TCL CSOT - Page 9

Production laser deposition equipment developer Solmates announced that it has sold a small panel (200x200 mm) PLD tool to CSOT, to be used in the company's pilot OLED line that is being built in Wuhan, China. CSOT will use the new tool to deposit the ITO electrodes on OLED displays.

Solmates patented the process of OLED ITO electrode deposition using PLD and has developed the technology that enables large-area deposition of ITO on room temperatures. The PLD process results in very high quality ITO deposition and Solmates says that the achieved transparency is higher than currently used methods. Solmates' tool will be placed in CSOT's new cluster tool that is place in Wuhan since the end of 2016. Solmates will deliver the tool in June 2017. The current tool is used for R&D, but the technology can be scaled to larger substrates and to be used in production systems.

Digitimes reports that TCL-subsidiary China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSoT) has decided to construct a 6-Gen LTPS flexible AMOLED production line in Wuhan, China, in a $5.08 billion investment.

The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates and will start trial production of small to medium sized flexible OLEDs in Q2 2019.

Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) released some very interesting information regarding the mobile OLED market from its recent OLED market report by Yoshio Tamura and Ross Young. DSCC expects mobile AMOLED demand to grow from almost 400 million panels in 2016 to almost 1.2 billion in 2021.

Samsung Electronics, who's already using AMOLED displays in almost 80% of its smartphones will not increase its AMOLED orders by a lot, but shipments will grow dramatically to other players led by Apple, Huawei and Oppo.

According to Digitimes Research, OLED display makers in China will increase their total annual capacity from 272,000 m² in 2016 to 7.86 million m² in 2020 - a CAGR or 131.9%.

The largest producer in 2020 will be BOE Display (35% of the Chinese OLED market), followed by Tianma (17.6%), Visionox (14%), Everdisplay (11.6%), CSoT (9.5%), Truly (7.8%) and Royole (4.5%).

TCL's CSoT subsidiary demonstrated curved 31" FHD AMOLED displays at the 18th China High- Tech Fair. CSoT showed three such panels side-by-side, to create a 5760x1080 80" display. The WOLED WRGB panels offer 150 nits brightness (which is rather low).

CSoT are producing those panels in its Gen-4.5 pilot R&D line in Shenzhen. CSoT already demonstrated 31" AMOLED panels in June 2015, it is not clear what is the difference in the new prototypes.

When Samsung started producing AMOLED displays in 2007, AMOLED technology was at a very early stage, immature, and Samsung took a huge risk. A few years later, this risk was rewarded with a successful display business and a boost to the company's smartphone business that was the first to adopt AMOLED displays.

Fast forward to 2016, and today Samsung is still the king of AMOLED displays, with a market share of over 95% in small/medium AMOLED panels. If we look at OLED TV production, then LG Display is the only commercial producer at this stage. But Samsung and LG are not alone - several companies in China and Taiwan already started mass producing AMOLEDs, and others have announced plans for large AMOLED fabs. In this long article we'll list all of these AMOLED producers and developers (over a dozen) - and details their current production capacity and rumored and confirmed production plans.

Blue TADF developer Cynora signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Guangdong Juhua Printing Display Technology to cooperate on OLED TV development.

Johua was established earlier this year by CSoT (66%) and TianMa (34%) with an aim to industrialize printed OLED technologies. Johua Printing is an "open innovation platform" guided by the Chinese government that collaborates with both industry and universities to drive the progress of China's display industry and the GUangdong Province specifically.

Last month we posted that TCL plans to build a Gen-11 LCD and AMOLED fab in Shenzhen, in a $6.97 billion investment. The fab, owned by CSOT and built by TCL and Shenzhen Huaxing Power with help from the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Commission, will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 Gen-11 substrates (3370x2940 mm) and use IGZO backplanes.

In a news release today, TCL announced that will increase the investment in this fab by a further 21 billion yuan (around $3.15 billion). Samsung Display will be a partner in this fab, investing 2.1 billion yuan to hold a 9.76% stake.

It 2013 it was reported that TCL plans to invest over $4 billion to build a new 8.5-Gen LCD and OLED fab in Shenzhen, owned by CSOT. The so-called Huaxing Power Two OLED fab never materialized... at least until now.

TCL released information that it now seeks to $6.96 billion to build a new LCD and OLED Gen-11 production fab in Shenzhen. The new fab, built by TCL and Shenzhen Huaxing Power with help from the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Commission, will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 Gen-11 substrates (3370x2940 mm) and use IGZO backplanes.

ETNews posted an interesting story, in which it is said that Chinese display makers are diverting investments away from LCD production and into flexible OLED production. ETNews lists BOE Display, CSoT, TianMa and Visionox - all bringing forward flexible OLED plans.

Flexible OLED prototype, Tianma

Tianma and Visionox, according to ETNews, already started to make actual investment and placed initial equipment orders for flexible OLED production. BOE and CSoT decided to postpone 8-gen LCD investment plans and will start investing in flexible OLEDs by the end of 2016.