BOE Display - Page 26

China's display maker BOE Display aimed to start mass producing AMOLED displays at 5.5-Gen LTPS OLED fab in Ordos in the second half of 2015, but according to a new report from Digitimes it is still struggling with low yields, preventing it to actually starting to ship any panels.

BOE is also constructing a Gen-6 LTPS LCD/AMOLED production line in Chengdu, China - with a projected investment of about $3.5 billion. The fab is scheduled for production in the first half of 2017, with a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates (both OLEDs and LCDs). Digitimes says that BOE aims to produce flexible OLEDs at that new fab, and will purchase flexible OLED production equipment from Korea and Japan.

According to a report from Korea, China's BOE has reached out to LG Display and Samsung Display (and other Korean companies), seeking to establish an OLED joint venture in China.

It's not clear if BOE aims to establish an OLED production fab, or an OLED technology joint venture - or that they may seek to simply use LGD's and SDC's OLED panels in their own products (several Chinese TV makers already adopt LG's OLED panels in their own TVs). According to the report, BOE says they can guarantee OLED sales in China, which probably means they aim to help the Korean companies distribute their OLED panels in China.

Digitimes research estimates that small and medium AMOLED production capacity in China will grow 373% by 2017, which will establish China as the number two AMOLED producer behind Korea.

Currently the only Chinese AMOLED producers are Everdisplay, with a 4.5-Gen production line and Visionox which has recently started to produce panels in their 5.5-Gen fab. According to Digitimes, Taiwan's AU Optronics has a larger capacity AMOLED fab (which I'm not sure is true), but growth in China will surpass the growth in Taiwan.

BOE Display is stepping up its OLED program - the company is constructing a 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos, which will also produce both LCDs and AMOLED displays, it is starting to build a $3.5 billion Gen-6 LTPS LCD/AMOLED production line in Chengdu, and it is also planning a 8.5 OLED TV fab in Hefei Xinzhan.

Last week BOE demonstrated several new AMOLED prototypes. First up we have a 9.55" flexible transparent panel, which is probably the largest such panel ever demonstrated. It features a resolution of 640x432, a curvature radius of 10 mm and 30% transmittance. The whole panel is just 150 micrometer thick.

BOE Display is starting to build its Gen-6 LTPS LCD/AMOLED production line in Chengdu, China. The company held the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for this project - in which the total investment is estimated at $3.54 billion.

The fab, which is scheduled for production in H1 2017, will produce high-end small-sized mobile displays, and will have a capacity of 45,000 substrates per month. It's not clear what will be the ratio between the OLED and LCD production at the fab.

According to reports, BOE Display is starting to order OLED production equipment for its 5.5-Gen LTPS OLED fab in Ordos. BOE aims to to start small-sized OLED production in the second half of 2015. The fab's capacity is 55,000 substrates each month, but these are used for both LCD and OLED production - and OLED capacity will probably be limited at first.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

BOE is also planning to build a Gen-8.5 OLED fab in Hefei Xinzhan, which will be used to produce large-area OLED TV panels. The company already established a pilot line in Hefei, which was used to produce 55" 4K OLED TV samples in 2014.

According to a new report from China, BOE Display will build a Gen-6 LTPS AMOLED fab in Chengdu, China. The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 glass substrates and will produce small sized AMOLED panels for mobile devices.

BOE signed an investment agreement with Chengdu's municipal government for this new fab, which will require an investment of 22 billion RMB (almost $3.6 billion USD). Construction will begin in Q2 2015, and mass production will begin in H1 2017.

BOE Display announced that it has been awarded a 124 million RMB (about $20 million) subsidy from the local Chinese government at Hefei Xinzhan towards its Gen-8.5 OLED fab in the area. BOE currently has a Gen-8.5 pilot fab in Hefei, and it seems that this report confirms that BOE Display decided to go ahead and build a real mass production Gen-8.5 OLED fab.

BOE's expected total investment in that fab is currently estimated at 6.7 billion RMB - or just over $1 billion. I do not have any information regarding when they expect to start producing panels at that fab. Using their existing pilot line, BOE produced 55" 4K OLED TV samples (you can see one above) - and these were on display at SID 2014.

Three weeks ago, Seeking Alpha published my first article on Universal Display, titled "Universal Display: 20X Jackpot In 2018?" - in which I presented my best-case scenario for the OLED market (and UDC) in 2018.

I think the article was received well, and today SA published my second article - "Universal Display's Second Key Customer Is On Its Way". In this new article I explain why Samsung Display is such an important customer for UDC - and how I expect in that in the coming years UDC will diversity its key customer base as I expect LG Display, Konica Minolta, Everdisplay, BOE, Philips and LG Chem to start mass producing OLEDs soon.

MKS Instruments (a provider of instruments and solutions for advanced manufacturing processes) reported their financial results, and during the conference call the company said that a large Chinese display maker placed a multisystem order for a Liquizon cleaning subsystem. The Chinese company will use this system for their upcoming AMOLED production fab.

It's great to hear confirmation of at least one Chinese AMOLED fab. We know of several companies from China with plans to launch an AMOLED fab, including Everdisplay, BOE and CSOT. While Everdisplay hopes to be the first one to mass produce OLEDs in Chinese, it is a new company, so MKS would not have described it as a "large Chinese display maker". It's more likely that this order came from BOE.