AU Optronics - Page 8

Taiwan has a large display industry, but in recent years it seems that it is lagging behind Korea, Japan and China in AMOLED technologies. We asked a local industry expert to check out the three main Taiwanese AMOLED companies (AUO, Innolux and RiTDisplay), and now we post on his updates.

AUO

As we reported already, AUO started producing AMOLEDs in their 4.5-Gen fab in Singapore after years of delays. According to our source, AUO is actually only producing samples. Those 5" 720p (295 ppi) panel samples have been been submitted to a company based in China. Earlier reports suggested AUO is going to supply HTC and Sony but it appears these two companies will keep using LCDs for now.

Last week we reported that AUO finally started AMOLED mass production. Today AUO's president Paul Peng confirmed this report in an interview: "AUO has made progress in developing AMOLED and has begun volume production of small-size AMOLED panels".

AUO 4.4-inch AMOLED prototype

According to our information, AUO is mass producing AMOLEDs in their AFPD fab in Singapore. This is a Gen-4.5 LTPS fab that was converted for AMOLED production. The fab has a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates (we're not sure if all lines were converted to OLED though).

According to our sources, AUO finally started AMOLED mass production in their AFPD subsidiary in Singapore. AFPD has a Gen-4.5 LTPS fab that was converted for AMOLED production. The fab has a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates but it's not clear whether all the lines were converted to AMOLED and how many OLED panels are currently produced there.

AUO 4.4-inch AMOLED prototype

I'm not sure which panels are being produced there at the moment, but it's likely that AUO is producing the panels they have recently unveiled at trade shows - 4.4" 1900x600 (413 PPI) panel, 5" Full-HD (443 PPI) panel and their newest 5" HD720 AMOLED panels. Earlier reports suggested that HTC and Sony are waiting to integrate AUO's AMOLEDs in their mobile devices.

According to the OLED Association, Panasonic said that they are progressing fast enough to launch the 55" (probably 56") UHD OLED TV in Q4 2013. Panasonic will start mass production in its Himeji Pilot Gen-5.5 line (which means initial production will be very limited). If this report is true it means a real acceleration as Panasonic previously said they will only be ready in 2015 (although you may say that the current Himeji line will not be real mass production in any case).

Panasonic OLED TV prototype, IFA 2013

Panasonic's OLED TV panel, unveiled in January 2013, is produced using ink-jet printing and uses an RGB subpixel matrix (direct-emission). Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials, and AUO's oxide-TFT Substrates. The company is collaborating with Sony on OLED technologies.

AUO's president Paul Peng says that large-size OLED panel will not challenge LCD panels in the next few years due to low yields and high costs. In fact, he says that OLED TVs may end up like SED and FED TVs which never really entered the market.

AUO 65-inch AMOLED panel prototype

As far as we know AUO is still struggling with small-size OLED panel production, but Peng claims that the company already produces those panels. In the past few months AUO demonstrated several small OLED panels - a 4.4" 1900x600 (413 PPI) panel,  a 5" Full-HD (443 PPI) AMOLED panel and their newest 5" HD720 AMOLED panels which seem to be closer to production. If Peng is right and the company indeed started production this will be great news. Earlier reports suggested that HTC and Sony are both waiting to integrate AUO's AMOLEDs in the mobile devices.

Corning recently announced the new second-gen Lotus XT high-performance glass suitable for OLED displays. The company has been supplying glass substrate and cover glass for OLED displays for years now. Now Corning was kind enough to participate in a Q&A session here on OLED-Info to better explain how they see the OLED market and what the future holds for Corning and OLEDs.

We talked to two Corning executives. John Bayne is Corning's High Performance Displays VP and General Manager, while Harrison Smookler is the commercial director and program manager of Willow Glass Substrates (flexible glass).

Corning announced today that it has been collaborating with AUO on high-performance displays, and AUO's new 5" HD720 AMOLED panels shown at Touch Taiwan use Corning's Lotus Glass. As far as I understand, they are using Corning's latest generation Lotus Glass XT.

AUO says they selected the Lotus Glass platform because of the glass substrate's outstanding thermal and dimensional stability, which facilitates efficient panel manufacturing during rigorous, high-temperature processing.

AU Optronics announced today that it will show new 4.3" flexible AMOLED panels at the Touch Taiwan 2013 conference next week (August 28-30). The new flexible panels are thinner than AUO's previous prototypes at 0.2 mm (vs 0.3 mm before). This is far thinner than LGD's thinnest LCD display announced last week (1.21 mm). AUO's panels use a plastic substrate and thin film encapsulation.

AUO flexible OLED prototype (2011)

AUO will only showcase the company's 5" Full-HD AMOLED panels unveiled earlier in 2013. These panels features the world's highest resolution density at 443 ppi. The company will also show new panels which are 5" 720p (i.e. lower resolution than the FHD ones but at the same size). AUO refers to these as HD720 AMOLED.

During SID 2013 AUO unveiled a new 4.4" AMOLED panel prototype. The panel is 4.4" in size and features a PPI of 413 (1600x900 resolution). The brightness is 250 nits and the color gamut is 105% NTSC. This panel uses the WRGB structure and an LTPS backplane.

Last month AUO unveiled an AMOLED with an even higher PPI (5" Full-HD, 443 PPI). It's nice to see AUO unveil new prototypes, but what we really want to see is for them to start actual mass production. Some reports suggest that AUO's yields are still very low (around 40%) and the company won't stat mass production until 2014.

A few weeks ago we reported that AU Optronics developed a new 65" Oxide-TFT direct-emission OLED panel (the largest OLED panel ever made). Today at SID 2013 AUO discussed this new panel and unveiled the prototype:

AUO says that the panel is Full-HD in resolution, and it uses an "advanced" Oxide-TFT backplane. It was made in a Gen-6 production line which uses the largest Fine Metal Mask (FMM). AUO says that the uniformity of this panel is excellent. AUO also developed new pixel compensation driving technology which is employed in this panel. As can be expected from an OLED panel, AUO reports that their latest OLED features low power consumption, high picture quality, high contrast, high brightness, fast response time and free viewing angles.