BOE Display - Page 27

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.

In March 2014, Universal Display announced they signed an evaluation agreement with China's BOE Display. Yesterday UDC announced that it signed an expanded evaluation agreement with BOE. UDC will broaden its collaboration with BOE and supply additional phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) materials for display applications.

BOE Technology Chairman, Wang Dongsheng, says that the company hopes to push forward OLED development together with UDC and other partners. BOE has a Gen-8.5 pilot fab in Hefei in which they produced the 55" 4K OLED TV sample shown last month. Hopefully this pilot line will be the precursor of a real Gen-8.5 AMOLED fab.

A couple of weeks ago I reported that BOE showed a 55" 4K WRGB OLED TV at SID 2014. When I posted on this, I said that BOE probably used a panel supplied by LG Display (although it didn't make a lot of sense).

It turns out that I was wrong, and that panel was produced by BOE Display themselves, at the company's AMOLED pilot Gen-8.5 line in Hefei. The panel uses a bottom-emission white OLED with a color filter array (WRGB architecture). BOE also uses internal compensation technology. The 5 mm thick panel features a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, a response time of 0.2 ms and a brightness of 120-400 nits.

Update: that panel was actually produced by BOE themselves, at the company's Gen-8 AMOLED pilot line in Hefei

It turns out that BOE had a 55" UHD (3840x2160) WRGB OLED TV prototype on display at SID 2014. The TV features a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, a color gamut over 85%, a response time of 0.2 ms and a brightness of 120-400 nits. The whole TV is less than 5 mm thick.

It seems likely that BOE is using a 55" 4K panel made by LGD. After all we know that LG already launched such 4K OLEDs in Korea, and the Korean company is happy to offer its panels to other makers (including Changhong, Skyworth and perhaps even Sony and Panasonic).

Universal Display reported their financial results for Q1 2014 - and the company had another great quarter. Revenues were $37.8 million (compared to $15 million in Q1 2013) and net income was $4.0 million. This does not include Samsung's license fees which will be $50 million in 2014, and will be paid in Q2 and Q4.

Green emitter sales were $17.2 million (up from $11.6 in Q4 2013, and 4.6 a year ago). Green host sales were $12.4 million (up from $9.3 million in Q4 2013 and 3.1 a year ago). Red emitter sales were $3.9 million (up from $2.8 million in Q4 2013 and Q1 2013). UDC now expects 2014 revenues to reach the high end of its $190 million to $205 million guidance range.

The SID Display Week, the world's leading display industry showcase is scheduled for June, but the organizers already published the list of papers to be presented in this show. Hiding in this long list of technical achievements and research projects are some interesting new OLED developments. So here's some of the achievements to be announced during the show (at no particular order).

TCL's China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) managed to fabricate a 7" QVGA (320x240) flexible PMOLED display. The display uses a thin PEN substrate, processed at Gen-4.5. The company also proposes a design for a 14" QVGA PMOLED panel. CSOT also developed a 31" Full-HD AMOLED panel that uses a IGZO backplane. The 31" direct-emission panel was produced on a Gen-4.5 glass substrate using FMM.

China's BOE Display has been discussing its 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos for a long time, and a couple of months ago it seems that construction finally began. In a new report from China, it seems that BOE aims to produce flexible OLED panels at that fab. BOE will produce plastic-based AMOLEDs using an LTPS backplane.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

Previously we reported that it is expected that BOE will only start mass producing AMOLEDs at Ordos by the end of 2014. BOE's AMOLED fab will reportedly use high-resolution FMM deposition and a WRGB architecture (which doesn't make a lot of sense since you do not need FMM patterning for WRGB OLEDs).

China's BOE Display has been discussing its 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos for a long time. Today BOE announced that it finally approves the AMOLED line in that fab, and will begin construction soon in a 22 billion yuan investment ($3.6 billion). The fab's capacity will be 54,000 glass substrates a month and will produce small and medium sized panels.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

According to earlier reports, the fab will begin producing LTPS LCDs soon (by the end of 2013). It's not clear whether the AMOLED line is a new line or whether BOE will convert one of the LCD lines to AMOLED. It is expected that BOE will only start mass producing AMOLEDs by the end of 2014. BOE's AMOLED fab will use high-resolution FMM deposition and a WRGB architecture. We know that BOE is also developing ink-jet printing technology but this will most likely take more time to commercialize.

China's BOE Display is building a 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos by the end of 2013. This fab will first produce LTPS LCDs, but BOE wants to switch it to AMOLED production. According to OLEDNet, during the FPD International 2013, BOE's Dawei Wang (their flexible technology R&D director) said that in addition to the 5.5-Gen line in Ordos, they are also working towards a Gen-8 Oxide-TFT line in Hefei.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

This new line will use high-resolution FMM deposition and a WRGB architecture. We know that BOE is also developing ink-jet printing technology, it's not clear from OLEDNet's article whether printing technologies are also planned for the Hefei line.

China's BOE Display announced plans to raise 4.6 billion yuan (about $7.5 billion US) to build three new panel production lines two LCD lines and the AMOLED line in Ordos. BOE will issue new shares and hopes to attract local government owned companies as investors.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

BOE plans to inaugurate the 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos by the end of 2013. This fab will first produce LTPS LCDs, but BOE wants to switch it to AMOLED production. Perhaps this new investment will go towards the AMOLED conversion. According to earlier reports, the fab cost is estimated at $3.44 billion.