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Foldable OLED shipments will expand to 61 million units in 2027, and the UTG market will also grow more than three times

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According to the ‘2023 OLED Components and Materials Report’ recently published by UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, In 2023, foldable OLED shipments are expected to record 22 million units, and expand to 61 million units in 2027 at an average annual growth rate of 29%.

Ultra Thin Glass market forecast

Ultra Thin Glass market forecast

As the foldable market expands, the market for foldable cover windows is also expected to expand. The market for foldable cover windows is expected to expand from $410 million in 2023 to $840 million in 2027.

However, since Samsung Display plans to mass-produce foldable OLEDs only with UTG in the future, and BOE, TCL CSOT, and Visionox are also developing foldable OLEDs with UTG applied, the cover window market for foldable phones is expected to be led by UTG (UItra thin glass) in the future, and the share of colorless PI will continue to decline.

The UTG market is expected to grow from $240 million in 2023 to $740 million in 2027, and the colorless PI market is expected to shrink from $170 million in 2023 to $95 million in 2027.

Samsung Electronics, a leader in foldable phones, has applied UTG (Ultra thin glass) for cover windows to all foldable phones released since the ‘Galaxy Z Fold2’. Samsung Electronics processes and uses Corning’s glass, and Samsung Display is supplied with Schott’s glass.

Recently, Chinese companies that have adopted colorless PI as a cover window due to lack of technology are also increasing the use of UTG.

Motorola released clam-shell type ‘Razr 40’ and ‘Razr 40 Ultra’ in June. The panel supplier for both products is TCL CSOT, and Schott’s UTG is processed and supplied by SEED(赛德) for the cover window. Among them, the ‘Razr 40 Ultra’ has a larger external display of 3.6 inches compared to the existing foldable phone, similar to the ‘Galaxy Z Flip 5’ to be released by Samsung Electronics.

Oppo is preparing to release a 6.8-inch clam-shell type and an 8.1-inch book type foldable phone. All of Oppo’s new foldable OLED panels will be supplied by BOE, and TOKEN will process and supply Schott’s UTG.

Huawei released the successor to the Mate series, the Mate X3, in April. The foldable OLED panel of ‘Mate X3’ is supplied by BOE and Visionox, and the cover window is supplied with KOLON’s colorless PI coated by DNP. Huawei was developing UTG for cover windows, but adopted colorless PI due to performance issues.

The ‘2023 OLED Components and Materials Report’ published this time analyzes the development and business status of foldable/rollable OLED by set and panel companies, the latest OLED development status such as MLA (Micro lens array), QD materials, oxide TFT, and encapsulation technology, OLED Analysis of panel makers’ mass production capa and market outlook for major parts and materials were discussed.

▶ 2023 OLED Components and Materials Report Sample Download

[K-Display 2022 Business Forum] CosesGT Passed the UTG 0.9mm Folding Radius, Folding Test 340,000 Times

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UTG market outlook source : UBI Research

UTG market outlook source : UBI Research

At the ‘K-display 2022 Business Forum’ held at COEX from August 11th to 12th, CEO Il-jae Lee of Coses GT presented ‘Cover Window for Foldable and UTG Manufacturing Method’.

Regarding the foldable phone market, CEO Lee said, “According to UBI Research data, the size of the foldable market is expected to grow to 1 trillion won by 2025. Recently, not only Korea, but also China and the United States are actively engaged in foldable-related businesses. We are concentrating on securing competitiveness in UTG and hinge technology to catch up with Samsung Electronics such as Apple in the US and Huawei, Oppo and Honor in China.”

Next, explaining the characteristics of UTG products, “OCA and PET films are attached on the UTG products that are actually used and hard coating and anti-finger coating are made. If you do a pen-drop test on the 30um thick UTG of CosesGT, the panel breaks at 2.5cm. If PET film is applied over UTG, it can withstand up to 25cm in the pen-drop test, but the unique properties of UTG are greatly damaged. We are thinking about how to proceed with UTG alone without any special process on top of UTG.”

Regarding product mass production, “Actually, the Galaxy flip or fold-sized panel developed by CosesGT can be mass-produced with a thickness of 50 to 70um. Samples can be made with the same thickness as flip and fold for a 17-inch or larger medium-large panel such as a laptop, but considering mass production, it can be produced with a thickness of 70-100um.”

According to the announcement, the actual folding radius of the panel developed by CosesGT achieved a radius of 0.9R at 6.8 inches, 1.2R at 8.2 inches, and 4R at 17 inches. The folding test passed 170,000 times for 96 hours at 60°C and 170,000 times for 96 hours at -20°C, a total of 340,000 folding tests.

Finally, when asked about the most difficult aspect of UTG development by Chinese UTG processing companies, he said, “Recently, Chinese panel makers’ UTG demand is increasing, but Chinese processing makers have not yet entered the UTG business. The hinge technology of Chinese processors is also a problem, but the development of foldable phones is still being delayed because the proportion of foldable phones in the smartphone market is still small. Also, UTG processing companies in China seem to think that early UTG and glass are the same material and can be easily developed.”

CosesGT's UTG for laptop/tablet

CosesGT’s UTG for laptop/tablet

CosesGT exhibited UTG for 6.1-inch iPhone13 Pro and UTG for 13.3, 13.9, 15, and 17.8-inch notebooks/tablets at K-display 2022. Currently, CosesGT receives a glass ledger from NEG, a Japanese glass producer, and processes it, and samples are being evaluated by several companies.

▶ 2022 OLED Component and Material Report Sample Download