality.

Meanwhile, it is known that BOE is also rapidly developing the LTPO line. The LTPO development speed of BOE’s B11 line is faster than that of the B7 line, and it is known that it already has mass production. At BOE, LTPO development is at a significant level, and attention is being paid to whether it will be able to supply LTPO panels to Apple’s next iPhone 14 (working title).

BOE has recently expanded its supply of flexible OLEDs to Samsung Electronics as well as Apple, and its influence in the flexible OLED market is growing. As BOE supplies new panels to Apple for the first time, attention is focused on how domestic panel makers will respond.

[GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021] Samsung Display ‘Display Innovation: Form Factor, Energy Saving, Color’

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At ‘GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021’ held in September 2021, Changhee Lee, Head of Samsung Display’s Next Generation Research Department (Vice President) delivered a keynote speech on the topic of ‘Display Innovation: Form Factor, Energy Conservation, and Color’.

For the first time in the form factor sector, Vice President Lee said, “The screen-to-body ratio, which was only 50% in the early days, has recently reached over 85%” and “We are in the process of introducing UPC (Under Panel Camera) technology to use full screens in various product groups he said. UPC technology can be applied to laptops as well as smartphones, and he said that advanced technology is needed to gradually increase the resolution of the camera and create the same luminance and color as the surrounding screen.

Vice President Lee said, “In 2010, flat screens evolved into various form factors such as foldables and rollables, and most inconveniences in durability, convenience, and usability disappeared”. In addition, Vice President Lee said, “Active devices such as OLEDs and transistors are placed on a neutral plane and designed to be protected by multiple layers, and a foldable display can be made with UTG with reduced thickness and increased durability”. Vice President Lee continued, “If not only folding but also rollable are made, the volume will be much smaller, and the technology is high enough to be commercialized now”, He said, “Materials with excellent properties that can be repeatedly deformed and restored will be developed and will be employed in various products through technology that can make them mechanically strong”. He said, “Materials with excellent properties that can be repeatedly deformed and restored will be developed and will be employed in various products through technology that can make them mechanically strong.”

In terms of energy saving, Vice President Lee explained that Samsung Display’s ‘Eco Square OLED’ is “a technology that reduces power consumption by removing the polarizer” and “We are further developing this technology to further reduce power consumption” He said. In addition, in terms of software, he said, “When ‘Windows 11 Dark Mode’, which can use OLED display more efficiently than before, is released, it is possible to reduce OLED light-emitting power consumption by more than 25%”.

In the color gamut sector, Vice President Lee said, “The higher the saturation and the wider the color gamut, the brighter the human body perceives it.”, and he said, “We are developing a new index called XCR (experienced color range) and evaluating the picture quality of the display through it”. In addition, he said, “We are developing a display with lower power consumption and higher saturation using quantum dots” and “It has already been applied to LCD and applied to Samsung Electronics’ QLED, and QD-OLED products will be released soon, and QD-LED will also be developed” he announced.

Lastly, Vice President Lee said, “Various sensors are being combined and applied to displays, and they have developed innovatively in various form factors, sizes, picture quality and the application changes have also expanded. Companies in the sector must work together to achieve technological innovation” he emphasized.

[GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021] Solus Advanced Materials ‘Expansion of new businesses other than light emitting materials such as high refractive filler and TFE’

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At ‘GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021’ held in September 2021, Taehyung Kim, Head of Electronic Materials Business Division, Solus Advanced Materials made a presentation under the theme of ‘Solus’ Giant Step To Lead OLED Materials Technology’.

Solus Advanced Materials has monopolized the HBL market for over 8 years as a domestic display material specialist. Director Kim of Solus Advanced Materials said, “During the development of HBL, we also developed ETL with similar chemical structure and important compatibility with HBL. The performance is evaluated as equal to or higher than that of other companies’ top performance, and it will be able to enter the market soon.”

Director Kim said, “Originally, we mainly developed ETL or HBL related to electronics, but it was difficult to develop from the perspective of the overall device, so we developed HTL related to hall.” In addition “The development of HTL was completed about two years ago through joint development with LG Display, and it was approved for large panel use in May” he said. He also said, “The panel supply is gradually increasing and will be expanded to the Guangzhou line by next year.”, “HTL is structurally related to g-prime for mobile, so it is expected that it can be expanded to g-prime on the mobile side,” he said.

                                                 

Solus Advanced Materials is developing not only light-emitting materials, but also high-refractive fillers and TFEs. Director Kim said, “The mass production of fillers will be visible from this year. There are various materials such as epoxy, urethane, and acrylic type, and we plan to mass-produce the refractive index and viscosity control according to customer specifications.”

In the TFE sector, General Manager Kim said, “The permittivity of TFE currently used in the market is 3.0 or higher, and we received a request to lower the permittivity of the monomer by 30% or more to increase touch sensitivity two years ago and have been developing it. “The permittivity of the TFE monomer being developed by Solus is down to 20%, and the UV CUT function has achieved a specification of less than 5% at around 400 nanometers, and it is being promoted and tested by customers.”

Solus Advanced Materials is currently expanding its OLED-related businesses to various OLED-related luminescent materials such as HBL, ETL, and HTL, as well as high-refractive materials and TFE monomers. It is noteworthy in which areas these various business groups can shine in the future.

Small OLED performance in the second quarter of 2021

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According to the market track on small OLED market performance of less than 10 inches published by UBI Research, Revenue and shipments in the second quarter were about $9.5 billion and 161.7 million units, respectively. QoQ(Quarter over Quarter) revenue and shipments decreased by -14.0% and -5.8%, respectively. Compared to the year over year (YoY), Revenue and shipments increased by 70.1% and 56.3%, respectively.

In 3Q, Samsung Display’s 6G LTPO TFT line capacity is expected to be increased to 60K units. LG Display decided to invest $15,000 in the LTPO TFT line for P6 ph3. The expected equipment installation time is the second quarter of 2022. BOE’s B15, which reviewed the investment in the 6G flexible OLED line, was changed to the 8.5G line for IT manufacturing. Revenue and shipments are expected to increase in the second half of 2021 with the mass production of Apple’s iPhone 13.

Medium & Large OLED performance in the second quarter of 2021

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UBI Research has published a market track on the market performance of 10-inch and larger OLEDs. Applications include TVs, monitors, laptops, and tablet PCs.

According to UBI Research’s Medium & Large OLED market track, the total revenue in the second quarter were about $1.5 billion, which is a 6.5% (QoQ) increase from the previous quarter and 129.6% in the same quarter of the previous year (YoY). In the second quarter, shipments totaled 5.1 million units, an increase of -3.6% (QoQ) and 40.4% (YoY). Samsung Display’s notebook OLED shipments in the second quarter were about 900K units. LG Display shipped 1.8 million TV panels in the second quarter of 2021.

Although there were concerns about a decrease in the utilization rate of the rigid OLED line due to the decrease in OLED for smartphones sold to Samsung Electronics, the A2 line is gradually being converted to production of OLED for laptops due to the increase in rigid OLED demand. In the first half of the year, two 12K lines were put into OLED production for notebooks, and in the second half, it is planned to increase to three or four lines.

Apple’s iPad, which will be mass-produced by Samsung Display from the end of the year, will use LTPO TFT and hybrid OLED (rigid substrate + TFE).

Samsung Display begins mass production of QD-OLED in the fourth quarter of 2021

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Samsung Display begins mass production of QD-OLED in the fourth quarter of 2021, a new growth opportunity in the large OLED market

Samsung Display is planning to start mass production of QD-OLED in earnest from the fourth quarter of 2021. The mass production scale is 8.5G 30K/month, and it is expected to be mass-produced mainly for 65-inch 4K resolution panels. Since three 65-inch panels can be produced in the 8.5th generation, about 1 million panels are expected to be mass-produced annually.

At the closing seminar held in the second half of 2020, UBI Research predicted that Samsung Display’s QD-OLED will produce 200,000 units in 2021, 600,000 units in 2022, and 800,000 units in 2025. However, as Samsung Display announced in its second quarter conference call that it will also introduce a monitor product with a smaller QD display than a TV, production is expected to vary depending on the proportion of products..

If mass production begins in the fourth quarter, QD-OLED TV will be unveiled for the first time at the CES 2022 exhibition held in Las Vegas in 2022, and the product is expected to be officially released in the first half of the year.

Joo-seon Choi, president of Samsung Display, emphasized in a recently published sustainability report that “If QD displays are commercialized, new growth opportunities will be created in the large display industry, which has been stagnant for a long time.”

Attention is paid to how much influence Samsung Display’s QD-OLED mass production will have in the large OLED market led by LG Display.

<Expected structure of QD-OLED, Source: UBI Research>

QNED (quantum dot nano-rod LED) structure and core technology

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Samsung Display research center is accelerating the development of QNED as the next-generation display following OLED.

The reason Samsung Display is developing QNED as part of its large-size display business is that it is the only display that can produce the image quality that Samsung Display’s biggest customer, Samsung Electronics, can satisfy.

Samsung Electronics’ TV business direction, which has the world’s No. 1 TV market share, is to use QD to make color gamut better than OLED, and to use a display that can maximize HDR performance with high luminance and excellent gradation characteristics on a bright screen.

The only display that can satisfy the needs of Samsung Electronics is QNED.

QNED is a self-luminous display and because it uses QD, it has the best color gamut, HDR, luminance, contrast ratio, and motion blur, etc., and is a product expected by Samsung Electronics.

It can be confirmed by the structure that QNED is the display with the best characteristics. QNED consists of a pixel layer with a nano-rod LED on the TFT structure of 3T1C used in large OLEDs, and a color conversion layer consisting of QD and CF (color filter) on top.

In OLED, electrodes (cathode and anode) and electrode line for transmitting a signal to a pixel are located above and below the light emitting material, whereas in QNED, both the signal transmitting electrode (pixel electrode) and electrode line are located on the same plane. In addition to the pixel electrode, the QNED additionally includes a reflective electrode to increase light output efficiency. The pixel electrode serves as an alignment electrode for aligning the nano-rod LED.

< QNED section structure >

< QNED pixel structure >

< QNED pixel planar structure >

Looking at the planar structure of a QNED pixel, a plurality of pixel electrodes are connected in series in one pixel, and a nano-rod LED is positioned between the pixel electrodes. The pixel electrode is on the pixel wall (PW) formed of an insulating material, and each pixel is surrounded by a bank (BNK) to separate regions.

 

The core technology of QNED is driving technology and sensing technology.

The driving technology includes a driving technique for aligning nano-rod LEDs and a driving technique for uniformly controlling pixels that may have a deviation in the number of nano-rod LEDs. The alignment circuit includes switching elements for each pixel, and the switching element applies an alignment signal to the pixel. The alignment state of the nano-rod LED is determined depending on which alignment signal is given to each pixel.

< Drive circuit for alignment >

< Sensing transistor for checking alignment >

The most important driving technology is a technology that supplies current to each pixel so that the luminance can be uniform across the entire screen even if the number of nano-rod LEDs per pixel is different. It is a method of controlling each pixel based on the data read from the sensing transistor.

[QNED Technology Completion Analysis Report] details the sensing transistor, sensing wiring, and sensing signals that can check the nano-rod LED alignment status on the panel.

 

As sensing technology, there are sensing technology (sensing transistor) designed inside QNED and sensing technology used in QNED manufacturing. The sensing technology used to manufacture QNEDs is inherent in inkjet systems. There are three sensing technologies in the inkjet system: the number of nano-rod LEDs in the ink and the viscosity analysis of the solvent, the analysis of the number of nano-rod LEDs sprayed on the panel, and the analysis of the nano-rod LED alignment state.

< Inkjet system configuration >

QNED has already proven that 4K 65 inches can be driven two years ago. Samsung Display is concentrating on finishing work to secure the screen uniformity of QNED.

Samsung Electronics widens the technology gap by applying new technology to ‘Galaxy Z Fold3’.

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According to the ‘2021 OLED Components and Materials Report’ recently published by UBI Research, the ‘Galaxy Z Fold3’, which is expected to be released by Samsung Electronics in August, has UPC (under panel camera) and pol-less (or color filter on) encapsulation, COE) and S Pen technology are expected to be newly applied.

First, UPC, a technology that realizes the full screen of a smartphone by placing the front camera under the screen, has been mentioned using a transparent PI substrate and various technologies such as laser patterning, but in the end, the cathode electrode is patterned with a laser and the resolution near the camera is different. Thus, it seems that the maximum transmittance was secured. It is analyzed that the transparent PI substrate was not applied to the mass production process due to the high process temperature of the TFT.

Although many panel makers have developed pol-less technology, which replaces polarizers with color filters and low-reflection technologies, they could not be applied because they did not show as much anti-reflection effect as polarizers. The polarizing plate is effective in preventing external light reflection, but reduces the amount of light emitted from the OLED light emitting layer by more than 50%. If the polarizer is removed, more light can be emitted with the same power to the outside, so if the same luminance is implemented, battery consumption can be reduced. Samsung Display seems to have implemented pol-less technology by applying color filters, low-reflection films, and black pixel define layer (PDL).

The S Pen is finally applied with an electro-magnetic resonance (EMR) method, and the 30 um thick product used in the previous work is expected to be used as it is for the UTG. The AES method, which does not require a digitizer, was also considered due to the flexibility issue of the digitizer made of metal, but it is expected that the S Pen will eventually be applied in such a way that the digitizer is located on both sides of the panel.

The ‘2021 OLED Components and Materials Report’ published this time includes not only the development trend of foldable OLED, but also the development trend of mobile devices and materials for TV. It is expected to be of great help to related companies.

<‘Galaxy Z Fold3’ Expected Structure ©2021 UBI Research>

97.5% of 6-inch OLED smartphones released in the first half of 2021

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Of the 122 OLED smartphones released in the first half of 2021, 119 6-inch smartphones were released, occupying an overwhelming share of 97.5%. Compared to the 6-inch smartphones released in 2018, which accounted for 78% of the total, it has become the mainstream of the smartphone market in just three years. One 5-inch model and two 8-inch models were released, and the 7-inch model was not released. The 5-inch model is Asus’ Zenfone8, the 8-inch model is Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Fold, and Huawei’s Mate X2.

By display design, hole model was released the most with 103, followed by notch model with 13 and narrow bezel model with 6. As in 2020, products with a home button were not released.

Looking at the distribution by resolution, 400~500ppi products were released the most with 64, accounting for 52.5% of the market share, 48 products with less than 400ppi and 10 products with more than 500ppi. The highest resolution product was Sony’s Xperia 1 II, which recorded 643 ppi.

In the display area (D.A), which is the ratio of the display to the size of the smartphone, products belonging to 80-90% accounted for 84.4%, 13.9% of those over 90% and less than 80% were not released. This is analyzed as a result of the disappearance of the home button and the continuous release of full-screen smartphones. The product with the highest D.A was 94.1%, which was occupied by Huawei’s Mate 40 Pro 4G, followed by Huawei’s Nova 8 pro in second place and Honor’s View40 in third place.

Finally, by country, China released the most with 104, followed by Korea with 12, Taiwan with 4, and Japan and Germany with 1 each.

How far has QNED completed?

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The reality of QNED (quantum dot nano-rod LED), which Samsung Display is preparing as a next-generation display, has become clear.

As a result of analyzing 160 patents applied by Samsung Display, it was confirmed that the structure constituting the QNED has already been completed, and that the only remaining task is to keep the number of nano-rod LEDs arranged in the light-emitting pixel constant.

As a result of classifying the contents of each patent according to the purpose of the application, a total of 39 types were found, with 49 cases related to device arrangement being the most. The following is 20 cases to improve the light efficiency.

The number of aligned nano-rod LEDs per pixel, which determines the yield and image quality characteristics of QNED, is determined by the distribution of LEDs in the ink, the number of LEDs injected into the pixel, and the alignment ratio of the injected LEDs.

If the distribution of the number of nano-rod LEDs per pixel is different, there is a change in the voltage applied to each pixel, resulting in a defect.

It has been confirmed that Samsung Display has already developed a method for making the number of nano-rod LEDs per pixel constant and an algorithm that can make the luminance uniform even when the number of nano-rod LEDs is different.

In the “QNED Technology Completeness Analysis” published this time, it was written as the contents of the previous report published through analysis of 94 patents and 66 newly added patents. It was analyzed and recorded.

In this report, QNED patent numbers, classification tables, and quantitative analysis data that have not been disclosed before are provided in Excel.

UBI Research predicts $2.25 billion in the OLED emitting material market in 2025

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UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, cites the recently published ‘OLED emitting material market track for the second quarter of 2021’. It is predicted that the market for light emitting materials for OLED will grow at an average annual rate of 9% to reach $2.25 billion in 2025.

The purchase amount of light emitting materials by Korean panel makers is expected to reach $1.61 billion in 2025 at an average annual growth rate of 5.8%, accounting for 71.6% of the total market. In addition, over the next five years, it is expected that Korean panel makers’ total purchases of light emitting materials will account for 72.4% of the total. In contrast, the amount of material purchases by Chinese panel makers is expected to reach $640 million in 2025 at an average annual growth rate of 8.7%.

By panel maker, Samsung Display is expected to purchase the most emitting materials with a share of 43.5% over the next five years, while LG Display is expected to purchase 28.9% and BOE 17.5%.

Finally, looking at each deposition method, it is expected that the light emitting material for RGB OLED will account for 78% of the total market, and the light emitting material for WRGB OLED will account for 20.4%. Samsung Display’s QD-OLED emitting materials, which are expected to be released in the second half of this year, are expected to account for less than 2% of the total material market as panel shipments are not expected to be large.

Small OLED performance and forecast in the first quarter of 2021

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UBI Research has published a market track on the market performance of small OLED under 10 inches. The main application products are foldable phones, smartphones, and watches.

According to UBI Research’s small OLED market track, OLED shipments for smartphones (including foldable phones) in the first quarter were 140 million units, a decrease of 13.5% compared to the previous quarter (QoQ), but increase of 32.4% compared to the same quarter of the previous year (YoY).

In the first quarter of 2020, OLED shipments also decreased due to a decrease in smartphone sales due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The reason for the 13.5% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 is that shipments surged in the fourth quarter of last year due to iPhone launches and strong sales.

In terms of sales by company, Samsung Display and LG Display account for 79.0% and 11.3%, respectively, and Korean OLED dominate the market with 90.3%.

Publication of China OLED industry trend analysis report

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Despite the ongoing Corona-19 situation and the US government’s sanctions on Huawei, the adoption of OLED by Chinese smartphone makers is gradually increasing.

The Chinese market, which had been concentrated in the low-end smartphone market, has been expanding into the mid-to-high-end market as Huawei increased its global market share. In particular in the Chinese market, with only the iPhone remaining in the premium smartphone market, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have rapidly increased their market share in the mid- to high-end market with OLED smartphones.

Based on this growth, following Royole and Huawei, Xiaomi also launched a foldable phone in 2021. Chinese display makers have risen to the top spot in LCD production, and their OLED production technology has reached a significant level, and they are also directly producing foldable OLED, which requires the highest level of difficulty in OLED production technology. Foldable OLEDs from BOE and CSOT are used in Huawei and Xiaomi’s foldable phones.

In the “Chinese OLED Trend Report for 2021” published by UBI Research, the OLED-equipped smartphone, TV, and watch industries produced in China were analyzed, and technology development/investment trends and market performance of OLED panel makers were analyzed. In addition, the size of the light emitting material and component material market used by Chinese OLED panel makers was analyzed and summarized.

57 types of OLED smartphones released in the first quarter of 2021 were counted. This number is more than double the number of 27 species in the same quarter last year. This is because Chinese smartphone makers such as Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have mass-released new OLED smartphones to occupy Huawei’s smartphone market.

The OLED market by Chinese panel makers is also growing explosively due to the active use of OLED by Chinese smartphone makers. In the first quarter of 2021, OLED sales for smartphones were counted at 990 million dollars, which increased by 38.3% compared to the same quarter of 2020 (YoY). The reason for the rapid growth of OLED sales is the increase in selling prices as OLEDs produced by Chinese panel makers move from low resolution to high resolution.

The amount of light emitting materials used by Chinese panel makers has not seen a significant increase yet. In the meantime, production was low due to low yield due to low production technology, but now production is increasing even with the same amount of material used. In 2020, 13.8 tons of luminescent material was used.

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

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

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

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

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

Why did Apple choose LTPO?

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

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

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

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

Apple Watch with LTPO applied       

     Galaxy Watch Active 2

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

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with LTPO applied

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Equipped with OLED panel on Samsung Display in Hyundai Electric Vehicle’Ionic 5′

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  • Samsung Display’s first OLED panel mounted on Hyundai’s first exclusive electric vehicle,’Ionic 5′
  • Optional digital side mirror to mount camera and display screen
  • Significantly helps to improve the mileage and fuel economy of electric vehicles

Samsung Display’s organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display will be used in Hyundai Motor’s first exclusive electric car,’Ionic 5′.

▲ Inside Hyundai’s first exclusive electric car Ionic 5

Ionic 5 can choose a side view camera as an option along with a standard side mirror that uses a regular mirror as before. With this option, there are no mirrors on the side mirrors. In the digital side mirror, a camera is mounted in the place of a general side mirror and a display is located inside. You can see the back and surroundings of the vehicle using the camera and display screen. The wider field of view reduces blind spots and has the advantage of being able to see the surroundings brightly even in the dark underground or at night. This display screen is Samsung Display’s OLED product.

The contract for supplying OLED for vehicles is significant in that it is a 10-year contract between Hyundai Motor Company and Samsung. Samsung Display signed a contract to supply 8-inch LCDs for navigation in 2011, and supplied supplies for three years, but there was no significant business link between the two groups. Hyundai Motor Group selected Samsung Display as the first supplier when it first selected OLED as a vehicle display. As Hyundai Motor adopts Samsung products for its first dedicated electric vehicle with high symbolism, analysts say that the scope of cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung will continue to expand in the automotive industry.

Samsung Display has been supplying OLED displays to Audi’s electric vehicle ‘e-tron’ that applied the same system under the name of ‘virtual side mirror’ from 2018.

Audi’s first pure electric car’e-tron 55 quattro’ was applied with ‘virtual side mirrors’ for the first time in mass-produced cars. Are collected.

▲ Audi e-tron ‘Virtual Exterior Mirror’ with Samsung OLED

When the camera is mounted on the side mirror, it improves the aerodynamic flow, greatly helping to improve the mileage of electric vehicles and increase fuel efficiency of internal combustion engine vehicles. In addition, even if the window is covered by snow or rain and it is difficult to see the outside, the side view can be clearly seen through the internal display.

▲ Hyundai Ionic 5’digital side mirror’ equipped with Samsung OLED

The e-tron is equipped with a diamond-shaped OLED display, but the digital side mirror of Hyundai Ionic 5 has a square display design. When I got on the inside of the vehicle and looked at the digital side mirror, I could clearly see the outside from the inside through the screen. In addition, the screen response speed was also smoothly driven without interruption. It is a structure that can easily adapt to drivers who were used to the existing mirror-type side.

 

 

 

 

Cover window market forecast for foldable phones

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The biggest difference between flexible OLED and foldable OLED will be the cover window material. In terms of price competitiveness, various Colorless Poly Imide (CPI) are superior to suppliers, but in the end, the cover window market is expected to depend on which material Samsung Electronics and Apple choose.

Samsung Display plans to supply only foldable OLEDs using UTG (Ultra Thin Glass) to Samsung Electronics and other China this year, and is expected to adopt UTG as the main cover window material in the future.

BOE and CSOT currently focus on transparent PI, but they are securing technology by continuously collaborating with UTG-related glass processing companies. For this reason, according to the UBI Research component and materials market track, UTG is expected to occupy 80% of the market for foldable cover windows in the future, and transparent PI is low in price and easy to apply to products larger than 10 inches As a result, it is expected to be applied to low-end models, tablets, and notebook models.

 

In 2020, small OLED shipments increased by 3.4%↑, sales decreased by 2.8%↓

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Corona 19 and Huawei’s US sanctions negatively affected the OLED market for smartphones, but it was a plus with Apple’s strong sales of iphone 12.

Samsung Display completed the Y-OCTA renovation of the Apple line in 2020, and the LTPO TFT secured a 30K scale. By the first half of 2021, the company plans to convert the LTPS line from Apple’s line to the LTPO TFT line.

The foldable phones released by Samsung Electronics in 2020 are the Galaxy Z Flip released in February and the Galaxy Z Fold 2 released in September, both in-folding and using UTG (ultra thin glass). Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a product to which LTPO TFT technology is applied.

BOE failed several times without exceeding the approval process in Apple’s iPhone12 quality test, but received final approval for panel supply at the end of December 2020. BOE’s new line, B12, is an Apple module line that starts bringing in equipment from December 2020, and is aiming for mass production in November 2021.

According to the annual small OLED display report published by UBI Research, small OLED shipments in 2020 increased by 3.4% compared to 2019, but sales decreased by 2.8%. The increase in shipments is due to the increase in OLED for watches, and the decrease in sales is due to the decrease in OLEDs for smartphones.

In 2020, the total sales of OLED for smartphones was 26.7 billion dollars, of which Samsung Display accounted for 78.8% with 21 billion dollars. LG Display has sales of $2.8 billion and a market share of 10.5%. Samsung Display accounted for 91.7% with 2.35 million dollars in 2019. Smartphone sales in 2020 decreased by 6.68 million units compared to 2019.

Middle and Large OLED sales growth of 40.2% in 2020

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Although Samsung Display’s rigid OLED line is expected to decrease due to a decrease in Huawei’s volume due to the US production, demand for rigid OLEDs is expected to increase as demand for laptops, monitors and tablet PCs is increasing. To respond to this, investment in rigid OLED lines in A4 is also being reviewed. This year’s notebook OLED panel is expected to come out with more than 10 different model product lines, and Apple’s OLED production for iPad is scheduled to start from 2022, so demand for middle and large-sized OLED panels is expected to increase.

In addition, LG Display, a leader in P-OLED supplying in the automotive field, is planning to supply plastic OLEDs for automobiles to German car makers by producing premium OLED panels, and Samsung Display is also supplying OLED panels for vehicles.

According to the 2021 middle and large OLED annual report published by UBI Research, the total sales of middle and large-sized OLEDs in 2020 was $3.882.7 million, and last year was $2.63 billion, an increase of 40.2% from the previous year. By application, the notebook and automobile markets have increased remarkably, and the notebook, monitor, and automotive product markets are expected to grow in 2021.

Samsung Display’s QD-OLED mass production is expected to be around December 2021, and 65-inch panels are highly likely to be used by Sony. Samsung Electronics is expected to receive only 32-inch QD-OLEDs for monitors, not purchasing 65 inches.

LG Display’s 2020 TV OLED panel shipments were counted to 4.4 million units, and if the Guangzhou plant operates at 90K from the third quarter, the production capacity will reach 8.5 million units in 2021.

 

2020 OLED annual performance analysis

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Total shipments of AMOLED in 2020 were aggregated to 575.78 million units. This is an increase of 20.41 million units compared to the 557.46 million units shipped in 2019.

The first OLED application products released in 2020 are for automobiles and for notebooks. Analysis by application product shows that the market has increased for foldable OLED, TV WRGB OLED, and watch OLED, and the decline is for smartphone and tablet PC.

Sales in 2020 were $32.68 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion from $32.45 billion in 2019. The insignificant increase in sales compared to the increase in shipments in 2020 is due to the decline in OLED unit prices for smartphones. This is because the OLED unit prices of iPhone and Galaxy S20, which are supporting the OLED market for smartphones, have decreased compared to 2019, and OLED shipments by Chinese panel makers have led to a decrease in OLED unit prices of Samsung Display.

In terms of sales by company, Samsung Display was found to be $22.3 billion, a decrease of $4.2 billion from $26.5 billion in 2019. Samsung Display’s smartphone OLED shipments amounted to 390 million units, a decrease of 40 million units compared to 430 million units in 2019, and sales decreased due to a drop in selling prices. As a result, Samsung Display’s market share in 2020 dropped sharply to 68.2%.

On the other hand, LG Display’s OLED sales reached $68.7 billion, and its market share surged to 21%. LG Display’s sales increase is due to increased shipments of POLEDs for iPhone and OLED panels for TVs.

BOE’s 2020 sales were $1.86 billion, up $7.5 billion compared to 2019. The market share was 5.7%, ranking third.

Korea’s market share in 2019 was 89.3%, falling below 90% for the first time.

Kopin’s 2.6K x 2.6K OLED display incorporated in Panasonic’s new VR glasses

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January 19, 2021 – Kopin Corporation announced its Lightning® 2.6K x 2.6K (2560 x 2560 resolution) OLED display on chip (DoCTM) are incorporated in Panasonic’s VR Glasses introduced at the CES 2021 this week.

<Panasonic’s new VR glasses, Source: Panasonic>

The Panasonic VR Glasses are the world’s first high-dynamic-range (HDR) capable, ultra-high-definition VR eyeglasses and offer stunning lifelike images. It comes in a very small form-factor thanks to the 1.3” displays and the slim Pancake® optics. The small, lightweight form factor makes the glasses comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, unlike today’s bulky VR headsets.

The 2.6K x 2.6K OLED DoC is made with Kopin’s patented ColorMaxTM technology for high color fidelity (> 100% sRGB) and a duo-stack OLED structure for high brightness (> 1000 nits). The 10-bit color control, together with the high color fidelity, high brightness and high contrast ratio (> 10,000: 1), enables the much-desired studio-quality, HDR capable VR experience.

“We have worked very closely with Panasonic and Lakeside Optoelectronic Technology on the display and with 3M on the Pancake optics for the Panasonic VR glasses,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, President and CEO of Kopin.

Wu Di, President of Lakeside Optoelectronic Technology, said, “In the development of 2.6K x 2.6K OLED displays on silicon with Kopin, we optimized the OLED deposition processes, tuned our production line, and delivered the industry-leading products.”

The mini-LED TV market in 2025 is the trend of the premium TV market

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Products with more advanced LCDs appear. It is an LCD that has greatly improved brightness, HDR, and color reproducibility by adding QD film and mini-LED to BLU. The existing top-level LCD used a full array local dimming (FALD) BLU with a local dimming zone of about 300 to 500.

When the local dimming zone is increased to more than 3,000 by using mini-LED, the contrast ratio is significantly improved, and the halo effect is reduced compared to FALD BLU LCD TVs. In order to achieve the same performance as OLED, the local dimming zone must have as many pixels as the number of pixels, but due to the limitation of LED size reduction, mini-LED TVs to be sold this year will have a local dimming zone of 1,000-3,000 products.

To make the best LCD TV, a TFT substrate capable of AM driving mini-LED BLU is needed. The competitive pointer of LCD TVs using mini-LED BLU is a technology that can make the image quality similar to OLED while minimizing the local dimming zone and the number of LEDs. In order to realize the same image quality as OLED, the local dimming zone must be more than 100,000 divisions, and hundreds of thousands of LEDs and TFT substrates are required for driving, so the manufacturing cost of panels (including modules) becomes similar to that of OLED.

If the backplane of the mini-LED BLU uses FR4 or BT and the local dimming zone is divided into 3,000, the mini-LED TV manufacturing cost can be reduced to about half of that of the OLED TV, maximizing the quality of the LCD TV while lowering the price. The TV with the best cost performance is created.

The manufacturing cost of mini-LED BLU for 65-inch TVs with a local dimming zone of 10,000 divisions or less is analyzed at 250-1,100 dollars level, and the TV price is expected to range from 1,500 to 6,000 dollars depending on the size and local dimming division level. In 2021, the mini-LED TV market is expected to form 2.5 million units.

In terms of market share with OLED TVs, mini-LED TVs are expected to dominate after 2024.

TCL has led the development of Mini-LED TVs, but the market will be led by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

OLED Market Enters Adjustment Period from Rapid Growth

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As smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics and Apple, increased the use of OLEDs in flagship models, the growth of the OLED market, which had been rapidly growing, has been braked.

The third quarter of each year is the season with the best OLED performance for smartphones due to the launch of a new iPhone. According to the display market track of UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), in the third quarter of this year, 113 million units were shipped, an increase of 26.3 million units compared to 86.7 million units in the last quarter, showing a growth of 30.4%. However, this figure is due to an optical illusion. The reason is that the results in the first and second quarters were very poor compared to before due to COVID-19. Compared to the third quarter of last year, shipments in the third quarter of this year decreased by 17.9%. Shipments are smaller than in the third quarter of 2018.

The decrease in OLED shipments for smartphones in the third quarter is due to the addition of Huawei sanctions to COVID-19. The sharp drop in shipments from Samsung Display and BOE to Huawei deteriorated the third quarter earnings.

There are also many analyzes that companies such as Samsung Electronics, Oppo, and Vivo will benefit from the reflection due to Huawei sanctions. However, since Samsung Electronics is currently struggling in the Chinese market, and the brand power of Oppo and Vivo is less than that of Huawei, it will be difficult to replace the expensive smartphone market in China occupied by Huawei. Therefore, Huawei’s smartphones, which mainly use OLEDs, disappear from the market, and shipments of Samsung Display and BOE are also forced to decrease more than expected.

The growth of the smartphone OLED market is expected to slow for the time being due to Huawei’s smartphone production disruption, which was expected to break through the 300 million units’ market and purchase OLED in large quantities. As a result, the OLED market in China will suffer a severe oversupply situation.

Samsung Electronics’ foldable smartphone to be released in 2021, with touch pen and UTG thickness different?

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According to the ‘2020 OLED Components and Materials Report’ recently published by UBI Research, Samsung Electronics’ next-generation foldable smartphones to be released in 2021 are expected to be equipped with a pen function.

It is expected that the pen function will be added to Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z Fold2, which was released in September, but the flexibility issue of the digitizer, which is an essential material to support the pen function, and ultra thin glass (UTG), the cover window material. The pen function was not added in the end due to its thin thickness.

In order to add a pen function, Samsung Display seems to be considering applying an active electrostatic solution (AES) method that does not require a digitizer and changing the thickness of UTG.

First, the’Galaxy Note’ series uses an electro-magnetic resonance (EMR) method with a digitizer at the bottom of the OLED panel. The EMR method has good touch sensitivity and does not require a battery to be embedded in the pen, but it is not applicable to foldable devices due to the flexibility issue of the metal digitizer.

Unless the companies developing the EMR method provide a special solution, the AES method is highly likely to be applied to the pen for the next ball double device. In this case, the sensor pitch of Y-OCTA is formed more densely or the Touch IC is more complex. Can be designed.

The AES method is also being developed by LG Display and BOE to apply to foldable devices.

In addition, the thickness of UTG is also expected to change. The 30 um thick UTG, which is currently commercially available, has good flexibility, but due to its film-like characteristics, when pressure is applied with a touch pen, traces remain and may affect touch sensitivity. To solve this problem, Samsung Display is developing UTG with a thickness of more than 60 um in cooperation with glass processing companies.

As the thickness of the UTG decreases as the thickness increases, it is expected that the UTG currently under development will be applied with a concept in which the folded part is processed thin and filled with a material having the same refractive index as glass. In addition, in the future, there is a possibility that an additional coating process will be added after the reinforcement process without a protective film such as PET on UTG.

In UBI Research’s ‘2020 OLED Parts and Materials Report’, Samsung Display’s expected change in foldable OLED was written as a roadmap and the trends of related materials were analyzed. According to the report, Samsung Electronics’ application of pens for foldable devices is expected in 2021, and UTG materials are expected to lead the market at 78% by 2025 in the future cover window market for foldable devices.

OLED performance analysis in the first half of 2020

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It was found that COVID-19, which has spread around the world since January this year, has adversely affected the OLED industry as well. According to UBI Research (CEO Choong Hoon Yi)’s [2020 OLED Display Semi-Annual Report], OLED total shipments and sales in the first half of 2020 were 231 million units and 13.2 billion dollars, respectively. Compared to shipments of 230 million units and sales of 13.8 billion dollars in the first half of last year, shipments increased by 1 million units but sales decreased by 600 million dollars.

The reason for the decrease in sales compared to the increase in shipments is because the shipments of OLEDs for watches, which are cheaper, have increased, but OLEDs for smartphones and TVs have decreased. OLED for watch was 22 million units in 1H19, but 1H20 increased significantly to 33.5 million units, helping to increase OLED shipments. However, the OLED market for smartphones decreased by 10.6 million units. The foldable OLED market has risen significantly with the Galaxy Z Flip, which Samsung Electronics released in the first half of this year.

In the future, the increase in line capacity for mobile devices by panel makers is expected to slow from 2023. Until 2022, investments by Chinese companies are maintained, but further investment is difficult to expect as the oversupply of OLED for smartphones continues.

Samsung Display is converting the LTPS TFT line of the A3 plant to the LTPO TFT line, and since it has been converted so that Y-OCTA can be manufactured at all plants, the mass production capacity is expected to decrease gradually, reaching 9 million square meters in 2021.

As a result, Korea’s mass-produced substrate area is 56.5% until this year, but from 2021, China is expected to have 1% mass-produced capacity, and after 2022, China’s mass-produced capacity will exceed 50%.

Smartphone OLED shipments plummeted to 87 million units in the second quarter of 2020

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According to the market track for the second quarter of 2020 published by UBI Research, the total OLED shipments in the second quarter were 107 million units, down 13.4% (QoQ) from 124 million units in the last quarter. In addition, it decreased by 16.6% (YoY) compared to the 122 million units in the second quarter of 2019. This is because sales of OLED set devices decreased due to the aftermath of COVID-19.

However, it was found that the OLED market for smartphones that support the OLED market was significantly affected by COVID-19 compared to the overall market.

OLED shipments for smartphones in the second quarter were 87 million units, down 17% from the previous quarter (QoQ), and 23.1% from the same quarter last year (YoY). Compared to the decline in overall OLED shipments, the decline in OLED shipments for smartphones is even greater. However, the reason for the decline in OLED shipments for smartphones is concentrated on rigid OLEDs.

Despite the sharp decline in OLED shipments for smartphones, flexible OLEDs grew 38% compared to the same quarter last year.

However, the YoY of rigid OLED shipments was -40.3%, a sharp decline from the same quarter last year.

The reason why the increase in flexible OLED for smartphones has soared and the shipments of rigid OLEDs have fallen sharply is because Chinese smartphone makers reduced production of mid-priced smartphones using rigid OLEDs and increased smartphone shipments using flexible OLEDs.

According to UBI Research’s CEO Choong Hoon YI, the reason Chinese smartphone makers have increased their flexible OLED smartphone shipments is: First, due to the influence of Apple, Chinese smartphone makers also use OLED for their flagship models. In particular, Chinese smartphone makers use the name plus or max, which are used by Apple and Samsung Electronics, for the highest-end specifications, and imitate that they are making a product that is equivalent to Apple and Samsung Electronics, which are the most recognized in the smartphone market. The second reason is that Chinese display makers have improved OLED manufacturing technology, allowing them to produce panels similar to Samsung Display’s OLED. In particular, it is because Chinese panel makers are supplying panels at 60% of Samsung Display’s price, so Chinese smartphone makers have increased the choice of flexible OLEDs. The third reason is that Chinese panel makers can supply OLEDs at low prices because of the Chinese government’s subsidy policy.

YI said that the OLED industry will become more active due to the increase in OLED usage by Chinese smartphone makers, but the growth of Samsung Display’s OLED business, which has maintained a monopoly position in the smartphone OLED market, may stop growing due to the increase in production of Chinese panel makers.

Supplied foldable OLED panels to CSOT T4, Motorola

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Recently, the panel maker COST T4 plant, a subsidiary of TCL Group, mainly produces premium flexible AMOLED displays, and already supplies them to Motorola foldable OLED phones and Xiaomi 10/10 Pro premium OLED phones.

In early 2019, TCL Group changed its company name to “TCL Technology” while reorganizing its assets and focused on the display panel business. The production capacity of TCL Technology, one of the LCD manufacturers with the largest production capacity in China, is showing rapid growth in recent years.

It is said that the CSOT shipment in 2019 was 22.84 million square meters, an increase of 23.8% from the same period last year. Among them, the flexible AMOLED T4 plant achieved the first stage of mass production in the fourth quarter of last year. CSOT expects that flexible products will be mass-produced within this year and will enter the market in large quantities.

At the same time, the spread of next-generation display technologies and materials is also strengthening. In 2019, the company invested 5.46 billion yuan in R&D and applied for 2,752 PCT international patent applications

The cumulative number of patents is 11,261, covering countries such as Europe, the United States, and Korea. 

Even in the large size area, TCL applied HVA technology in LCD premium products to increase market share such as 4K/8K and Touch, and launched MLED, the world’s first glass substrate mini LED product.

 Even in the small and medium sized area, TCL’s LTPS production line yield and quality have already reached the international level, and the market share of Incell/COF/Blind hole products is steadily increasing. Therefore, it is said that Off Screen/In Screen fingerprint technology is also actively developing.

TCL Technology, which focuses on premium flexible AMOLED, is focusing on premium technologies such as UDC technology and foldable.

Will Dowooinsys expand UTG lines to prepare for the foldable phone market?

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The cover window material of Samsung Electronics ‘Galaxy Z Fold 2’ which will be released in the second half of this year, is UTG like ‘Galaxy Z Filp’. The reason why Samsung Electronics prefers UTG is analyzed for its sense of luxury, differentiation, and sensitivity for the touch pen expected to be applied in the future.

In 2021, the market for over 10 million foldable phones is expected to expand, and the main cover window material of Samsung’s foldable phones will be UTG. To respond to this, Dowooinsys should increase their capacity.

Dowooinsys’ capa is estimated to be 250K/month for 6 inch cells and 375K/month for 7 inch cells. Even if the 6 inch line will be converted to a 7 inch line in the future, it will be 500K/month. Considering the yield of Dowooinsisy and Samsung Display’s Vietnamese module line, more than 4 to 5 lines should be expanded.

Currently, Samsung Display’s Vietnamese module line is assumed as 450K/month considering the yield, but the Vietnamese module line is continually being converted into a foldable line. Even in response to the current situation that Samsung Electronics prefers UTG, Dowooinsys is expected to expand more lines in the second half of this year, and its location is also expected to be considered near Samsung Display’s Vietnamese module line.

With the expansion of Dowooinsys’ additional lines, the market of cover window materials for foldable phones is expected to change in the future. At UBI Research’s ‘Next-Generation Display Technology and Industry Outlook Seminar’ held in mid-July, it is predicted that UTG will lead the future market at a ratio of 7:3 with colorless polyimide.

LPKF’s laser glass processing technology, makes a cover glass thicker than UTG be folded.

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It was expected that the S Pen would be applied to Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Z Fold2’, which will be released in the second half of this year, but it has passed the year.

UTG, the cover window material currently applied to Samsung Electronics’ ‘Galaxy Z Filp’, is 30 um thick and is 1/10 thinner than 300 um, the thickness of commercially available cover glass.

It was possible to have flexibility by using UTG into a foldable phone, but due to the film-like characteristics, there was an issue that durability was insufficient to apply the S Pen.

In order to handle this issue, a technology that increases the thickness of UTG and secures flexibility will be needed. A typical method is processing the folding part of the glass to get flexibility even at a thick thickness.

LIDE (Laser induced deep etching) technology, developed and patented by German high-tech company LPKF, is expected to be a good example. It is known that this technology is a two-step process called micro-region transformation and chemical treatment using a laser, and can process glass of various thicknesses from 30 um to 900 um without micro crack.

LPKF explains that the part where the cover glass is folded is finely processed with a laser to give flexibility to the glass, and it is possible to design the pattern to be invisible using a polymer having same reflectivity as a cover glass.

If you look at Vitrion’s YouTube video (https://youtu.be/Vh3rU4LRHaw), a separate brand related to LIDE, in LPKF, you can see that a cover glass with a thickness of 500 um was patterned to secure bending radius of 1 mm.

<LPKF foldable OLED cover glass, Source: LPKF>

With this glass processing technology, attention is paid to whether a S-pen can be supported as a thicker cover glass is applied to a foldable phone in the future.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 image leak, internal and external displays become bigger

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<The first supposed official render of Galaxy Z Fold2, Source: twitter.com/ishanagarwal24>

On 21 July, information leaker for IT new product, Ishan Agarwal, released an image presumed to be a rendered photo of ‘Galaxy Z Fold2’ on his Twitter.

Galaxy Z Fold2 will be released at the end of September, about two months after it was unveiled at the Galaxy Unpack event on the 5th of next month.

Inside the Galaxy Z Fold2, a 7.7-inch foldable OLED that is larger than the previous Galaxy Fold’s 7.3-inch screen is used, and the cover window material of the foldable OLED is UTG. The size of the external OLED is 6.23 inch, which is 1.63 inch larger than the previous one.

The rear camera is equipped with a 1,800-megapixel main camera, a triple (three) camera and a flight distance sensor (ToF), and the internal camera is known to be located in the center of the right screen in the form of a punch hole, but can’t see in this image.

Expected touch pens do not apply to this model. The shipping price is expected to be 2.3 million won, which is about 100,000 won cheaper than the previous one.

Published The Chinese OLED Industry Trend Report for The First Half of 2020

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UBI Research published a report on trends in China related to the OLED industry at the end of the first half of 2020.

In 2020, 1Q China’s OLED sales were $842 million, despite a Corona 19 crisis, up 1.7% QoQ and 59.4% YoY. China’s OLED shipments are 23% of the total market as of 2020, and it is expected to expand to 45% in 2025.

This report includes product launch trends of OLED-related Chinese set makers during the 2019~first half of 2020, business and investment status by major panel manufacturers, supply chains for major products, various performance analysis and forecasts, and includes the trend of recently announced exhibition products.

This report will provide guidelines for people engaged in various tasks such as OLED-related panel manufacturing, parts/materials, and equipment fields to understand and forecast the Chinese OLED industry.

Material Science Co., Ltd. develops high-purity blue light-emitting material with a half width of 11 nm

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In OLEDs which are currently leading the display industry for mobile devices and TVs, blue material is still using fluorescent material unlike red and green.

Currently, a lot of light emitting material companies are trying to improve the efficiency, lifespan, and color purity of blue light emitting materials, also next-generation materials such as phosphorescence, TADF, and hyper-fluorescence as well as actively developing luminous efficiency by controlling emission wavelengths.

Material Science (hereinafter referred to as MS), a Korean company that has been developing blue light emitting materials since 2015, has recently focused on realizing high color purity and successfully developed high color purity blue light emitting materials with a light emission wavelength of 460 nm and a half width of 11 nm. Considering that the emission wavelength of the currently commercially available blue material is about 20 nm, the blue material of MS is expected to receive great attention.

The full width at half maximum (FWHM) is an expression of the extent of function given by the difference between the two extreme values of the independent variable at which the dependent variable is equal to half of its maximum value.

And the narrower the half width, the higher the purity.

A typical example is Samsung Electronics’ QLED TV, which has significantly improved color reproduction by applying a QD sheet to the LCD back light.

The blue light emitting material developed by MS is expected to be applicable not only to fluorescent materials but also to hyper-fluorescence, which is attracting attention as a next-generation blue material according to emission wavelength control.

<Comparison of the half width of the existing blue dopant with the half width of the blue dopant developed by MS, Source: Materials Science>

Announcement of sale of Samsung LCD P8-2 line

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Recently, Samsung’s announcement of the sale of the P8-2 LCD line in Tangjeong was posted (announced on June 29).

Samsung has been steadily selling the old LCD line until recently, but since it has never posted a sale announcement, it is unusual to post a notice on the sale of this P8-2 line.

Prior to this, some facilities of the P8-1 line were converted to the newly invested QD display line, and only about 30K of TFT and 200K of CF out of all 200K-scale process equipment were sold to companies in China.

Shenzhen EFONLONG OPTRONICS DISPLAY CO., LTD, which acquired Samsung P8-1 line equipment, was founded in 2008 as a manufacturer of LCD modules , located in shenzhen, China. Hefengtai is known to attract investment from the government of Zhejiang, China, and install and operate a relocation facility in Zhejiang.

On the other hand, this P8-2 is known to sell the entire 200K-scale facility, and it is known that Samsung C&T is in charge of it, and the sale amount reaches 500 billion won.

Samsung is known to preferentially convert existing LCD facilities in line with the investment of QD Display, but due to the announcement of the sale of all volumes, it is expected that most of the investment facilities will be newly purchased in the future.

In view of this information, it is possible to carefully predict the possibility of a delay in the investment schedule of an additional 90K scale after the current QD display 30K investment or a change in the investment direction associated with QNED development status.

Jiangsu LEMENG (江苏乐萌) invests 200 million yuan for OLED metal mask project

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On June 18, 2020, Jiangsu Lemeng Precision Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (江苏乐萌精密科技有限公司, hereinafter Jiangsu Lemeng) invested 200 million yuan to sign a project contract to confirm the OLED metal mask. It was held in the state-of-the-art new district of Changzhou, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Jiangsu Lemeng (江苏乐萌) secured 77,000 m2 new plant site for expand the OLED metal mask production line. Based on the existing G6 and G5.5 Mask Frame production lines, it will expand production capacity and secure large-scale production capacity of CMM. After the project is completed, Jiangsu Lemeng (江苏乐萌) can produce 8000 Mask Frames and 1000 CMMs annually, and the production sales are expected to reach 500 million yuan. Metal masks are core consumable parts required for OLED production, and have been exclusively supplied by Japanese and Korean companies for a long time.

Jiangsu Lemeng(江苏乐萌) is a subsidiary of Lemeng, Changzhou City, invested 120 million yuan from OLED business unit of Lemeng, Changzhou City, the predecessor, and related to OLED metal mask industrialization from 2017 Technology has been developed. Started mass production of Mask Frame from October 2019 and has a production capacity of about 1000 pieces per year. Jiangsu Lemeng is known to have already secured CMM industrialization technology, and is expected to secure 1,000 CMM production capacity annually from June 2021, when the new facility is completed.

Source: OLED Industry June 19

Investment of 43.75 billion yuan, investment of new Micro OLED factory in China

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According to China’s Fujian Daily, a large-scale investment agreement has been recently signed in Quanzhou, China. According to the contents of the agreement, the contents of various agreements including the Micro OLED project, high-purity electronic materials, lithium hexafluorophosphate project, China Datang 5G Southeast Industrial Base project, and integrated circuit start-up investment fund business are included. It consists of high-tech IT industries such as manufacturing, digital economy, and financial services.

It is known that Quanzhou City’s Micro OLED project is planned to divide the total of 4.33 billion yuan into two stages. The first phase of the project is to invest 667 million yuan and build one micro OLED module test production line on a 5000 square meter site. The monthly production capacity is 1 million units (basic size 8 inches), and the production of 100,000 modules is completed on an annual basis. It is estimated that the annual output of the resulting production will reach 350 million yuan. The second phase, which is in progress, is 3.7 billion yuan. One Micro OLED plant is built and the monthly production capacity is 15,000 sheets (12 inches of substrate size), and one Micro OLED plant will be produced to produce 20 million consumer electronics modules.

According to the breaking news reported earlier, the Micro OLED project was also announced at the concentrating cloud contract of Qianzhou City’s major project in 2020, held by the City Hall of Quanzhou on March 19th. At the time, the event was conducted in the form of’meeting site + online linkage of investment destinations’. Vice Minister Wang Yafu of County, Quanzhou City, signed the Huidong Industrial Park Micro OLED business, investing a total of 4.35 billion won with Chairman Wu Wen Tian of 福建恒煦实业有限公司 on behalf of the current government.

Source: Fujian Daily June 5

Samsung Display A3 line replaced with Y-OCTA manufacturing line

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The touch panel technology installed on a mobile phone is an important element technology that performs a user interface function. Touch technology is changed from an add-on type to an on-cell type in flexible OLED displays.

The built-in method in which a touch sensor is formed on a thin film encapsulation (TFE) is called by various names such as Y-OCTA(YOUM on-cell touch AMOLED), ToE(touch on encapsulation) or FMLOC(flexible multi-layer on cell touch) for each panel maker. Unlike the add-on type, the on-cell type touch sensor is formed directly on the top of the encapsulation layer without a separate base film. Due to this, the on-cell type has a higher process difficulty than the add-on type, but it is advantageous to manufacture a thin OLED panel thickness, and there is an effect of reducing the process cost.

Recently, in order to apply this on-cell type touch technology to mobile phones using OLEDs, each display manufacturer is undergoing a step-by-step line modification work. Four mask steps are added to apply the on-cell type touch technology. There are two ways to cope with this process step increase: to install and respond to new equipment as much as the process to increase, and to proceed with the process at existing facilities.

Samsung Display decided to use an existing exposure machine to use the on-cell type touch technology in the existing A3 line (Tangjeong), and is in the process of remodeling the 105K capacity TFT production line. In the existing process flow, a back plane process is performed with mother glass of 1500×1800 mm2 and 1500×900 mm2 glass with half-cutting of this mother glass is processed in the OLED process. Therefore, in order to process the half-cut glass again in the back plane equipment, the jig manufacturing method of connecting and processing two cut sheets is applied. After this modification, the production capacity of the A3 line will be reduced. The amount of 105K of the A3 line that is currently being renovated is changed from LTPS process to LTPO process, and it is combined with Y-OCTA process. In this case, 3 mask steps increase as LTPS is changed to LTPO, and 4 additional mask steps increase for Y-OCTA. As a result of the total increase of 7 mask steps, the A3 line is expected to reduce the existing 105K production capacity to approximately 75K level after remodeling.

China’s BOE is also constructing built-in touch processes in B7 and B11. BOE is in the process of adding and processing exposure equipment, etc. as a way to add a built-in touch process. In this case, there will be no significant change in production capa.

<Production capacity comparing with before/after modifying at SDC A3 line>

Deuterium substitution blue, will be next generation blue materials?

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Fluorescent blue emitting material is the only fluorescent material used in small and medium-sized OLEDs and large-area OLEDs.

Development of next generation emitting materials such as TADF and hyper-fluorescence is also in progress, but deuterium substitution technology has got attention since it is adopted to Samsung Galaxy S20.

Deuterium substitution technology is to replace hydrogen with deuterium in a compound combined with existing hydrogen, and each company has a difference in substituting the compound before or after synthesis or substituting the whole. Representative development companies for deuterium substitution include Idemitsu Kosan, DuPont, SFC, and JNC.

As related patents, compounds substituted with deuterium with an atomic mass of deuterium that is twice as high as hydrogen have lower zero-energy and lower vibrational energy than those combined with hydrogen, resulting in lower ground-state energy and weaker intermolecular interactions, resulting in a thin film in an amorphous state. It is effective in improving the life of OLED.

It is expected that the OLED device to which the deuterium-substituted compound is applied can improve the lifetime by more than 20% compared to the previous one.

Samsung’s QNED, will make a sensation in the TV and display markets?

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QNED (Quantum dot nanorod LED), which is known to be under development by Samsung, is becoming a hot issue in the display industry in 2020.

With the emergence of micro LEDs, followed by CRTs, PDPs, LCDs, and OLEDs as TV displays, the industry is interested in whether QNED could be another new technology.

Samsung Display is known to stop the LCD business and invest 13.1 trillion won as an alternative to do the QD-OLED business. In this situation, attention is being focused because the development of QNED can act as another variable in the future of Samsung Display’s large display business.

QNED uses oxide TFT and QD (quantum dot) -CF (color filter) technologies used in QD-OLED manufacturing. On the other hand, the pixel material that emits light is characterized by being changed to a nano-sized bar-type LED (nanorod LED), unlike OLED emitting materials. The pixel manufacturing technology, which is the core technology of QNED manufacturing, is a method of spraying nanorod LEDs dispersed in a solution into a pixel area by an ink jet method and arranging them in a self-align method by an electric signal.

UBI Research published a report that analyzed the structure and manufacturing technology of QNED based on the patented technology filed by Samsung Display. This report is structured to quantitatively analyze QNED-related patents filed by Samsung Display, so that QNED’s technology completeness and mass productivity can be known.

QNED structure and manufacturing technology analysis report published

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UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com) published “QNED Structure and Manufacturing Technology Analysis Report”, which analyzed 41 cases of Samsung Display’s QNED (quantum dot nanorod LED) published patents.

The contents described in this report were selected from the 41 patents published, which are considered to be used for QNED manufacturing, and are constructed by qualitative analysis.

As a result of analyzing the published patent, the QNED structure was formed of TFT, pixel, and QD (quantum dot) -CF (color filter). In the published patent, all TFT structures are depicted as 2Tr (transistor), but it is estimated that a 3Tr1C structure will be used because at least three TFTs for current driving are required. The pixels consisted of nanorod LEDs, electrodes, and optical structures to increase light efficiency.

Until now, the electrode structure of the pixel was known to be rectangular, but as a result of analyzing published patents, the electrode structure is estimated to be circular. In a specific patent, when the asymmetric waveform was applied to the circular electrode, the alignment direction and alignment characteristics of the nanorod LED were improved. It is judged that the nanorod LED alignment electrode and the drive use the same electrode.

The nanorod LED used for QNED manufacturing is made of GaN and emits blue light, and the size is <1um x 10um. In order to increase the alignment effect of the nanorod LEDs and reduce process defects, the nanorod LED surface appears to be treated with an insulating film and an orientation radical.

What is the difference between the touch types of each model of iPhone 12?

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All of Apple’s iPhone 12 models, OLED panels will be used and consisted of four models. There are three sizes, 5.4 inches, 6.1 inches, and 6.7 inches, respectively, and 6.1 inches are divided into two models.

Samsung Display and LG Display have begun preparing to mass-produce, with recent orders from Apple. Samsung Display plans to supply OLED panels of all sizes, LG Display plans to supply 6.1-inch OLED panels, and there are differences in touch type by size.

First, on-cell touch which a touch electrode is formed on a thin film encapsulation (TFE) is applied to 5.4 inch and 6.7 inch models. Each panel maker is called Y-OCTA (YOUM on-cell touch AMOLED), ToE (touch on encapsulation), FMLOC (flexible multi-layer on-cell touch), and unlike add-on touch, a touch electrode is formed directly on the upper layer without base films. Due to this, the on-cell touch has a higher process difficulty than the add-on touch, but it is advantageous to fabricate a thin OLED panel thickness, and the process cost is also reduced.

Add-on method is applied to 6.1 inches. A touch electrode is formed on the base film, and is attached on the TFE by adhesive. It has the advantage that the process is simpler than on-cell touch.

<Flexible OLED touch type, Source: AMOLED Manufacturing Process Report>

Recently, rumors that BOE is supplying 5.4 inch and 6.1 inch OLED panels to Apple have turned around, but 5.4 inch is on-cell touch type and it is still difficult to supply for iPhone 12 due to technical difficulty. BOE is developing a 6.1-inch OLED panel and has not received calls yet.

<iPhone 12’s touch types and panel suppliers>

Who is the supplier of OLED panels for iPhone 12?

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<Image of iPhone 12 Pro Max, Source: EveryApplePro>

Apple’s new iPhone 12 will be consisted of 4 models, and all 4 models are expected to adopt OLED. The general lineup of the iPhone 12 is the 5.4 inch iPhone 12 and the 6.1 inch iPhone 12 Max, and the pro lineup is the 6.1 inch iPhone Pro and the 6.7 inch iPhone Pro Max.

Recently, rumors are floating that BOE will supply OLED of 5.4 inch and 6.1 inch general models, and Samsung Display will supply OLED of 6.1 inch and 6.7 inch pro models. Due to the news that Chinese OLED panel manufacturer BOE is supplying OLEDs to Apple, the interest of OLED-related companies such as light-emitting material companies and component companies is growing day by day.

According to UBI Research, BOE is developing 5.4 inch and 6.1 inch OLEDs, but has not received any calls from Apple. In the current situation, Samsung Display plans to supply 5.4 inch, 6.1 inch, and 6.7 inch OLEDs, and LG Display and BOE are developing 6.1 inch OLEDs.

The BOE hasn’t gotten a clear call yet, but there’s plenty of time left for the mass production of the iPhone 12, so there’s plenty of room for the BOE to get a call from Apple. While the production of the iPhone 12 is likely to be delayed by about a month due to the corona incident, it usually takes 4 ~ 5 months from the OLED panel test to the mass production of the set, so there is enough time.

Related information can also be found in the recent report of ‘change in OLED market by coronavirus’, published by UBI Research.

78.6 tons of OLED emitting material demand increased by 5.6% in 2020

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According to the 2020 OLED emitting material report published by UBI Research, the demand for emitting materials in 2020 is 78.6 tons, which is 4.2 tons higher than last year’s 74.4 tons. The material used for OLEDs for smartphones and mobile devices is 62.9 tons, and the OLED emitting material for TVs is expected to be 15.7 tons.

In 2019, the total emitting material market was totaled at $ 1.28 billion, and 43% of the total amount was purchased from Samsung Display. It was found that the amount purchased by LG Display was 19.4% and the BOE was 11.6%. LG Display’s purchase of emitting materials accounted for 60.8% of TV use. The order of purchase of emitting materials for mobile devices is in order of Samsung Display, BOE, and LG Display. This is because BOE has a large amount of OLED production for mobiles after Samsung Display.

The OLED panel for TV only produces LG Display, but Samsung Display is pursuing QD-OLED commercialization using blue light emitting material and QD. In addition, although BOE is a white OLED structure similar to LG Display, it is developing a top-emission structure that transmits light in the opposite direction of TFT, and it is expected that three companies will produce OLED panels for TV within a few years, and the emitting material market is expected to increase as well.

The market for emitting materials in 2020 is expected to increase by 7% from 2019 to $ 1.37 billion. Among the emitting materials, green and red hosts are expected to be $ 19.2 billion and $ 19 billion, respectively, and green dopants and P + are expected to be $ 1.37 billion and $ 1.35 billion, respectively.

[UBI Research China Trend Report] Will BOE Provide UPC Panel with Transparent PI Substrate to Oppo?

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According to UBI Research’s report on changes in the OLED market caused by coronavirus, the forecast for the 2020 OLED modification market is $ 36.7 billion in sales and 612 million units. This is a decrease of 4.8% and 7.6%, respectively, from the expected sales of $ 38.5 billion and shipments of 6.6 million units at the beginning of the year.

As a result of UBI Research’s analysis of the effect of coronavirus on the OLED market for two months, the global smartphone market is expected to drop by 20% and the TV market is expected to decrease by 15%. However, the impact on the overall OLED industry was judged to be only 5-8%. OLED panels for smartphones, TVs and watches are expected to decrease, but the market for OLEDs for monitors is expected to increase.

The expected OLED shipment for smartphones was 527 million units at the beginning of the year, but the forecast for correction is 486 million units, a decrease of only 7.8%. Although the market for Galaxy and iPhone is analyzed to be higher than the average decrease rate, Chinese smartphone makers are expected to reduce LCD smartphones and increase production of OLED smartphones significantly.

Chinese smartphone makers’ use of OLED seems to follow Apple’s business direction. Flagship models of Chinese smartphone makers have used Pro and Pro Plus. Pro is the model grade name used by Apple and Plus is the model grade name used by Samsung. However, flagship models of Chinese smartphone makers that are launching this year are using both Pro and Pro Max as well as Apple. All of these models, like Apple, plan to use flexible OLEDs.

The OLED TV market was found to be greatly affected by coronavirus. Estimated shipments at the beginning of the year were 4.9 million units, but the forecast for correction was 3.6 million units, down by 1.3 million units. A 26.5% reduction is expected. This is 300,000 units more than 2019 shipments. This is because the production schedule of the Guangzhou factory has been postponed since the third quarter due to the coronavirus, and TV sales are plunging due to the spread of coronavirus in Japan and Europe, the main markets for OLED TV. In fact, Japan’s TV performance in the second quarter was below 50% in 2019.

However, the demand for the OLED panel business for monitors that Samsung Display has been promoting since the second half of last year is expected to increase due to the game industry, telecommuting, telemedicine, and remote classes due to the aftermath of the coronavirus.

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.

Apple’s last LCD phone, iPhone SE

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The iPhone SE, the last product of the LCD smartphone that Apple has opened to the smartphone market, has been released.

Apple’s 2019 model iPhone 11 had three models, the base model iPhone 11 used a 6.06inch LCD, and the advanced specifications iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max used 5.85 inch and 6.46inch flexible OLED, respectively.

Samsung Display supplies both 5.85inch and 6.46inch flexible OLEDs, and LG Display has supplied only 6.46inch flexible OLEDs from the fourth quarter of 2019.

This year, Apple releases a four-model iPhone. There are three types of iPhone, SE2 which started selling this month, and 3 iPhone 12 which starts selling in September. Strictly speaking, since there are 2 models of the iPhone 12 Pro, 4 types of iPhones using OLED will be released in the second half of this year.

Apple’s current LCD phones are the iPhone 11 and the newly released SE2. Of the iPhone models released by Apple this year, only the LCD will use the SE2, and the SE2 is expected to be Apple’s last LCD smartphone.

Apple already mentioned that in 2019, all future iPhone displays will be replaced by OLEDs. Therefore, in fact, this is the reason that the SE2 released this time is expected to be the last　LCD phone.

Most of the latest smartphones are more than 6 inches, but the iPhone SE2 released this time is a small 4.7-inch model using IPS LCD.

The reason Apple used a small display is believed to be a strategic product to target the mid-priced market of around $ 500. It’s currently $ 549.99 on eBay, but it’s on Amazon for $ 399.

Apple’s expected iPhone strategy is two tracks. First of all, in order to maintain the second largest market share in shipments, it is necessary to match shipments with products with a wide market of $ 500. And the operating profit creation is to fit the expensive iPhone 12 series using flexible OLED.

However, shipments of LCD phones are expected to gradually disappear after 2021, depending on the sales of 5.42 inches, the basic model of iPhone 12, which will be released in the second half of this year.

Huawei’s OLED TV launch, LG Electronics, and Sony’s 48-inch OLED TV Launch Will Further Increase the Influence of OLED TV to Oppo?

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Huawei launch its first OLED TV and LG Electronics and Sony will launch a new lineup, a 48-inch OLED TV. As a result, the OLED TV camp and lineup are expected to become more diverse.

First, Huawei will launch its first OLED TV X65 soon. X65 is used a 24-megapixel camera to control the TV with a ‘gesture tracking’ function that recognizes the user’s face, motion, and posture, and is equipped with 14 under-screen speakers to automatically To correct the sound. The X65 used LG Display’s OLED will be released on April 8.

China’s OLED TV camp has increased to five camps from Skyworth, Konka, Changhong, and Xiaomi to Huawei. In addition, Huawei’s OLED TV launch, which is leading the Chinese smartphone market, can have a great influence on the premium TV market in the future.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics and Sony, which are leading the OLED TV market, will launch a new 48-inch OLED TV to make the lineup more diverse. Currently, OLED TVs have only 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch lineups, and are evaluated to have a relatively short lineup compared to LCD TVs. LG Electronics and Sony are planning to target the Japanese or European market with high preference for small TVs through the launch of this 48-inch OLED TV.

LG Electronics and Sony’s 48-inch OLED TVs are scheduled to be released in May and July, respectively.

It is noteworthy whether OLED TV will exert great influence once again in the premium TV market in 2020, such as Huawei joining the OLED TV camp and LG Electronics and Sony launching the first 48-inch OLED TV.

Samsung Display QD-OLED Investment Timing Forecast to Oppo?

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Samsung’s LCD business, which began in 1991, will be suspended in 2021. Samsung’s LCD business is completely closed after a 30-year lifespan. Samsung foresaw the limitations of the LCD business 10 years ago and stopped investing in the 10G. Instead, Samsung Electronics has separated the LCD business to create a Samsung Display combined with Samsung SDI’s OLED and has been preparing for a new display era.

Samsung’s loss of LCD business can be estimated for two reasons. The first is the deterioration of profitability from China’s LCD over-investment, and the second is the transition to a new business with high added value.

Since the display is an essential product in the modern information society, demand is gradually increasing worldwide as the usage is increased. In addition, as the amount of information increases, the data to be expressed increases, so the display size must also increase. By these two factors, the display industry has the power to continue to develop. However, China’s LCD investments have continued to invest in large quantities over many years. In the wake of this, only two LCD companies in Japan, Sharp and JDI, remained, and the Korean LCD business also reached a point where it was necessary to organize the business due to deficits.

Samsung Display and LG Display have expanded the OLED business to respond to the low-priced panel of Chinese LCD companies, and have focused on producing OLEDs with the best image quality preferred by set makers with high brand power. Samsung Display already secured a market of $ 25.3 billion in the smartphone display business in 2019, and LG Display secured $ 2.2 billion in sales in the OLED market for TV last year.

Samsung Display has enjoyed tremendous sales and operating profit in the OLED business, but the LCD business has been in the red for several years. Samsung Display sells LCDs for monitors, mainly for LCDs for TVs, but has secured the optimal solution to replace them all as QD-OLEDs.

QD-OLED production, which Samsung Display started investing from this year, uses 8.5G equipment. This is because Samsung Display’s factory in Tangjeong is an 8.5G LCD line, which can reduce the cost of building an OLED production line. Samsung Display will produce 8K 65-inch QD-OLED panels at this plant starting next year. It also produces QD-OLEDs for 32-inch 4K monitors. Maintaining the TV and monitor panel business previously held by Samsung Display, profitability can be secured by selling expensive products.

Samsung Display started investing in QD-OLED 30K in the existing 8.5G LCD factory, but the total investment is 120K. The remaining investment is 90K. Samsung Display’s additional investment is expected to change in size and timing depending on the QD-OLED production situation starting next year. If a yield of over 60% is secured from the beginning of production, the remaining 90K can be invested in next year. This is the most desirable timing. It can be used without leaving the LCD engineer. To prepare for this situation, all LCD lines must be removed by the first half of 2021. The next scenario is when the QD-OLED yield is less than 60%. In general, when the yield is low, the plant cannot be fully operated, so it does not require much manpower. Since additional investment is appropriate after securing the yield, it is a method of separating the investment, investing 30 ~ 60K, and then investing the remaining size later.

Nobody know what will happen next year, but Samsung Display is steadily taking a step forward to secure the future business.

JDI decided to sell LCD production equipment to a foreign client for 200 million dollars

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JDI announced that it has agreed to sell production equipment at its plant in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, to a foreign client for 200 million dollars.

The Hakusan plant was JDI’s mainstay factory, producing LCD panels for Apple. The plant was halted in July last year due to sluggish demand. JDI plans to clean up excess facilities that have caused poor performance.

JDI decided to sell LCD production equipment to Apple first and real estate to Sharp later, but negotiations have been delayed due to the effect of the corona virus.

The Hakusan plant was built with Apple’s $ 1.5 billion funds and operated at the end of 2016. But because Apple’s utilization of OLED panels on iPhones has increased in recent years, utilization rate of Hakusan plant has decreased. Moreover, it was a burden for JDI to repay the advances to Apple at the end of February 2020. It is a policy that the funds obtained through the sale of the equipment will be used to repay advances.

Foldable OLED UTG market expected to grow rapidly

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As Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z Flip continues to be sold out in the market, Samsung Display’s foldable OLED cover window UTG (ultra thin glass) market is expected to grow rapidly.

According to UBI Research’s first quarter 2020 parts and materials market track, the UTG market is expected to grow to $ 160 million this year and to $ 640 million in 2023.

In Samsung Electronics’ first-generation foldable phone, the Galaxy folder, a transparent PI made of plastic was used as the cover window, but in the second-generation foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, the cover window was replaced with UTG. The reason Samsung Display changed the transparent PI to UTG is that the glare of the glass cover when the screen is off gives a much more luxurious feeling than the transparent PI.

Samsung Display used transparent PI produced by Dongwoo Fine-Chem for the first-generation foldable OLED, but changed it to UTG produced by Dowooinsys technology. Glass for UTG is provided by Shott. To strengthen the foldable OLED ecosystem, Samsung Display secured a 27.7% stake in Dowooinsys and secured its position as the largest shareholder. Foldable OLED latecomers are now only developing out-folding type foldable OLEDs as transparent PI, but Samsung Display has changed materials to prevent latecomers from following the foldable OLED market at all.

3F starts construction of 1,100 tons of PI production plant annually

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China has entered the localization of PI. Although it has grown to the world’s highest level of LCD production, it is still only a few percent in the OLED panel market. In the OLED field, the Chinese government continues to invest heavily in panel makers, mainly BOE, to help China become the best production base. However, the supply chain of parts and materials that are essential for producing OLED is very poor.

The Chinese government has invested in a PI plant to make flexible substrates, which is the first step in flexible OLED manufacturing.

3F New Material, located in Changshu, started a project capable of producing 1,100 tons of PI per year. The project involved construction of a three-story production plant on a site of 2408 square meters with a total investment of 216 million yuan. The total building area is 7224 square meters, and after completion of the factory, it will have the capacity to produce 1,000 tons of PI for the substrate and 100 tons of transparent PI for the cover window.