TCL CSoT announced several times in the past that it plans to start producing OLED display using an inkjet printing process by the end of 2024, and yesterday it officially announced it has started mass producing printed OLED displays at its 5.5-Gen production line.
The company brands these displays as APEX OLED displays. In fact it seems as if all of TCL displays (OLEDs and LCDs both) will be branded as APEX OLEDs, with the slogan PACE to APEX.
As was reported last month, TCL's first mass-produced inkjet printed OLED is a 21.6” 4K monitor display , aimed towards the medical market. It offers a brightness of 350 nits (peak), a color gamut of 99% DCI-P3 and high color accuracy. The panel was on display at Displayweek 2024.
TCL CSoT originally said it will produce OLED TV panels, but later updated its plans to produce smaller displays, targeting the IT market and niche markets.
The Elec further says that CSoT's capacity will be low at first, and it will be produced on the company's 5.5-Gen line that uses equipment it acquired from JOLED when the company liquidated. We hope TCL will fare better with these OLEDs than JOLED did. CSoT will expand its lineup in 2025 with more panel options, and it still hasn't decided whether to go ahead with a larger 8.5-Gen inkjet production line (its $6.8 billion T8 project, announced in 2020).
It is interesting that CSoT targets medical monitors. This is a standard target application for low volume OLED production. JOLED itself, in 2017, started shipping what seems to be the same panel - a 21.6" 4K printed OLED - targeting medical applications. Sony used to offer 25" AMOLED displays for medical monitors - already in 2012.
