Merck posts an interesting presentation detailing the company's OLED business. And it includes some interesting details. So first of all, Merck says that if OLEDs advances further, it could gain a meaningful share in the TV market. In fact, they forecast OLED panels to grab 10-15% of the total display market by 2019. By surface area, the market will grow to around 50 km2, mostly from OLED TV applications.
Merck is still focused on OLED printing technologies over evaporation technologies as the technological advantages will enable cheaper large area panels. According to this presentation, in 2010 Merck started to collaborate with Epson on printable OLEDs (which is interesting as officially they announced this alliance in October 2012). Anyway Merck says that this alliance created a "significant momentum" in OLED printing technology. as you can see from the chart below which shows Merck's OLED development advances over time:
In terms of its strategy, Merck wants to become an OLED solution provider, not just a material supplier as this will maximize the value for both Merck and its customers. So Merck will address whole devices and optimize material combination. The company currently has around 80 OLED R&D experts and around 1,400 related patents.
Comments
a little while ago, I registered into your forum... why my account does not apply to your site when I add a comment?
Plame, maybe you just need to login again?
By the way, I didn't even know that this site has registering feature. Probably it makes sense to make corresponding links ("Register", "Login") more easily/obviously achievable for users (the links or corresponding forms themselves could be placed in sidebar for example). Thanks.
Are you sure that solution provider really mean that Merck will start selling OLED devices? Because if true that would mean a significant change in their company strategy.
In my opinion it is far more likely that by "solution provider" they simply mean that they will provide not just the raw materials but in fact ready-to-print OLED formulations which are optimized for a given printing/production method.
Yes, I agree. I didn't mean they will start offering whole panels, but whole "OLED devices" (i.e. complete stack materials, etc.)
...my forecast is ... OLED panels to grab 10-15% of the total display market by 2015