Visionox - Page 10

Universal Display announced that Visionox (GVO) signed an OLED evaluation agreement. Under this agreement, UDC will supply GVO with its phosphorescent OLED materials for display applications. UDC did not provide any more details or financial terms.

Visionox started mass producing AMOLED panels in June 2015, at the company's Gen-5.5 AMOLED line in Kunshan. Visionox is also constructing a $4.5 billion 6-Gen production line in Hebei that will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 substrates, and will be mainly used to produce flexible AMOLEDs. Production should begin in mid-2018.

Market research company Sigmaintell estimates that China-based display makers shipped 9.8 million OLED displays in 2017, mostly for smartphone applications. Everdisplay was the largest producer in terms of units, shipping 3.8 million displays (enjoying large orders from Huawei and Hisense), while Visionox was the top vendor in terms of display area shipped (30,000 square meters, out of a total 78,000 sqm produced in China in 2017).

Looking into 2018, Sigmaintell sees a large increase in production volume in 2018. Visionox landed orders from ZTE and Xiaomi and is expanding its production capacity, and BOE is also expected to increase shipments from its flexible 6-Gen AMOLED fab that will enter full capacity in Q2 2018. Finally, Tianma is also expected to increase production having won orders from Asustek Computer.

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a strategic focus on OLED displays as the losing display maker failed to keep up with the industry shift to OLEDs. JDI announced it will raise funds to accelerate its OLED plans and prepare for mass production in 2019.

In October 2017 Japan Display estimated that it will require more than 200 billion Yen (around $1.77 billion USD) to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019, and the company started reaching out to display makers in China and Korea as finding a partner in Japan is difficult. JDI hoped to finalize its financing by March 2018, but according to a new report from Japan the investors in China, while initially eager to participate, are now hesitating.

A somewhat confusing article from Taiwan claims that Visionox developed a new VR AMOLED display that achieves a very high pixel density of 814 PPI.

The original article only actually refers to Black Cattle Food - which is a Chinese soy and grain beverage maker that teamed up with Visionox and provided financial support for Visionox' upcoming 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab.

Analysts from CLSA returned from a journey to Asia with some interesting notes on the OLED industry. According to CLSA, spending in the OLED industry has peaked and OLED producers are not expecting to place any new equipment orders in the near future. This coincides with IHS estimates of over supply in the flexible OLED market in 2018.

According to CLSA, Samsung has a current capacity in its A3 and A4 (which should be ready by Q2 2018) OLED fabs to produce about 330-385 million OLED displays per year (11 lines, each about 15,000 monthly substrates) which SDC expects to be enough to satisfy Apple's and Samsung Electronics' demand. SDC does not see a strong demand from China's smartphone makers, surprisingly, due to the high cost of OLED displays. Without demand for larger displays (tablets/laptops) or perhaps for foldable devices, SDC's seem to be content with its current OLED capacity.

IHS analyst David Hsieh posted a very interesting article that discuss the global OLED industry with a special focus on China. Samsung is expected to retain its lead in this market - and will more than double its capacity between 2017 to 2022.

In five years (2022), Samsung will have a capacity to produce 16.6 million square meters of RGB OLED displays, or 52% of the global capacity. SDC will be followed by LG Display (11%), Tianma (6%), CSoT (5%), Visionox (4%) and EverDisplay (4%).

IHS says that SDC increased its lead in the smartphone display market, reaching a market share of 42.7% in Q3 2017. Samsung is followed by JDI (12.5%), LG Display (10.1%), BOE (8.8%) and Sharp (7.7%). The smartphone display market totaled $11.8 billion in Q3, a new quarterly high.

IHS says that OLED smartphone revenue reached a record high in the quarter - $5.11 billion (up 32.4% from the $3.86 billion in Q2 2017). SDC's market share in the OLED smartphone display market is 98.5% ($5.03 billion). IHS actually expects SDC's market share to increase slightly to 98.8% in Q4 2017.

Visionox participated at the 19th China International Hi-Tech Fair opened in Shenzhen, and the company demonstrated several new OLED prototype panels. Visionox demonstrate several "full-screen" AMOLEDs, including a 6.01" one and a 5.99" flexible one.

According to the Chinese report, Visionox has stated its flexible OLED "roadmap" as the company wants to start with curved panels, then move to foldable and finally to stretchable displays. Visionox says it has achieved mass production technology for curved OLEDs, but according to our information its first flexible AMOLED fab will only begin production in the summer of 2018.

Visionox announced that it has chosen Israel-based Orbotech to supply it with an end-to-end automated optical inspection (AOI) solutions for its upcoming 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab in Hebei.

This deal includes a large number of Orbotech AOI systems for TFT Array and OLED-related layers for inspection and classification. Among the solutions provided is the Orbotech Quantum Flex series, which will resolve challenges that manufacturers typically face with OLED flexible display processes. The solution includes unique technologies to address the requirements of flexible OLED panel inspection.

According to Digitimes, Visionox has completed the construction of the building for its 6-Gen AMOLED fab in Hebei province, China. The company will start moving in and installing the production equipment in the beginning of 2018.

Visionox's 6-Gen fab will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 substrates, and will be mainly used to produce flexible AMOLEDs. Production will begin in mid-2018. This fab will cost around $4.5 billion.