AU Optronics - Page 12

A few days ago it was reported that AUO is collaborating with Sony on OLED production , and today the Chinese Commercial Times reports that Sony will buy all of AUO's AMOLED production capacity in the near term. Sony will use AUO's 4.3" AMOLED panels in upcoming mobile phones. This contradicts earlier reports that HTC secured AUO's entire capacity.

AUO's original plan was to produce AMOLEDs in Q2 2011, but the company delayed this due to technical issues (apparently the company couldn't get the yields of the vacuum evaporation deposition of the organic layers high enough). It is suggested that Sony's engineers are assisting AUO with those technical issues.

There are two interesting reports today regarding AU Optronic's OLED TV program. According to Reuters, the company is planning to sell up to 800 million shares (or about $300 million) to finance its OLED program and to "enhance the company's operational capital position". ETNews says that Sony is collaborating with AUO on OLED TV research. Perhaps it makes sense for Sony: AUO will provide the capital and manufacturing while Sony will contribute its OLED know-how (ETNews suggests that Sony engineers have been working with AUO since 2011).

Back in February AUO announced a strategic alliance with Idemitsu Kosan on OLED materials and technology, and ETNews suggests that this will turn into a three-way alliance with Sony now. We'll have to wait for confirmation of course, the only official word from Sony was when its new CEO said they will make "major investments towards OLED TVs" back in February.

AUO announced that it plans to hire 2,500 engineers - to work on AMOLED displays, 3D displays and solar panels. AU Optronics is gearing up to start producing 4" to 5" AMOLED panels, aimed toward smartphones. Last week we reported that AUO is joining Taiwan's AMOLED alliance - and will have its initial production capacity secured by ASUS and HTC.

Interestingly exactly 2 years ago on March 11 2010 we reported that AUO is planning to recruit 2,500 engineers to work on OLED, LCD and Solar projects. Hopefully this time AUO is really stepping up its OLED program

Taiwan's government is forming an AMOLED alliance - to compete against Korean makers - mostly Samsung. The alliance will include seven partners: two AMOLED produces (AUO and Chimei Innolux) and ITRI, Acer, Asustek, HTC and MediaTek. It is reported that HTC and Asustek will secure all of AUO's upcoming AMOLED capacity.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), who is coordinating the alliance will invest around NT$10 billion (about $333 million US) in AMOLED R&D (mostly though ITRI). CMI will come up with an AMOLED production plan which will get subsidized by the government. Officials from the MOEA say that AMOLED is "rising as a must for next-gen smart phones", and is also likely to enter into the tablet and TV markets.

AU Optronics's president Paul Peng says that OLED products "will be a new battlefield for display makers". AUO plans to introduce small-size OLED products in 2Q 2012, and the company is also working on OLED TVs. AUO will show OLED TV panels larger than 32" (AUO already unveiled an Oxide-TFT 32" OLED TV panel in November 2011).

AUO is cooperating with Japan-based firms to develop new materials and applications for OLED panels. Earlier this month AUO announced a strategic alliance with Idemitsu Kosan on OLED materials and technology.

Universal Display's CFO (Sidney Rosenblatt) attended Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference 2012 yesterday, and he gave some very interesting updates. First of all, he commented on the recent AUO and Idemitsu Kosan (IK) agreement. According to Sid, IK are not selling emitter materials - they are offering organic materials that go into other layers of the OLED stack. They do not believe the AUO-IK agreement will have any effect of PHOLED sales to AUO, and in fact he tells us that UDC and Idemitsu Kosan are developing OLED materials together for Sony.

Host materials

In their latest earning report of 3Q 2011, UDC announced that they started to offer OLED host materials - and had almost $8 million in revenue from those materials. Today Sidney explained this business a bit further. Host materials are the materials that you put the emitting materials into (Sidney used a metaphor - if the OLED is chocolate milk, then the milk is the host material and the chocolate is the emitter). These materials are considered a commodity, and UDC didn't think to sell those as it's not an interesting market for them.

AU Optronics announced their financial results for 4Q 2011, with a record loss of $21 NT billion (almost $700 million USD). AUO is hoping to return to profitability - mostly because of growth in demand for LCD TVs in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil. Regarding AUO's OLED program, the company re-iterated plans to mass produce AMOLED panels for mobile phone in this quarter (a little sooner then expected, actually), and more interestingly they said they plan to unveil OLED TV panel samples by the end of 2012.

AUO already unveiled a 32" OLED TV prototype back in November 2011, but they probably want to unveil larger panels towards the end of the year - and ones that are closer to mass production. The 32" prototype AUO shows had a Oxide-TFT (IGZO) backplane and was fabricated using vapor deposition using a metal mask. The panel featured Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution, 100,000:1 contrast ration, 0.01ms response time and brightness of 200cd/m².

Update: UDC's CFO gave some comments on this deal - which involves only non-emitter materials and will not effect their red and green PHOLED sales to AUO...

AU Optronics (AUO) and Idemitsu Kosan announced that they will form an OLED strategic alliance - and will collaborate to develop high-performance OLED displays and OLED-related patents. Idemitsu will supply OLED materials to AUO including device structure proposal. AUO committed to reinforce the development of OLED products - both small sized OLED displays for phones and tablets and large sized OLED panels for TVs. The two companies will also study the possibility of collaboration in other fields beside OLEDs.

AUO 32-inch OLED TV prototype

AUO is gearing up towards mass production of 4" - 5" OLED panels in Q2 2012, targeting smartphones. AUO is using LTPS substrates and vapor deposition for the direct-emission RGB OLED sub pixels. AUO will produce these panels in their 3.5-Gen line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In the second half of 2013, AUO's 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start producing panels as well. Towards the end of 2011 AUO unveiled prototypes of Oxide-TFT based 32" OLED TVs, 4" flexible OLEDs and 6" transparent ones.

TechOn posted an interesting interview with Paul SL Peng, AUO's Display Business Operation president. Peng says that AUO plans to start mass producing OLED panels in 2Q 2012 (this was reported before). These OLEDs will be 4"-5"in size and feature 250-300ppi - AUO will be targeting high-end smartphones.

AUO will use LTPS for the substrate, and vapor deposition for the RGB OLED sub pixels. AUO will produce these panels in their 3.5-Gen line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In the second half of 2013, AUO's 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start producing panels as well.

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs (MOEA) Shih Yen-shiang says that the local display makers need to work together to deal with weak consumer demand and rising competition. Shih especially wants to help Taiwan's largest display makers - AUO and Chimei Innolux. The MOEA is already in talks with the two companies to help them shift towards OLED production. The government wants to invest money from its National Development Fund (NDF).

AUO transparent OLED prototype

Back in August it was reported that Taiwan's government wants to establish an AMOLED R&D alliance and that AU Optronics (AUO) has volunteered for the plan. AUO was facing technical issues which forced them to delay OLED production, but now the company is already shipping 4" AMOLED samples and mass production will begin in Q2 2012. CMI is facing both technical and financial problems and their OLED plans aren't clear.