BOE Display - Page 23

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a strategic focus on OLED displays as the losing display maker failed to keep up with the industry shift to OLEDs. JDI said it will need to raise new funds in order to accelerate its OLED plans and prepare for mass production in 2019.

JDI estimates that it will require more than 200 billion Yen (around $1.77 billion USD) to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019. JDI is now looking for financing partners that will help fund the company's OLED project. It is estimated that it will find it difficult to find a partner in Japan and so JDI is looking for Chinese and Korean display makers. According to the Nikkei Asian Times BOE and CSoT already expressed interest.

Back in May it was reported that BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen (the B7) fab in Chengdu. This was apparently a bit optimistic, but a new report from Japan now says that BOE aims to ship its first flexible OLED out of the Chengdu fab at the end of next month (October 2017).

BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It is likely though that initial yields will be low and production quite limited.

In March 2017 OLED maker BOE Technology and OLED Microdisplay maker OLiGHTEK announced a new joint-venture to produce OLED microdisplays for the consumer VR and AR markets. The new venture will establish production fab in Kunming, Yunnan with an annual production capacity of a million OLED microdisplays.

BOE Technology announced a few days ago the structure of this venture has been finalized. Total investment will amount to ¥1.15 billion (around $172 million USD), a bit higher than first announced. BOE will invest ¥670 billion and will hold a 67% stake. OLiGHTEK will invest ¥200 million.

Universal Display reported excellent financial results for Q2 2017. Revenues increased 59% (compared to Q2 2016) to $102.5 million, with material sales increasing 110% to $46.8 million. Net income increased $25.4 million to $47.2 million.

UDC has $380 million in cash and equivalents, and is on the lookout for opportunities to use this money. UDC also increased its guidance for 2017 to be in the range of $285 million to $300 million.

Last month BOE demonstrated several exciting new display technologies at the SID DisplayWeek, and now we have this very nice (and long) video that shows most of BOE's new displays.

We start with a tablet-phone device, a 7.56" foldable touch-enabled OLED that features an QXGA (2048x1536) resolution, a bending radius of 5 mm and a contrast rate of over 70,000:1.

According to ET News, Japan's Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has terminated Samsung's exclusivity for the company's fine metal masks (FMM) products. DNP is now offering its masks to other OLED makers, and have already signed up BOE Display as a customer.

DNP has advanced its FMM technology, and is now able to produce masks with high resolution - enough to create QHD (2560x1440) smartphone displays. BOE's current masks only enable it to produce FHD OLEDs, and it will now upgrade its production to higher-end displays using DNP's masks.

In February 2017 BOE Display announced that will establish a new R&D OLED TV production line in Hefei. According to Digitimes, BOE Display is intending to use an inkjet printing process in this line, and the company already placed an order for an inkjet deposition system from Kateeva last month. BOE will use the systems to produce 55" OLED TVs.

In February BOE announced that the new line will cost 1 billion CNY (around $145 million USD). BOE will invest 80% of the funds, with the rest provided by the Hefei government. Digitimes now states that the new line will only cost 600 million CNY - so it may be that the inkjet printing line is an addition to the 1 billion CNY line (which in that case, will probably be based on an evaporation process).

Last week BOE demonstrated two Q-LED displays, 5" (320x240) and 14" (960x540). These prototype displays use electroluminesence quantum-dots as emitting materials.

According to BOE, switching to an in-organic emitter enables a display that features an excellent display quality - on part with OLED displays - while also being compatible with ink-jet printing, which will enable QLED displays to be lower-cost compared to OLEDs.

Idemitsu Kosan and BOE Display agreed to form a strategic alliance with an aim to develop high-performance OLED materials and displays. Specifically, Idemitsu intends to develop and supply OLED materials in accordance with BOE's needs, as BOE is starting to mass producing OLED displays in several fabs in across China.

Idemitsu Kosan is in the process of expanding its OLED material production at its Korean subsidiary Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea, and the company also recently established a new OLED materials development company in Switzerland. Idemitsu is supplying its OLED materials to both LG Display and Samsung Display and is apparently enjoying an increased demand and is looking to start selling its materials to BOE DIsplay as well. We recently posted aninterview with Idemitsu's electronics materials chief.

According to China Daily, BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen fab in Chengdu. BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It's likely that BOE only started pilot production currently, as earlier estimates were that full production will only begin towards the end of 2017.

According to the report the total investment in this new fab will reach $6.75 billion - higher than earlier reports of around $3 billion (more on this below).