In January 2016 Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent announced large (well in excess of $150 million) orders for its Linebeam systems which are used for laser annealing (turning a-Si into LTPS) for OLED producers. Coherent also said it has a significant number of orders pending for the remainder of 2016.
In the company's latest conference call, Coherent announced that the recent OLED capacity expansions generated more than $300 million of orders for Linebeam 1000, Linebeam 1500, and UV Blade systems in Q2 2016. The UV Blade is used for laser lift-off in flexible OLEDs. These systems will be delivered to end customers in South Korea, Japan and China.
Coherent says that it sees a large buildup of OLED capacity. The company currently estimates that about 80% of LTPS mobile displays are LCDs, and 20% are AMOLEDs. But by 2019 this will be inverted as AMOLEDs will represent 80% of the production capacity. It's not clear if Coherent CEO means total capacity or new installed capacity in 2019, but in any case he is "very excited about the OLED ramp".
