OLED production - Page 5

According to recent rumors, LG Display has decided to go ahead and build its 8.6-Gen (2250 x 2600 mm) IT AMOLED line, in Paju, Korea (at its P10 hub, which was originally planned for OLED TV production). The company recently started to conduct discussions with equipment makers for supply agreements.

LG Display's plan is to officially announce its 8.6-Gen production line plans in the second half of the year, and start ordering equipment. It is likely that the capacity of the fab will be between 7,500 to 15,000 monthly substrates. LG will be using its P10 building and existing equipment (backplane deposition) to reduce the costs of the 8.6-Gen line. This will mean that there will be delays to LG's WOLED TV panel capacity expansion plans. 

Shanghai-based OLED microdisplay maker Lumicore announced that it has closed its series-A funding round, raising $100 million. Lumicore will use the funds to ramp-up its 8-inch production line in Nanjing, and introduce its first products to market.

Lumicore developed several OLED microdisplays, including a 2K 144Hz 1.32" display.  The company is also developing 4K microdisplays.

China-based OLED microdisplay developer Lakeside Optoelectronics (also known as Lakeside Lightning Semiconductor) announced that it is progressing with its 12-inch OLED microdisplay production line project in Yixing (Wuxi). The building itself is nearly complete, with the last floor concrete poured in. 

The new fab will have a capacity of 7,000 monthly 12-inch substrates, and should enter production in October 2025. The company also plans a 2nd phase which will double its capacity and enable it to produce around 10 million OLED microdisplays per year. 

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung Display and LG Display are starting to produce AMOLED displays for Apple's future iPads, to be announced later this year. Samsung is set to produce 11" LTPO AMOLED displays, while LG Display is producing displays for the 13" model (but LGD will also produce 11" AMOLEDs in the future for Apple). 

The Elec says that both Korean makers developer 11" and 13" displays, but for some unknown reason only LGD will produce the 13" displays. This could change in the future, of course. One reason could be that LG Display has more experience with tandem OLED architectures (developed originally by LGD years ago for automotive OLEDs).

BOE has been planning a 8.5-Gen flexible IT AMOLED Line for a couple of years, and in November 2023, following some delays, the company officially announced its plans for the new fab. Now we hear from China that the Chengdu local government, together with Chengdu's Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, have signed the contact with BOE to build the new plant.

The total investment in the fab is expected to reach 63 billion Yuan (over $8.7 billion USD). The fab will have a capacity of 32,000 monthly substrates (2290x2620 mm), and is expected to begin production by Q4 2026 (total construction time will be 34 months, according to the plan).

In 2022, Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a "historic breakthrough in display technology" - a new OLED deposition process which they refer to as eLEAP, that is said to be cost effective and can be used to create freeform OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM).

Japan Display announced an agreement with China-based LCD maker HKC Corp to mass produce panels by 2025 in China, based on JDI's technology, but the plan was later cancelled, and JDI said it will establish its own factory in China. The company was negotiating with the Wuhu Economic and Technological Development Zone (in Anhui Province), aiming to establish two eLEAP AMOLED production lines by 2025. JDI hoped to sign the formal agreement before the end of 2023.

JDI now announced that it is scaling back its plans. Originally JDI aimed to establish two production lines: one 6-Gen (with a capacity of 10,000 monthly substrates) and one 8.7-Gen (30,000 monthly substrates). Now JDI decided to reduce its plans, to a single 8.7-Gen fab. In addition, it estimates it will sign the final contract in March 2024. The 8.7-Gen line will start mass production in December 2026.

OLED microdisplay maker Sidtek announced that it is starting to install production equipment at its 12-inch production line in Wuhu City, Anhui Province. The company says the first production line in the project is on track to start production in 2024.

Sidtek is currently producing its OLED microdisplays on a 8-inch production line, also in Wuhu. The first phase of its 12-inch fab will have a monthly capacity of 6,000 substrates, and the company is planning an expansion to 18,000 substrate. The total investment in the 12-inch fab (including the 2nd stage) is estimated at 6 billion Yuan (around $840 million USD).

In 2022, OLED microdisplay developer BCDTEK announced its plans to construct a 12-inch OLED microdisplay production site in Huainan, China. The new fab, at full capacity, will have a production capacity of 20,000 monthly substrates, and a total investment of 6.5 billion Yuan ($970 million USD).

The first phase of this fab (the K2 line), is now in construction, and the company announced that the building itself is now complete. The total investment in the first phase, which will have a monthly capacity of 4,000 wafers, will cost 1.5 billion Yuan ($210 million USD). 

Visionox announced that it has produced the first mass-production sample ViP AMOLED display. The company aims to start mass producing small and medium-sized ViP AMOLED soon, and later apply the technology for large-area panels as well.

The company did not detail when it expects to start actual mass production. It did update that it has already applied for over 500 patents regarding to ViP technology, over 13 different technical fields. The company also says it is in talks with several key customers to define its production process and final display capabilities.