Display Week 2024 was a busy and exciting event for Kateeva. CEO Bin Liu was on site at our US HQ in Newark, California. At the SID show in San Jose, he met with customers to get a flavor of the latest display technology innovations that will inform our product roadmap.
Bin Liu, CEO, Kateeva
One of the highlights at SID week was a celebration of Kateeva’s CTO Emeritus, Steve Van Slyke. Steve and Ching Wan Tang received the Karl Ferdinand Braun Award for their co-invention of the OLED device. The accolade is the highest honor conferred by the Society for Information Display. It recognizes “outstanding technical achievement in, or contribution to, the display industry”.
Since becoming CEO in late 2022, Bin and the leadership team have implemented a new vision for Kateeva. He will share the details in a keynote talk at Display Innovation China in Shanghai, this week (July 3-5).
Kateeva’s PR staff (KPR) invited him to give a preview of his keynote and provide a snapshot of Kateeva’s growth strategy. Here’s what he had to say.
KPR: Tell us about your tenure so far?
BL: It has been an incredibly busy and exciting 18+ months – not just for Kateeva but for the broader display industry. With market conditions changing, often unexpectedly, my CEO honeymoon was short. As I came up to speed on Kateeva’s technology, I quickly learned that it is imperative for companies like ours to be relentlessly innovative in their product development strategies, as well as agile and ready to pivot when market drivers change unexpectedly.
Today, our foundation for growth is solid. We are building on Kateeva’s strengths: a global infrastructure; a “collaborative mindset”; differentiated inkjet printing (IJP) technology developed by world-class experts, and a record of productizing innovative technologies. We did this with IJP for OLED Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE). Now, we intend to deepen our penetration of OLED applications, while targeting adjacent markets where IJP is a natural fit.
KPR: What does the near-term vision for Kateeva look like?
L: Our leadership has worked diligently to refine the vision which is now being implemented by our talented employees worldwide. The vision is fueled by these imperatives:
- Innovation. We will innovate constantly to help our customers achieve their technology goals and reduce their costs. This is what unites and drives our global team.
- Collaboration. We want to be our customers’ trusted mass-production partner for every transition to a new display technology where IJP can provide enabling value. Our mantra is “to make it happen for our customers” and we pride ourselves on fostering partnerships defined by loyalty and trust, and a commitment to mutual success.
- Focused R&D. We are concentrating on markets/applications where our products offer differentiated advantages, where we can gain a fast foothold and achieve volume sales.
- A streamlined global infrastructure to maintain extreme efficiencies while delivering world-class products and services. Our manufacturing model in Shaoxing, China was designed to offer state-of-the-art localized services and a forum to share cutting-edge inkjet expertise with customers to help them implement their roadmaps.
KPR: Can you describe Kateeva’s product strategy?
BL: Our product strategy builds on our foundation as a leading enabler of next-generation display technologies. That is where we cut our teeth and it is what will continue to drive success for Kateeva. Here is a summary of our near- and- long-term product strategy:
- Our near-term focus is area printing solutions for OLED IT applications. Our Gen 8 YIELDjet platform is engineered for this application.
- In parallel, we are exploring additional display opportunities, especially OLEDs, where IJP can provide value for additional layers beyond TFE. We will leverage our deep OLED knowledge and entrenched positions at customer sites to enable emerging applications like thicker and thinner functional layers. For instance, when the printed layer is thicker, our technology allows for more efficient printing with no increase in print time. For thinner films, our key advantage is achieving superior uniformity. We know that with minimal adjustments our technology can generate yield and cost benefits for these applications.
- Longer-term, we are evaluating new markets outside of displays where IJP’s precision deposition advantages can bring value. We will have more to say about that in the months to come.
KPR: Can you talk about Kateeva’s customers?
BL: Typically, we don’t discuss specific customer engagements. However, I’m thrilled to say that we recently won an order from BOE for a TFE system for IT OLED applications.
In general, I have found that customers are drawn to Kateeva because we thrive on solving difficult technical challenges. They appreciate our “solutions-focused/make it happen” mindset. When we partner with customers on new applications, we are both stretching our expertise, skills, and knowledge in extraordinary ways to make exciting new display technologies possible.
KPR: You call Kateeva’s global presence a differentiator. How so?
BL: Being a global company is not just a differentiator; it is also a precious asset. My predecessor streamlined our infrastructure to better serve display leaders in Asia. Central to the strategy was establishing a manufacturing HQ in Shaoxing, China. Here we make tools that are designed in Silicon Valley but bound for customers in China
Kateeva’s manufacturing HQ in Shaoxing, China
It is a successful strategy and a notable differentiator. We can manufacture at scale and leverage cost efficiencies, and with closer proximity to customers, we can often shrink lead times and deliver tools faster.
KPR: Thanks for chatting, Bin. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
BL: Being in San Jose for Display Week was a treat. Not only because I got to be on site with our talented US team and connect with valued customers and partners, but also for the privilege of celebrating Steve and Ching. The award for their marvelous invention reinforces the enduring importance of OLED technology and validates Kateeva’s commitment to OLEDs as a pillar of our growth strategy.
This was a sponsored post by Kateeva
