OLED production - Page 31

Earlier this year, reports suggested that Samsung Display is considering a new flexible OLED plant, its largest OLED fab yet. The so called A5 fab was reportedly to have a monthly capacity of between 180,000 to 270,000 6-Gen substrates (it's current largest OLED fab, the A3, will have a monthly capacity of 135,000 substrates when the current expansion phase ends later this year).

A new report from Business Korea suggests that Samsung has confirmed the new fab, and is now debating whether the first phase in the A5 fab will have a capacity of 30,000 or 60,000 monthly substrates. Samsung will start constructing the fab in December 2017. The new fab building alone is estimated at $1.75 billion.

Last month we reported that BOE aims to start producing flexible OLEDs at its new 6-Gen B7 fab in Chengdu by the end of October 2017. A new report from Korea's ETNews sheds some more light about BOE's plans.

The annual capacity of the B7 line, when complete, will be about 90 million smartphone sized displays (45,000 monthly 6-Gen substrates). According to ETNews, BOE aims to produce 5.5" flexible OLEDs at first, and then add a 5.99" display in November. BOE's initial capacity will be very low - around 10,000 panels per month.

Taiwan-based PMOLED developer Wisechip announced plans to start mass producing In-Cell Touch PMOLED displays in Q4 2017. Wisechip says that its 1-inch ICT PMOLED will be cheaper by about $1 compared to current touch PMOLEDs, and will also be thinner and lighter.

An In-Cell Touch display has the touch layer embedded within the panel itself. There's no need to laminate a separate touch layer. Wisechip said that it developed an enhanced manufacturing process and new technologies that were required for the In-Cell layer addition.

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a strategic focus on OLED displays as the losing display maker failed to keep up with the industry shift to OLEDs. JDI said it will need to raise new funds in order to accelerate its OLED plans and prepare for mass production in 2019.

JDI estimates that it will require more than 200 billion Yen (around $1.77 billion USD) to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019. JDI is now looking for financing partners that will help fund the company's OLED project. It is estimated that it will find it difficult to find a partner in Japan and so JDI is looking for Chinese and Korean display makers. According to the Nikkei Asian Times BOE and CSoT already expressed interest.

Back in May it was reported that BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen (the B7) fab in Chengdu. This was apparently a bit optimistic, but a new report from Japan now says that BOE aims to ship its first flexible OLED out of the Chengdu fab at the end of next month (October 2017).

BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It is likely though that initial yields will be low and production quite limited.

AP Systems announced that it has received orders for OLED deposition equipment from CSoT for the company's 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab in Wuhan that is currently under construction.

AP Systems said that the whole order is worth $60.65 million and the equipment will be delivered starting in September 2017 until October 2018. AP Systems did not disclose the equipment list, but the company's main products are laser annealing equipment (used to produce LTPS substrates), laser list-off equipment and OLED encapsulation tools.

According to Digitimes, Visionox has completed the construction of the building for its 6-Gen AMOLED fab in Hebei province, China. The company will start moving in and installing the production equipment in the beginning of 2018.

Visionox's 6-Gen fab will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 substrates, and will be mainly used to produce flexible AMOLEDs. Production will begin in mid-2018. This fab will cost around $4.5 billion.

LG Display's first large flexible OLED Production line, the E5 line in Gumi was supposed to start producing panels in June 2017, but reports from Taiwan suggested that LG delayed the mass production to August (which caused LGD to lose a 3 million OLED supply deal with Xiaomi).

According to analysts from CLSA, the yields at the E5 line are still very low - at around 10%, and it will take LG quite some time to increase the yields enough to start mass production - yields will be at around 30% at year's end, still very low. The displays for upcoming LGD's V30 smartphone were supposed to come out of this line, but LGD has decided to produce these at the E2 4.5-Gen line which is not an efficient fab for smartphone panels.

In December 2016 China-based AMOLED producer Everdisplay officially launched production of its upcoming $4.1 billion 6-Gen AMOLED factory in Shanghai, China. Everdisplay's new fab construction is progressing, and EDO today held a ceremony noting that the company finished the building's main steel plant roof frame.

EDO's new fab will be able to produce 30,000 monthly substrates (1500 x 1850 mm) and will be used to produce small and medium sized flexible AMOLEDs (1 to 15 inch). EDO aims to begin installing equipment in August 2018 with trial production beginning in January 2019 and mass production in 2021.

OLED maker Truly Semiconductor, based in Hong Kong, sees a large increase in PMOLED demand in the near future, and the company is executing an ambitious PMOLED capacity expansion plan.

Truly is currently operating two production lines: the P1 and P2 lines, both 2.5-Gen and with a monthly capacity of 625K and 1.25M pcs (Truly counts its capacity as per 1" displays). Truly has set out to build two new production lines. The P3 line which is a 2.5-Gen line with a capacity of 3.13 million 1 panels monthly is almost ready and will start mass production by the end of the month.