AU Optronics - Page 18

AU Optronics and Samsung Electronics have signed a broad patent cross-license agreement to allow expanded access to the patent portfolios each company holds. The agreement is a significant expansion of the companies' relationship to enhance the development and delivery of innovative digital consumer electronics products by sharing each other's respective technologies.

The coverage of the cross license includes patents in the area of TFT-LCD and OLED, especially the technology for LCD TV application. AUO and Samsung expect the agreement to bolster the development and deployment of TFT-LCD technology in the LCD TV, giving a new catalyst to strengthen the competitiveness of the two companies.

DisplaySearch indicated in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that OLED shipments grew to 16.7M and revenues hit $130.9M in Q3'05. OLED shipments increased 144% Y/Y due to 35% growth in MP3 player sales, and 93% growth in industrial displays. All of the growth is in PMOLEDs using small molecule material; AMOLED producers-Sanyo Kodak, AUO and Sony-shipped less than 50K displays in Q3/05. P-OLED material panel producers continued to struggle with less than a 3% share of total shipments.

Samsung SDI led in units and revenue in Q3'05 with slightly over 4.4M displays and $37.1M in revenue. RiTdisplay was #2 in both shipments and revenue. TDK experienced the strongest growth of the top five, with shipments up 138% Q/Q to 1.2M and revenue up 81% Q/Q to $7.6M.

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Its no secret that the Shadow Masking Process, widely used today, for OLED production has its resolution limitations. The highest resolution achieved by the process is around 170ppi. AUO has overcome this industry hurdle and revolutionized a pixel design that progresses the resolution of OLED to reach VGA grade standards (640 RGB x 480). AUO will debut this latest technology in its 3" VGA AMOLED prototype with resolution as high as 270 ppi (pixel per inch), bringing OLED resolutions to new level highs. With the added ultra high resolution, the panels are ideal for portable multimedia player (PMP), mobile phones, DSC, and DVC alike. Dr. JJ Lih, Director of OLED Division at AUO noted, " Our revolutionary design has been a breakthrough in dramatically improving resolution levels, without having to increase costs. Not only were we able to successfully improve our 3" AMOLED panel to VGA grade but we've also managed at the same time to maintain contrast ratio to >10,000:1 and fast response time

DisplaySearch indicated in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that OLED shipments grew to 14.2M and revenues hit $124.8M in Q2'05. OLED displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and subdisplays, MP3s and automotive consoles. OLED shipments increased 82% Y/Y due to 95% growth in main display sales, and 1,300% growth in MP3 player displays. All of the growth is in PMOLEDs using small molecule material; AMOLED producers--Sanyo Kodak, AUO and Sony--shipped less than 50K displays in Q2'05. PLED material panel producers dropped to two suppliers as Philips sold their facility to OTB and now represent less than 3% of the total shipments.

Samsung SDI led in units and revenue in Q2'05 with slightly over 3.8M displays shipped and $37.2M in revenue. RiTdisplay was #2 in both shipments and revenue. LGE experienced the strongest growth of the top five, with shipments up 111% Q/Q to 740K and revenue growing 92% Q/Q to $6.5M.

The Top five applications are Subdisplays, MP3, Car Audio, Main Displays and Auto Consoles.

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Mobile phones could soon be getting a new look if a double-sided organic display developed by AU Optronics of Taiwan proves popular. The new active-matrix organic display (AMOLED) generates 1.5 inch-sized full-color images on both its front and rear surfaces and is controlled by a single IC driver chip.

In the new AMOLED structure, the sub-pixel area is divided into two regions designed for top-emission and bottom-emission. A transparent layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the anode in the bottom-emitting sub-pixels, while a reflective Ti/Al/Ti/ITO sandwich-type structure is used as the anode for top-emitting sub-pixels. Each side of the display has a resolution of 128x120 pixels, 16-bit color and a brightness of up to 150 nits and is capable of showing independent images.

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Both area color and full color OLED products from RiTdisplay use passive-matrix (PM) driving technology at present. However, Wang indicated that the company will start to deliver its active-matrix (AM) OLED product in small volume within this year, and will focus on a 2.2-inch full color product.

As did Samsung, RiTdisplay adopted a-Si TFT technology to develop its AMOLED product. The company believes a-Si technology offers better performance than LTPS; the size of the substrate is another consideration. "When FPD TV happens to be one of the applications of AMOLED, the size of LTPS substrate will become a great limitation in product development. Since the largest LTPS panel available nowadays is only around 20-inch," said Yih Chang, general manager of RiTdisplay.

Digitimes says that Japanese OLED makers (such as SK Displays, TM Display and Hitachi) have already begain mass production of AMOLED displays, while Taiwanese companies are postponing their schedules and will not start volume production until 2005.

There are 15 AMOLED production line planned in Taiwan, Japan and Korea for 2005 according to Digitimes. Nine of these lines belong to Japanese makers. In Taiwan, the leading player seems to be RiTDisplay. The company have been showing AMOLED samples in June 2004 but they will not start mass production in 2004 as originally planned - they postponed it to 1Q 2005 due to low yields.

AU Optronics says they have developed a breakthrough technology - a double sided AMOLED that can show two separate moving images on each side of the panel.

The new AMOLED features 143 ppi and 200 nits (cd/m2) brightness. AUO says that such displays can be used in mobile phones as a dual display.

AU Optronics (AUO) says it will will begin to mass produce AMOLED displays by 2Q 2005. AUO will initially make small-size displays aimed for handheld devices and digital cameras.