A couple of days ago we reported that Veeco acquired Synos Technology who designs and manufactures FAST-ALD encapsulation technology for flexible OLED displays. Veeco said that Synos' first pilot production system has been installed and the manufacturing ramp is currently expected to begin in 2014.
Now financial services firm Wedbush released a new report on this deal and they say they believe that Synos has been working with an industry leader - specifically Samsung since 2011. According to Wedbush, Synos expected the product shipment to start in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014. We know that Veeco paid $70 million plus $115 if certain milestons are reached - and it makes sense that if Samsung adopts Synos' technology it will make it much more lucrative for Veeco.
Samsung officially launched their YOUM flexible OLED displays in January 2013, and it is expected that they will start mass production towards the end of 2013 indeed. Samsung's current encapsulation technology is Vitex's multi-layer technology which is very slow (the panel has to enter the evaporation chamber 6 times). While it was reported that Samsung is busy upgrading this technology, we also know that they are testing alternatives. We do know that Samsung is Samsung are evaluation UDC's single-layer techonology, so it's interesting to hear that they are also working towards ALD.
