Samsung Display - Page 57

ETNews posted an interesting article, claiming that Samsung Display is developing a new TV technology that combines OLED emitters with quantum-dot photo-luminescence materials. The basic idea is to use blue OLED emitters and then convert the blue light to white light using quantum-dots combined with color filters (QDCFs) to add red and green colors.

Samsung OLED TVs (2013)

This seems to be a rather complicated design, but it could be much easier to produce compared to a true RGB OLED TV, as there is no need for precise OLED patterning. This is similar to LG's WRGB OLED TVs which use a white OLED source (made from yellow and blue emitters) and color filters on top.

In the past few weeks we heard many reports that following lower than expected OLED orders from Apple (due to disappointing iPhone X sales) Samsung Display has suddenly found itself with under utilized OLED production lines.

Samsung already said that it aims to find new customers for its OLEDs, mostly in smartphone makers in China. Some analyst say however that this won't be so easy as the higher costs of SDC's AMOLED displays deter some of its potential customers, who prefer to opt for lower-cost high-end 18:9 LCDs.

Universal Display announced that it has signed long-term OLED material supply and license agreements with Samsung Display. UDC will continue to supply its PHOLED phosphorescent OLED materials and technology to Samsung Display for use in its OLED displays. The agreements are scheduled to run through December 31, 2022, and may be extended for an additional two-year period.

UDC did not disclose the financial terms of these new agreements, but we do know that Samsung will pay a license fee throughout the agreement period. The previous UDC-SDC agreement ended on December 31st 2017, but for the past month and a half the two companies still conducted business of course as SDC's OLED production was not halted.

German TADF developer Cynora recently participated in the international OLED summit in China, and the company presented its latest blue TADF material that features a CIEy of 0.18, EQE of 21% and a lifetime of 10 hours LT97 at 700 nits. This is an improvement of the material shown in September 2017 (which had the same specification but with a lower EQE of 14%).

Cynora reports that during the last 24 months, the company achieved its most important goals - high efficiency and a satisfying color point. It has made "tremendous progress" in the last year on the lifetime front and is now close to commercial lifetime specification.

We already heard several reports that Apple is reducing its OLED display orders from Samsung (from an estimated 40 million in Q1 2018 to 20 million) - following lower than expected iPhone X sales.

New reports from Korea now suggest that Samsung display also announced to its own suppliers that it will not order any more parts for the iPhone X in H2 2018. It could mean that Apple is aiming to introduce new OLED phones in 2018, but the Korean reports say that it is also likely that Apple is not looking to introduce a new OLED iPhone in 2018 at all.

A display supplier we're in touch with has just received 750 pcs of Samsung's 7.67" 1280x800 Super AMOLED Plus displays (circa 2014). These displays were adopted by Samsung and other device makers mostly in tablets (the first one was in the 2011 Galaxy Tab 7.7).

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

The supplier is offering these displays at a very low price (almost half their regular price), if anyone is interested in these panels, contact us here!

Samsung Electronics reported its results for Q4 2017, with a record quarterly profit of $11.2 billion driven by strong demand for memory chips and high-end displays. Samsung Display reports increased OLED shipments for premium smartphones.

Looking at Q1 2018, SDC says that its OLED business is likely to be affected be declining demand due to seasonality and increased competition from LTPS LCD. For the the whole of 2018, SDC expects OLED to increase its penetration in the smartphone industry, and the company aims to introduce new premium applications such as foldable displays and OLEDs for the automotive market.

Air Products announced that it has been awarded a long-term contract with Samsung Display to supply nitrogen, oxygen and liquid argon to SDC's OLED manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea. Air Products has been supplying SDC's Tangjeong production line since 2004 and this new contract is a renewal of its current supply agreement.

A few days ago Praxair Inc announced that it has signed a long-term gas supply agreement with Shanghai's EverDisplay. Praxair will supply EDO with nitrogen, oxygen and Helium for its new 6-Gen AMOLED fab which will require 720 tons per day of Nitrogen. The bulk gas supply is scheduled to begin in mid-2018. EDO aims to start trial production at its new 6-Gen fab in January 2019 and mass production is expected in 2021.

In a somewhat confusing article, ETNews claims that Samsung Display's utilization rate at its A3 flexible OLED line has fallen more than 10% compared to 2017 as the company sees decreased shipments to Apple. This is yet another sign that Apple is seeing lower iPhone X sales than initially expected.

ETNews says that Q1 is always a seasonally low quarter, but this year's utilization rate is lower than what Samsung experienced in Q1 2017. ETNews says that Apple's share of the A3 capacity was about 77%, with the rest of the production going for Samsung Electronics and Chinese phone makers.

In November 2017 KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimated that Apple will launch three new iPhone models in 2018 - two of these will sport OLED displays, the 5.8" and 6.5" models. A new report from Digitimes, however, says that Apple may eventually only launch the larger (6.5-inch) OLED variant in 2018.

According to Digitimes, Apple is developing four new iPhones: two LCD Models (5.8" and 6") and two OLED Models (6" and 6.5"), but it may abandon the smaller OLED variant. This is mostly due to lower than expected iPhone X sales.