Manufacturing equipment - Page 5

Korea-based OLUM Material announced a new FMM technology for OLED production, which the company refers to as Unit-Cell FMM, which enables high-efficiency deposition (and patterning) of evaporated OLED materials.

The basic idea is to use a small FMM unit in front of every display panel, rather than a large FMM in front of the entire substrate. A large mask is useful for very fast production, but the large masks tend to sag and deform and so FMM production is limited in size.

US-based Lumentum, a designer and manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products, has announced that it is acquiring Coherent for around $5.7 billion. The two companies will merge to create a unified laser and photonics company.

Coherent is a leading supplier of ELA equipment for OLED production and in recent years the company reported a surge in system orders for flexible AMOLED production.

Last year APEVA announced that it has commissioned a 2-Gen OVPD OLED system in a customer pilot production line in Asia. Yesterday Aixtron (APEVA's parent company) announced that it received the final acceptance for its OVPD system from its customer - which is one of the world's largest display manufacturers.

APEVA now plans to enter into discussions about the feasibility of a final qualification project (phase III), which would ensure the scalability of the OVPD deposition technology to large area substrates.

SCREEN Finetech Solutions developed a new coater (SK-F1500H) for color filter film forming with anti-reflective properties. These color filters are intended to be used in flexible (foldable/rollable) OLED devices. The company says the new coater is able to achieve outstanding efficiency by executing the entire process in a single integrated line (6-Gen / 2 substrate).

SCREEN FT explains that in current rollable and foldable OLEDs, the multi-film structure is a weak point that is one of the reasons these display get wrinkled and damaged when bent. One of the problems is in the multi-layered circular polarizers. Color filter films can replace the polarizers, reduce the number of layers, and enable high transmittance and higher energy efficiency.

DSCC estimates that it has increased its OLED equipment spending estimate for 2020-2023 by 11% compared to its previous outlook. DSCC now sees total OLED equipment spending reaching $45 billion. The increase was due to increased demand for LGD's mobile OLEDs and plans to increase capacity and CSoT's new $6.8 billion IJP OLED fab plans.

Interestingly DSCC also increased its LCD equipment spending estimate by 37% following three recently announced smaller expansion plans. In total for both LCDs and OLEDs, display equipment spending for 2020-2023 was upgraded by 9% vs. DSCC's last estimate to $38B.

This is a sponsored post by Park Systems

Park Systems Corp, a leading manufacturer of atomic force microscopy systems, announced that it has scaled up its AFM tools for 8-Gen or larger flat panel displays with new Park NX-TSH, based on its Tip Scanning Head technology. According to Park Systems, this is the only automated tip scan head system that can analyze samples larger than 300 mm on the market.

Park NX-TSH is specifically designed for ultra large flat panel display glass and 2D encoders, with integrated micro probe stations for conductive AFM and electric defect analysis. The system can scan up to 100 um x 100 um (x-y direction) and 15 um (z direction), and has a flexible chuck to accommodate samples larger than 300 mm and heavier than 1 Kg, and is so engineered for OLED, LCD and other large sample analysis.

Korea-based OLED equipment maker Sunic System announced it has received a $22.6 million order for OLED deposition equipment from BOE. The tools will be used to deposit OLED microdisplays.

BOE is currently producing OLED microdisplays at its $170 million fab in Yunnan - the world's largest OLED microdisplay fab constructed in collaboration with OLiGHTEK. In December 2018 BOE announced its second, and larger, OLED microdisplay fab in Yunnan, which will cost a total of $486 million. It is likely that this new order is aimed for BOE's 2nd fab. Sunic says it will deliver the systems by November 2020.

France-based effusion cells and sources producer Riber reported its financial results for Q1 2020. Total revenues in the first quarter amounted to €5.3m, down 19% from last year.

Riber says that its OLED evaporator business did not generate any significant revenues "due to the lack of investment in the OLED screen industry". This is in line with Riber's previous quarters. In July 2019, Riber said it sees a freeze on investments in OLED screen production equipment following the major investments made in previous years, and said its order book for OLED evaporation systems is empty.

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q4 2019 - with revenues of $320.8 million, and a net profit of $5.8 million. The company says that these are encouraging results, and full-year outlook is improving.

Coherent's display orders were up significantly for LineBeam systems and service. These systems orders are all destined to China, and the increase in service orders "reflects higher demand for OLED-equipped smartphones in Q4 2019". Orders for OLED cutting using short pulse and CO₂ lasers were also up.

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - revenues of $335.5 million and a non-GAAP gross profit of $122 million.

Regarding the OLED market, Coherent says that it finally started to receive some new orders for OLED equipment (ELA), following a "stretch" where there were no new system orders. Coherent says that it looks forward to the OLED ramp - with 2020 as a "bit of a recovery over 2019" - but the real strength coming in 2021 and 2022.