Sharp - Page 4

A couple of days ago it was reported that Sharp's President, Tai Jeng-wu, said that Sharp wants to collaborate with Japan Display to co-develop OLED displays. Both Sharp and Japan Display are struggling to launch OLED production, hoping to become Apple's second AMOLED supplier.

Following Tai Jeng-wu's statement, a source from Japan Display told the Nikkei Asian Review that Sharp did not yet approach JDI on this issue, and there are no discussions yet (I assumed otherwise...). The Nikkei Asian Review speculates the Sharp may be worried that any technology shared with JDI may leak to Taiwan's Foxconn.

Foxconn's recently acquired Sharp for $3.5 billion, and the Taiwanese-based company plans to invest a total of $1.8 billion in Sharp's OLED technologies, as Foxconn aims to become an OLED supplier to Apple.

In June 2016 Foxconn's president said that Sharp aims to start mass producing OLEDs as early as 2017. But OLED mass production is not so easy to achieve, and there are already reports that Sharp is delaying those plans, and will probably not even begin production in 2018.

Following Foxconn's $3.5 billion Sharp Takeover, it was reported that Foxconn aims to invest a total of $1.8 billion in OLED technologies, as Foxconn aims to become an OLED supplier to Apple. In June 2016 Foxconn's president said that the company aims to start mass producing OLEDs as early as 2017.

As we estimated, this was overly optimistic, and it is now reported that Sharp is considering to revise its OLED investment plan, and produce those OLEDs in a Saki Display Product fab in Osaka and not in Sharp's fab in Kameyama. This move will delay production, and Sharp will not be able to start producing OLEDs even in 2018.

After years of OLED R&D but no actual reports, Taiwan's Innolux is finally demonstrating its new OLED prototypes, signalling that the company is finally about to re-enter the OLED market. Innolux says that it has recently "achieved success with AMOLED technology" and now plans to continue development and ultimately mass produce AMOLED panels.

In a trade-show in Taiwan, Innolux is demonstrating several OLED prototypes. First up we have a 5.5" WQHD (2560x1440, 534 PPI) flexible AMOLED built on a plastic substrate and an LTPS backplane. The panel has a "proprietary pixel rendering methods" (perhaps PenTile like?) and uses thin-film encapsulation and is produced using an FMM mask (more on this below).

Foxconn's $3.5 billion Sharp Takeover is underway and several reports suggested that Foxconn aims to invest a total of $1.8 billion in OLED technologies, as Foxconn aims to become an OLED supplier to Apple.

Most analysts estimated that Sharp won't be able to start producing OLEDs until at least 2018, but Foxconn's Chairman Terry Gou now says that Sharp aims to start shipping OLEDs as early as 2017.

A few weeks after Sharp agreed to sell a two-thirds stake to Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) for $3.5 billion, the Taiwanese company is starting to integrate Sharp's display business with Innolux, Foxconn Taiwanese display arm.

Innolux AMOLED prototype, 2012

Today we hear a report from Taiwan that Innolux's chairman Tuan Hsing-chien has resigned from his roles at Innolux, and will head to Sharp to help integrate the two display makers. Tuan will help Sharp and Innolux focus on IGZO backplanes and OLED diisplays - aiming to enhance the competitiveness of Sharp's LCD business - and find opportunities for cooperation between the two companies.

Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has signed a technology development agreement with Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) regarding the development of Oxide-semiconductor backplane technology for next-generation displays, including OLED displays.

SEL's backplane technology is called c-axis aligned crystal (CAAC), which has been co-developed with Sharp. CAAC is based on an IGZO thin-film that has a novel crystal structure.

Report from Japan say that Sharp developed a new 3.4" bendable OLED prototype. The AMOLED display features a resolution of 540x960 (326 PPI), it has an aperture ratio of 57% and a thickness of 70um. The bending radius is 10mm, and the whole panel weighs 2 grams. The backplane is IGZO.

While this is reported as news, this panel seems to be quite similar to OLEDs Sharp unveiled at SID 2012 (yes, almost four years ago!). According to the reports, Sharp says that the display has a long lifetime and is "color shift free", as a result of newly developed tandem structure.

Last week Sharp agreed to sell a two-thirds stake to Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) for $3.5 billion. According to Digitimes Research, Foxconn and Sharp's post-acquisition focus will be on OLEDs, and out of the total investment $1.8 billion will be allocated for OLED technology.

Foxconn aims to start producing IGZO-based OLEDs for smartphones in 2018 (probably they aim to become Apple's 2nd OLED supplier) and then to start developing larger OLEDs too. Digitimes layers our Foxconn's plans - 3 million tablet/notebook panels in 2021 and 10.4 million panels in 2025. In 2021 Foxconn will also start producing OLED TV panels - 252,000 panels in 2021 and 7.2 million panels in 2025.

A few weeks ago Sharp agreed to sell a two-thirds stake to Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) for $5.8 billion - but following new disclosed liabilities of around $2.7 billion the deal was canceled, and today the two companies announced a new, in which Foxconn will pay $3.5 billion.

This is the largest acquisition ever by a foreign company in a Japanese tech company and it ends the independence of a 100-year-old company. Foxconn also received an option to increase its stake in Sharp in 2017.