Innolux - Page 3

There are reports that BOE, who's facing serious AMOLED production issues (especially on large OLED TV panels) with very low yields has reached out to Taiwanese company for help. BOE is seeking to collaborate on AMOLED R&D, and if the reports are true they probably contacted either AU Optronics or Innolux or both.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

According to reprots, BOE started construction of their 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab in Ordos (Inner Mongolia) which will produce 54K substrates a month. According to some earlier reports, the fab cost is estimated at $3.44 billion. BOE's plan is apparently to first start with LTPS LCD and only in 2014 start producing AMOLED panels as well. BOE is also developing OLED ink-jet printing processes.

Yesterday a Taiwanese web site reported that Applied Materials is planning to setup a flat-panel R&D center in Southern Taiwan Science Park. The new center will focus on 8.5-Gen LCD production and OLED technologies. Applied hopes to assist AU Optronics and Innolux with their OLED projects. The investment in the center is expected to exceed NT$5 billion (over $170 million USD).

A few hours later, Digitimes posted that sources from Applied Materials denied these rumors - saying that the company has no such plans. Applied does have a manufacturing center in Taiwan that will continue providing solutions largely for Taiwan-based customers.

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) claims that Taiwan can still compete with Korean panel makers (Samsung and LGD) in the flexible AMOLED market. The institute says that help from the Taiwanese economics bureau will be required. Upstream suppliers will need to ramp up their development effort and boost production facilities and materials.

Samsung had plans to release their first plastic-based flexible OLEDs in 2012, but this has been delayed to early 2013. LG Display hopes to start flexible OLED production towards the end of 2013.

Chimei Innolux (CMI), the Taiwanese display maker decided to change its name back to Innolux. CMI was established in 2009 in taiwan as a merger between Innolux, CMO and TPO (both had active OLED programs). CMI is working on small and medium OLED panels with plans to start low-volume production in Q4 2012.

Digitimes reports that Chimei Innolux decided to shift its focus from OLED displays to large-size 4K2K panels. While CMI is advancing its small/medium OLED program (it aims to start low-volume production in Q4 2012, see the video below), it's facing technical difficulties and low yields with large-size OLED panel production. CMI estimates that due to the high-costs involved with large OLED panels, the demand will be low in the near future.

CMI is going to produce 50" and 65" 4K2K LCD panels. It's not clear if there'll be real demand for 4K2K panels either - as there's currently a lack of content for this format.

There are some interesting reports that the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) decided to reduce its backing for Foxconn's plans to establishing LCD fabs in Brazil. It seems that the Brazilian Government is not happy with Foxconn's decision to produce LCD panels and not OLEDs - as they were hoping that the company will produce next-gen technology based panels in Brazil.

Foxconn's investment in the new fab was supposed to be $4 billion (that's only the first phase, the total cost would have been around $12 billion). The BNDES was supposed to fund 30% of the project. BNDES and Foxconn are still in negotiation, trying to reach a new agreement.

Chimei Innolux had a nice booth at SID 2012, and I was given a nice tour of the booth by their PR people (who allowed me to take photos and videos even though they had a sign saying it ain't allowed). CMI's marketing guys were also kind enough to answer a few questions I had on their OLED program.

A few days before SID CMI announced that it will begin to produce 3.4" and 4.3" panels by Q4 2012. At SID I learned that the first OLED fab to go online is actually an old TPO/Toppoly 3.5-Gen fab. The panels will use LTPS backplane and will both feature 960x540 resolution (so it's 326 ppi on the 3.4" panel and 257 ppi on the 3.4" panel). CMI says that their technology is "ready" for 4.5" 720p (326ppi) panels as well.

Chimei Innolux announced today that they will be able to start producing AMOLED panels in Q4 2012. According to earlier reports, CMI is prepping its 3.5-Gen AMOLED fab, which will be able to produce about 3,000-5,000 substrates a month. CMI's AMOLED panels will be branded TRUEOLED (CMI first started using this brand in February 2011). CMI will show 3.4" and 4.3" panels at SID next week, hopefully we'll bring more information from the conference.

CMI's TRUEOLED panels use a WOLED (RGBW) architecture, the same design used by LGD in their upcoming 55" OLED TVs. CMI's panels will achieve 300 ppi and a very wide view angle (80% of vertical luminance even at a viewing angle of 45°).

Chimei Innolux's chairman Hsing-Chien Tuan says that the company plans to start AMOLED production before year-end 2012. CMI's 3.5-Gen AMOLED fab will produce small-sized panels. The production rate will be about 3,000-5,000 substrates a month.

Back in March 2011 CMI showed two AMOLED panels: 3.2" (320x480) and 3.5" (360x64). CMI were calling those displays TrueOLED, and apparently they use a WOLED-CF (RGBW) design. The panels featured 300cd/m² brightness, 30,000:1 contrast ratio, 160° viewing angles and 100% color gamut for the 3.2" panel (87% for the 3.5" one). We do not know whether the panels CMI plans to produce in 2012 will have the same specifications.

Taiwan's government is forming an AMOLED alliance - to compete against Korean makers - mostly Samsung. The alliance will include seven partners: two AMOLED produces (AUO and Chimei Innolux) and ITRI, Acer, Asustek, HTC and MediaTek. It is reported that HTC and Asustek will secure all of AUO's upcoming AMOLED capacity.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), who is coordinating the alliance will invest around NT$10 billion (about $333 million US) in AMOLED R&D (mostly though ITRI). CMI will come up with an AMOLED production plan which will get subsidized by the government. Officials from the MOEA say that AMOLED is "rising as a must for next-gen smart phones", and is also likely to enter into the tablet and TV markets.