According to a report from Korea, LG Display and SK Hynix has agreed to collaborate on OLED microdisplay development and production. The two companies are at the final stage of negotiations.
If this goes through, SK Hynix will produce the backplane silicon wafers, while LG Display will handle the OLED frontplane deposition and encapsulation.
LG Display has been developing OLED microdisplay technologies for several years, and it is now stepping up its efforts and aiming to build its first production line, as it has hopes to supply OLED Microdisplay to Apple in the future. LG is reportedly ordering deposition equipment from Korea-based OLED equipment maker Sunic System, and this agreement with Hynix could be an important step forward.
According to reports, Apple is using 4K OLED microdisplay produced by Sony for its first-gen AR device. But Apple could aim to replace Sony (which is a direct competitor) in its later-generation devices, and LGD is interested - and so is Samsung Display.
The Apple device will reportedly use a foveated display design which means that the display will also include a larger AMOLED display (reportedly produced by LG Display).
In 2020 Sunic System announced it has received a $22.6 million order for OLED deposition equipment from BOE. The tools are used by BOE for OLED microdisplay production.
In 2020 LG Display unveiled its OLEDoS brand of OLED microdisplays. LGD's display was a 0.42" 1280x720 (3,500 PPI) panel that uses a color-filter based design. The display offers a brightness of 5,000 nits. In 2021 LGD revealed that it is developing a 1.16" 3K OLED microdisplay, and also a 4K one. It is likely that this 4K display is targeting Apple's future device.
