Colnatec just told us that a large European customer is building an OLED deposition machine that is headed for China. The machine will adopt Colnatec's temperature-controlled Tempe system.
Colnatec would not reveal much, besides that the substrate size is "larger than anything currently on the market", and the customer ordered a "large number" of Tempe Systems. This is very interesting news, and hopefully we will know more in the future. If this is indeed the largest substrate-size OLED fab ever, it is bound to produce OLED TV panels, and it will be great to finally see competition for LG Display's OLEDs. Of course it may take a couple of years before mass production actually begins.
There are several AMOLED makers in China - including Everdisplay, Truly, BOE, CSoT / TCL and Shanghai TianMa. It seems that only BOE Display and CSoT is planning large-size OLED TV panel production, so if this system is indeed intended for OLED TV production that it will probably head to one of these two makers. Of course it may also be that other players are working on OLED TVs and it has not been made public yet.
The Tempe system was originally developed to stabilize OLED device performances, for its material characterization capabilities, and for in-situ, self-regeneration properties. The system can also be used to improve continuous OLED production, and is considered a dependable film thickness control solution.
Aixtron maybe???