According to reports from Korea, three former senior researchers at LG Display are accused of passing OLED trade secrets to a Chinese panel maker. The Seoul District Prosecutor office says that the there researchers took photos of designs at LGD's Guangzhou factor in 2021 and 2022, related to large-area WOLED panel production processes.
One of the suspects started working for a large China-based display company in 2021, and he allegedly colluded with a former LG Display employee to steal large-scale OLED panel mass production technology.
Last month we reported that a former researcher at Samsung Display was sentenced for 6 years in prison for stealing OLED trade secrets. These cases are the latest in many similar cases in Korea, where Chinese companies were suspected of OLED espionage. In 2018 South Korean prosecutors indicted a group of 11 executives and employees of Korea-based Toptec, a Samsung Electronics supplier, accusing them with leaking Samsung's flexible OLED technology to Chinese display makers (BOE and CSoT, in that case).
In June 2018 the South Korean prosecution indicted several officials that allegedly tried to sell Samsung's OLED technology secrets to China. These officials include Korean and Chinese researchers - and also a professor at a national Korean research institution. In October 2018, it was reported that critical information regarding OLED technologies and plans has been leaked from LG Display's headquarters - and that the company suspects espionage from Chinese-based companies.
In May 2012 employees at Israeli company Orbotech's local Korean branch were accused of leaking OLED technology form both LGD and SDC to several Chinese and Taiwanese companies. But it's not just Chinese companies that try to access protected OLED technology - in 2012 LGD was charged with stealing OLED secrets from Samsung Display as well.
In 2012 it was also reported that former AUO employees sold AMOLED technology secrets to China's CSoT.
They had to be sealed to avoid exposure to oxygen.