OLED ink jet printing: introduction and market status - Page 15

The Nikkei reports that JOLED aims to start producing prototype OLED panels in the second half of 2017. JOLED developed a 21.6" UHD panel and actually aims to start offering the panel in 2017 to medical monitor makers and other commercial applications.

JOLED is using a printing based process and it is estimated that production costs will be 30% to 40% lower than evaporation based processes - but the performance of soluble OLED materials are not yet up to par with evaporation materials. The panels are made on an Oxide-TFT backplane, and the process is optimized for 10 to 30 inch panels. JOLED expects to achieve mass production in FY2018 (April 2018 to March 2019).

According to ETNews, LG Display is aiming to start pilot production of ink-jet printed large-area OLEDs during the first half of 2017. This is just an initial step, and it may take one or two years to achieve mass production following the launch of the pilot line.

LG Display's pilot line will be an 8-Gen line and the company hopes that the new production technology will be more efficient than vacuum deposition - and will also enable LGD to produce "direct emission" RGB OLED TVs - which will offer lower-cost production, higher quality and more efficient displays and less components (no need for color filters).

OLED ink-jet developer Kateeva started to offer ink-jet based encapsulation systems in 2014, used to protect flexible OLED panels. Kateeva's encapsulation performance is excellent and it was already reported that these systems are used in flexible OLED mass production - and today Kateeva announced that it takes a "commanding lead" in the OLED thin-film encapsulation (TEF) market.

Kateeva further says that it secured the "vast majority" of available TFE orders, and its customers include the world's largest flat-panel display makers in three key Asia regions - which probably includes Korea and China - and the third region is either Taiwan or Japan.

Blue TADF developer Cynora signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Guangdong Juhua Printing Display Technology to cooperate on OLED TV development.

Johua was established earlier this year by CSoT (66%) and TianMa (34%) with an aim to industrialize printed OLED technologies. Johua Printing is an "open innovation platform" guided by the Chinese government that collaborates with both industry and universities to drive the progress of China's display industry and the GUangdong Province specifically.

It 2013 it was reported that TCL plans to invest over $4 billion to build a new 8.5-Gen LCD and OLED fab in Shenzhen, owned by CSOT. The so-called Huaxing Power Two OLED fab never materialized... at least until now.

TCL released information that it now seeks to $6.96 billion to build a new LCD and OLED Gen-11 production fab in Shenzhen. The new fab, built by TCL and Shenzhen Huaxing Power with help from the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Commission, will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 Gen-11 substrates (3370x2940 mm) and use IGZO backplanes.

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.

Kateeva recently announced a large $88 million Series-E funding round, and the ink-jet equipment maker today announced that Ink-Jet guru Eli Vronsky has been promoted to the company's Chief Product Officer.

During our recent visit to San Francisco, we caught up with Kateeva’s executive team on a break from their presentations on inkjet printing for flexible OLEDs. Chief Product Officer Eli Vronsky gave us an update, as well as an overview of the company’s product strategy.

Kateeva announced that it has closed its Series-E funding round - with $88 million in new financing. The new investors (all from China) include BOE Display, TCL Capital. Kateeva raised over $200 million in total, and 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.

JOLED's head of business development, Tomoaki Tsuboka, announced that the company developed two OLED panels, a 12.2" FHD (180 PPI) panel and a 19.3" 4K one (230 PPI) - made using printing technologies. JOLED aims to mass produce such panel in 2018.

Tomoaki updates that JOLED is preparing a Gen-4.5 fab to produce such OLEDs - probably using printing technologies. Reports from 2015 suggested that JOLED plans to invest $160 million in a new R&D and production facility - that will indeed commence production by 2018.

Samsung Display recently confirmed that it is still developing large-sized OLED panels, and a couple of weeks ago it was reported that Samsung is discussing a large investment (around $3 billion US) into a new OLED TV panel fab.

New reports from Korea gives more details about Samsung's OLED TV plans. Samsung is actually considering a slightly larger investment - around $3.3 billion in a new fab, with an aim to enable Samsung Electronics to launch OLED TVs by 2018. Samsung is looking to build a Gen-8 (2200x2500 mm, or six 55" panels) fab - and will need to start ordering equipment soon. The new fab will enable Samsung to produce about 495,000 square meters in 2017 (7,500 monthly substrates) and over 2 million square meters in 2018.