OLED ink jet printing: introduction and market status - Page 16

Update: originally we posted that the market for solution-based OLEDs will be $395 million in 2020, but the correct UBI is estimate is much higher - $2.4 billion

UBI Research estimates that solution based OLED processes could reduce the price of a 55" OLED TV panel by as much as 43" compared to the currently used WRGB evaporation based process.

UBI further says that solution-based OLEDs will be cheaper to produce than LCD panels. The company estimates that companies will start mass producing solution-based OLED TVs in 2018, and the market of solution-based panels will reach $2.4 billion by 2020.

DuPont announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art, scale-up manufacturing facility designed to deliver production scale quantities of advanced solution-based printed OLED materials. DuPont specifically says that these materials will target OLED TV applications.

The new OLED facility has large-scale formulation systems and can support simultaneous production of multiple product lines. DuPont invested over $20 million in this new facility, which was also funded by a grant from the state of Delaware back in 2012.

LG Display is one of the two companies that lead the OLED industry, and the Korean display maker recently announced a major shift in focus from LCD displays to OLEDs. We conducted a short interview with an official from LGD regarding the company's OLED business goals and aims.

Q: LGD's CEO recently gave a very exciting speech regarding OLEDs, as the company shifts its focus towards OLEDs. What made you take that decision? How do you see the OLED TV market evolving in the next few years?

Market competition is getting fiercer with Chinese manufacturers rapidly catching up in terms of technology and capacity. In response, we recognize that differentiation in product and technology is essential to growth and maintaining leadership in the display industry.

The Korea Times posted an interesting interview with Brian Daniels, senior VP from Merck's performance materials-advanced technologies division. Brian says that Samsung is committed to OLED panels - and will return to the OLED TV market by 2017.

Merck says that improvement in OLED materials will enable cost reductions which will enable OLED TVs to reach large production volumes in three years.

According to my sources, OLED Technologies & Solutions BV, an OLED display manufacturing solution provider, has filed for bankruptcy. This is a sad ending to a long standing OLED company that started out as OTB Display years ago.

OTS offered a total solution for OLED display manufacturing: in-line OLED printed display manufacturing systems, backplane and display product development, OLED device, stack, and ink development, process development expertise and display characterization and improvement. The company developed a fully automated printed OLED processing line, the PCAP-20, and was developing their next-gen tool, the PCAP-48, a Gen-4.5 OLED processing line, designed to produce high quality large screen HDTV displays with industry record yields and lowest cost per display.

TCL's chairman, Tomson Li, gave an SID DisplayWeek speech, during which he predicted that the next-gen large-size displays will be printed OLEDs. Tomson said that global partners are welcome to join TCL and co-develop printed technologies, processes and materials.

During the DisplayWeek exhibition, TCL's CSOT subsidiary demonstrated three new AMOLED display prototypes, including a 5.5" PWM LTPS OLED and a 31" OLED TV panel. In May 2014 TCL announced plans to co-develop 5.5" LTPS AMOLEDs with Ignis innovation, I do not know if the new 5.5" demonstrators are based on this collaboration.

Kateeva and DuPont announced that they will co-develop solutions for ink-jet printed OLEDs - specifically they will optimize DuPont's soluble materials for Kateeva's inkjet systems. The two companies hope this collaboration will enable then to offer a simple and highly-effective OLED TV printing process.

This follows Kateeva's agreement with Sumiomo Chemical that aims to pair Sumitomo's PLED materials to Kateeva's YieldJet OLED ink-jet printing platform.

The Korea Times posted an interesting interview with Merck's OLED unit VP, Dr. Udo Heider. Udo is 'pretty confident' that Samsung will soon start producing OLED TVs again.

In the past few weeks we heard several conflicting reports on Samsung's OLED TV program. Some say they will abandon OLEDs completely (and go for QLED TVs instead), while other reports say that Samsung will soon re-enter the OLED TV market. Last year Merck stated that Quantum Dot based TVs, unlike OLEDs, are no game changer.

Yesterday Merck inaugurated a new OLED Application Center (OAC) in Pyeongtaek, Korea. Merck invested over €7 million in the new center, and it hopes it will enable them to increase customer satisfaction and capture a larger share of the market - by shortening their time to market.

The OAC has a range of equipment for OLED evaporation testing and reliability analysis. In the future, it will introduce advanced processes such as inkjet printing. The OAC resides in the same site as Merck's Chemical Application Centre established in 2011. Merck also operates a technology development center in Taiwan - which also focuses on OLEDs.

According to IHS, the OLED TV market will see slow growth unless producers manage to apply new technologies - mainly printing processes based on soluble materials and flexible substrates. If both technologies are to be adopted, IHS sees OLED TV shipments reaching almost 40 million units in 2023.

In the chart above, IHS Uses three cases. In Case 1, OLED TV makers use glass substrate and an evaporation process. In case 2 they adopt a printing process and soluble materials, and Case 3 assumes a flexible substrate is used as well.