OLED Ink-Jet developer Kateeva presented at an industry conference in Korea, and the company's Korean branch VP states that the company will supply OLED TV deposition system prototypes later this year to customers in Korea, China and Japan.
Even more interesting is his statement that commercial mass production printers will be deployed in Samsung Display's OLED production lines in two years. Usually Kateeva refrains from discussing customers like that. This will enable Samsung to produce OLED TVs cost effectively - and compete with LG Display on this market.
The report from Korea states that "some market experts" are expecting SDC to re-enter the OLED TV market as early as in 2017, perhaps indeed by using Kateeva's production equipment (although, truthfully, Kateeva says that the equipment will be installed in 2018).
Kateeva recently closed its Series-E funding round - with $88 million in new financing - which bring the total amount of funds raised by Kateeva to over $200 million. Previous investors include Samsung Ventures and Veeco.
Kateeva is developing and producing ink-jet systems for OLED production. Originally the systems were intended for OLED stack material deposition, but in 2014 the company also started to offer ink-jet based encapsulation systems - used to protect flexible OLED displays. Those encapsulation systems are now used by Samsung to deposit the organic layers parts of Samsung's flexible OLED encapsulation.
In 2015, In 2015 Kateeva signed collaboration agreements with both Sumitomo and Dupont - to help develop better soluble OLED materials that are compatible with Kateeva's printers.
Last month we posted an interview with Kateeva's new Chief Product Officer, talking about the company's business and technology status and challenges.
