QD-OLED displays - Page 4

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q4 2022, with revenues of $57.3 billion, and an operating profit of $3.5 billion.

Samsung says that the "business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown". SDC's mobile AMOLED panel business earning declined, as demand for smartphones fell, but its large-area panel business seen a smaller loss as it is increasing sales of QD-OLED panels.

Omdia posted an interesting market analysis, saying that Samsung Display is looking to increase its OLED TV market share, and will push QD-OLED TV shipments strong in 2023. SDC will increase shipments by 141% in 2023, and will continue to increase production.

Samsung's production increase will be met by an increased number of suppliers - not just Samsung and Sony as in 2022, but other companies will start offering QD-OLED TVs (Philips, TCL and Sharp).

Update: TCL says it issued that statement by mistake, and it has no current plans to ship a QD-OLED TV in 2023

TCL announced that it is set to launch its first QD-OLED TV in the coming months. If all goes according to plan, TCL will be the third company (following Samsung and Sony) to offer QD-OLED TVs.

That's the only information we have so far. The TV will likely be offered in 55-inch, 65-inch and/or 77-inch sizes (the available QD-OLED panels today) with a 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 144Hz. That's the current QD-OLED standard.

Samsung announced that it is set to start producing several new QD-OLED panels and products in 2023. In addition to the current 34-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch panels, it will also offer a 49-inch 240Hz ultra-wide 5120x1440 QD-OLED for gaming monitors, and a 77-inch TV panel.

Samsung will adopt the new 49-inch ultra-wide QD-OLED panel in its upcoming Odyssey OLED G9 monitor. We already knew Samsung has finished developing this panel back in November when MSI unveiled their own QD-OLED monitor project. The 77-inch panel was also unveiled before.

UBI Research says that according to its latest study, the OLED emitter market is set to grow from around $1.82 billion in 2022 to $2.75 billion in 2027, with an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6%.

In 2027, UBI expects Samsung's emitter material orders to amount to $680 million - fueled by growth in foldable OLED panels. BOE's emitter material orders will reach $380 million, and LG Display's - $230 million.

MSI unveiled an upcoming monitor, a QD-OLED super ultra-wide curved display, that will offer a 240Hz herz. MSI did not disclose anything else - beyond saying that the current name is Project 491C.

This is the first time we publicly hear of a 240Hz QD-OLED display. Samsung currently produces a single monitor QD-OLED panel, a 34-inch curved 175Hz 3440x1440 display.

According to reports, Kateeva started to ship quantum dots inkjet printing equipment to Samsung Display, for the production of QD-OLED panels. It appears as if Samsung is interested in producing 8K QD-OLEDs, and its current inkjet printing supplier, Semes, is not ready with printers that support 8K QD deposition.

Kateeva announced that it has designed a new system, called the YIELDjet Jarvis, that supports 8.5-Gen substrates and can indeed enable 8K TV deposition. Kateeva says that the Jarvis system has the ability to print using solvent-based RGB inks or nanoparticle inks with its proprietary ink recirculation system to ensure uniform particle distribution.

According to UBI Research, Samsung Display has decided to produce QD-OLED panels at its upcoming 8.7-Gen A5 production line. The company IT display strategy will be to produce QD-OLED panels for monitor application (27-inch displays, at first) and tandem RGB panels for smaller IT displays (tablets, laptops).

A 34-inch QD-OLED monitor (Dell Alienware)

Samsung is looking for design wins with Apple for both its display architectures - the larger QD-OLED panels for Apple's monitors and the smaller sized panels for its tablets.

DSCC says that spending on equipment for the production of large area OLED panels (used in TVs and monitors) have decreased from $3 billion in 2019 to $2.05 billion in 2020, $1.47 billion in 2021 and will drop further to $1.42 billion in 2022.

DSCC estimates that in 2023, the spending on such equipment will be zero. But OLED producers will resume buying large OLED equipment in 2024. Spending in 2024 will amount $2.01 billion, and in 2025 - $1.51 billion.