LTPS - Page 10

Chimei Innolux had a nice booth at SID 2012, and I was given a nice tour of the booth by their PR people (who allowed me to take photos and videos even though they had a sign saying it ain't allowed). CMI's marketing guys were also kind enough to answer a few questions I had on their OLED program.

A few days before SID CMI announced that it will begin to produce 3.4" and 4.3" panels by Q4 2012. At SID I learned that the first OLED fab to go online is actually an old TPO/Toppoly 3.5-Gen fab. The panels will use LTPS backplane and will both feature 960x540 resolution (so it's 326 ppi on the 3.4" panel and 257 ppi on the 3.4" panel). CMI says that their technology is "ready" for 4.5" 720p (326ppi) panels as well.

As I already said before, Ignis Innovation's SID booth was one of the conference highlights for me. Their technology is very impressive and hopefully will enable cheaper non-LTPS AMOLED production.

In their booth, Ignis were showing 3.5" and 20" AMOLED panels that use the company's a-Si backplane compensation technology. The panels were made by RiTdisplay. Ignis and RiTdisplay have been showing these displays back in 2011. Originally they were supposed to be released towards the end of 2011, but this never happened. During SID Ignis announced that now the plan is to release these by the end of 2012. According to Ignis the 3.5" AMOLED will be cheaper than the LTPS-based competition (i.e. Samsung made panels). You can read more about these panels and RiTdisplay's plans at my RiTdisplay-at-SID-2012 post.

Back in August 2011 we heard reports that BOE Display is considering a 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab in Ordos (Inner Mongolia) in a $3.44 billion investment. It was suggested that this is simply a gimmick to help the company get mining rights, but now we hear that BOE is actively constructing the new plant. The plan is to start with LTPS LCDs and later on move to AMOLED production (this will happen in 2014).

Regarding the rather unique location, it seems that the local government in Ordos is trying to attract the hi-tech industry - they want transform the city from a natural-resource center into a high tech zone.

There are reports that Chinese panel producers BOE Display and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) are both gearing up AMOLED development.

BOE is apparently focusing on Oxide-TFT backplanes for AMOLED displays, and have produced a 4" WQVGA AMOLED prototype. Back in August 2011 there were reports that BOE Display are planning a $3.5 billion 5.5-Gen fab in Monogola, but we're not sure if this is for real.

Taiwan's government is forming an AMOLED alliance - to compete against Korean makers - mostly Samsung. The alliance will include seven partners: two AMOLED produces (AUO and Chimei Innolux) and ITRI, Acer, Asustek, HTC and MediaTek. It is reported that HTC and Asustek will secure all of AUO's upcoming AMOLED capacity.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), who is coordinating the alliance will invest around NT$10 billion (about $333 million US) in AMOLED R&D (mostly though ITRI). CMI will come up with an AMOLED production plan which will get subsidized by the government. Officials from the MOEA say that AMOLED is "rising as a must for next-gen smart phones", and is also likely to enter into the tablet and TV markets.

TechOn posted an interesting interview with Paul SL Peng, AUO's Display Business Operation president. Peng says that AUO plans to start mass producing OLED panels in 2Q 2012 (this was reported before). These OLEDs will be 4"-5"in size and feature 250-300ppi - AUO will be targeting high-end smartphones.

AUO will use LTPS for the substrate, and vapor deposition for the RGB OLED sub pixels. AUO will produce these panels in their 3.5-Gen line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In the second half of 2013, AUO's 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start producing panels as well.

There's an interesting article at CENS discussing Wintek's partnership with Shanghai Tianma (which was reported back in June 2011). According to the new article Wintek already began construction of the upcoming 4-Gen LTPS OLED plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). The company says that the new plant is scheduled to begin production in 2014.

Wintek are collaborating on OLED technology with Tianma. This new report suggests that the Wintek will ship AMOLED panels in 2014 - both self-produced and those made by Tianma.

Last week we reported that Japan Display (the new small/medium display maker that merged Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba's businesses) may consider to accelerate OLED mass production in a $2.7 billion investment in R&D and production. JD also bought Panasonic's Mobara 6-Gen a-Si LCD plant.

Today we hear reports that JD will convert the new plant to LTPS, and will later use this plant to produce AMOLED displays. It seems that those plans aren't final, but JD's CEO said that the company could start mass producing OLEDs by 2013. If JD does decide to convert that 6-Gen plant to AMOLED production, this will be the largest AMOLED plant currently planned for small/medium panels (Samsung and LG are both building 8-Gen plants, but these will be used for OLED TV panels).

Corning launched a new glass called Lotus Glass, which was developed for cutting-edge displays - such as OLEDs and next-gen LCDs (based on LTPS and Oxide-TFTs). Corning explains that the new glass has a high annealing point that delivers the thermal and dimensional stability required by these new high-performance displays. Lotus Glass has already been qualified and is now in production.

Lotus Glass's intrinsic stability means it can withstand the manufacturing thermal cycles better than conventional glass, and so enable tighter design rules needed in advanced backplanes (which are needed for high resolution and fast response time). It's good to see a new glass substrate from Corning, although we're still waiting for Corning's future flexible glass as shown in their "Day made of glass" video released a few months ago (which features future designs made with durable, transparent and even flexible glass displays):

Toshiba has developed a new 6.1" LTPS LCD panel that features 2560x1600 resolution - that's 498 ppi. The panel also features 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 16.7 million colors and 176-degrees viewing angles.

Toshiba wouldn't say whether they have plans to commercialize this display...