TCL - Page 5

China-based display maker TCL announced that its 6-Gen LTPS flexible AMOLED production line in Wuhan has commenced operation. The company already achieved some design wins with "top-class" phone makers and is expected to start shipping OLED displays to its customers in Q4 2019.

TCL's production line in Wuhan (which is actually owned by the company's subsidiary CSoT) will have a production capacity of 45,000 6-Gen substrates.

TCL unveiled that the company is developing a new hybrid display technology that uses a blue OLED emitter coupled with red and green QD emitters. All three emitter materials will be combined and printed using ink-jet printing technology. TCL calls this technology H-QLED and this could prove to be the technology of choice for TCL's future high-end emissive TV displays.

It seems as TCL believes that commercial-level red and green QD emitters will be achievable in the future, but blue QD emission will be more difficult to develop, and hence it will rely on OLED emitters. TCL did not disclose more details - but this R&D effort is being performed at the company's Juhua Printing platform.

Universal Display announced that it has signed an OLED evaluation agreement with Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology (CSOT). UDC will supply CSOT with proprietary UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED materials for display applications. UDC did not disclose any more details about the agreement.

Towards the end of 2018, CSOT, a subsidiary of TCL, started construction on its T7 large-area display production fab. The T7 fab, which has a total cost of around 42.7 billion Yuan ($6.15 billion USD), will produce both LCD and OLED displays on IGZO backplanes. CSOT's plan is to start production by the end of 2020 - with real mass production starting in 2021.

China-based TCL has unveiled a new foldable OLED phone prototype at MWC 2019. The device uses a 7.2" 2048 x 1546 AMOLED display that folds inwardly (in a similar way to the Samsung Galaxy Fold). TCL's device, however, is a prototype and not a product.

TCL is both a smartphone maker and a display producer. This device was demonstrated by the smartphone maker arm - and we are not sure whether it uses a foldable OLED produced at TCL's own OLED lines (CSoT's T4 6-Gen flexible OLED line in Wuhan should enter production soon) or whether the panel is produced by Samsung, BOE or Visionox.

TCL announced that its CSoT Subsidiary (China Star, also known as Shenzhen Huaxing Photoelectric Technology) plans to establish an LCD+OLED TV fab in Shenzhen, China. The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 substrate - and will produce 65- and 75-inch OLED TVs in addition to 65-, 75- and 75-inch 8K LCDs, all on Oxide-TFT backplanes. The line will begin operation in 2021.

The fab will apparently have two different production lines. The LCD line will be a 11-Gen line (3370x2940 mm) while the OLED Line will use smaller 8.5-Gen substrates (although this is not clear, CSoT may aim to use the 11-Gen substrates for OLED deposition too, perhaps cutting these large substrates before the OLED processing. Total investment in this new fab will be 42.6 billion Yuan (or about $6.7 billion USD).

TCL announced that Guangdong Juhua Printing Display Technology developed a 31" 4K OLED display. According to the report from Korea, Juhua Printing is using 6-Gen substrate which are cut in half for the organic layer ink-jet deposition which is done at 4.5-Gen.

TCL hopes to finalize the inkjet mass-production technology development by 2019, on 11-gen substrate.

Many OLED producers believe that Ink-Jet printing of OLED emissive materials is the best way to achieve lower-cost OLED TV production, and to enable OLEDs to compete in the medium part of the TV market. Ink-Jet printing is an efficient process (less material waste compared to evaporation) and it can be very quick as well. The main drawbacks of inkjet are the limited resolution and the need for soluble emissive materials which are less efficient compared to evaporation ones.

A Kateeva OLED ink-jet printing system

These challenges are being overcome, and it seems that at least four groups (in Korea, Japan and China) are charging forward towards mass production of ink-jet printed OLEDs. Ink-jet printer makers and soluble material suppliers are also optimistic ink-jet printing commercialization will soon be here as the material performance gap is diminishing.

When Samsung started producing AMOLED displays in 2007, AMOLED technology was at a very early stage, immature, and Samsung took a huge risk. A few years later, this risk was rewarded with a successful display business and a boost to the company's smartphone business that was the first to adopt AMOLED displays.

Fast forward to 2016, and today Samsung is still the king of AMOLED displays, with a market share of over 95% in small/medium AMOLED panels. If we look at OLED TV production, then LG Display is the only commercial producer at this stage. But Samsung and LG are not alone - several companies in China and Taiwan already started mass producing AMOLEDs, and others have announced plans for large AMOLED fabs. In this long article we'll list all of these AMOLED producers and developers (over a dozen) - and details their current production capacity and rumored and confirmed production plans.

On January 11-13 2017 Shanghai will be hosting the annual Printed and Flexible Electronics China conference. The OLED-Info team will visit this event - so if anyone wishes to schedule a meeting - now is a great time to do so. The event organizers were kind enough to offer a 20% discount for OLED-Info readers (to both visitors and exhibitors) - contact us for more information on how to get this discount.

P&FEC aims to bring together industry professionals for a chance to be updated on the latest printed electronics advances, while getting a chance to network with industry leaders in China - and globally.

Last month we posted that TCL plans to build a Gen-11 LCD and AMOLED fab in Shenzhen, in a $6.97 billion investment. The fab, owned by CSOT and built by TCL and Shenzhen Huaxing Power with help from the Shenzhen Economic and Trade Commission, will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 Gen-11 substrates (3370x2940 mm) and use IGZO backplanes.

In a news release today, TCL announced that will increase the investment in this fab by a further 21 billion yuan (around $3.15 billion). Samsung Display will be a partner in this fab, investing 2.1 billion yuan to hold a 9.76% stake.