Samsung Display Corporation (SDC), one of the world's leading display makers, was spun off from Samsung Electronics in 2012. The company produces a wide range of displays, including LCDs, OLEDs, MicroLEDs and more.
Samsung Display is the world's leading AMOLED producer by volume, and is also the world's only QD-OLED panel makers. SDC is producing around 500 million AMOLED panels per year (both flexible and rigid panels) used in smartphones, wearables, tablets, laptops and more. The company's QD-OLED panels are used in monitors and TVs.
In addition to its current AMOLED and QD-OLED displays, SDC is developing next-generation OLED technologies, including rollable OLEDs, transparent OLEDs, stretchable displays, OLED microdisplays, and more.
1 Samsung-Ro
Giheung-Gu
Yongin
South Korea
Apple reportedly established four new display research labs in China, aiming to expand its OLED supply chain in China
According to industry reports, Apple recently established four display research labs in China, in Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Shanghai.
Apple has reportedly formed an alliance with China's leading OLED makers, as the company gets ready to deploy OLED panels in its laptops and tablets. Apple is interested in diversifying its supply chain and not rely exclusively on Samsung Display and LG Display for its smartphone and IT AMOLED panels. The main goal of the new research labs is to test OLED panels produced by Chinese display makers, and evaluate and compare them to LG's and Samsung's OLEDs.
Researchers from SNU and Samsung identify a critical mechanism in OLED performance degradation, and use the knowledge to dramatically improve OLED efficiency and lifetime
Researchers from Seoul National University (SNU), in collaboration from colleagues from Samsung's SAIT institute, have identified a critical mechanism behind the performance degradation of OLED devices, the interfacial exciton-polaron quenching mechanism.
The researches have theoretically proposed a mechanism where excitons in the light-emitting layer are quenched by the accumulated charges at the interface. They followed with with experiments that have independently observed this phenomenon, identifying three key factors: interfacial barrier, exciton-polaron distance, and exciton lifetime.
Chemtronics starts building a 8-Gen etch factory to support Samsung Display's 8-Gen IT AMOLED line
The Elec reports that Korea's Chemtronics is constructing a new fab at Sejong City that will be able to etch 8-Gen OLED substrates. This fab is built specifically for Samsung Display's new 8-Gen IT AMOLED line. The Elec said that Chemtronics already spent almost $70 million on this new fab, with Samsung supporting it with an investment as well.
The new fab will receive finished 8-Gen IT TFE rigid AMOLED panels from Samsung Display's upcoming A6 line, on a glass substrate. The new etching fab will reduce the thickness of these OLEDs from 0.5 mm to 0.2 mm, to enable lighter and thinner tablet and laptop OLEDs.
Samsung Display developed new technology to recycle QD materials for its QD-OLED production process
Samsung Display announced that it has developed a new technology that can recover around 80% of the quantum dots ink used in its QD-OLED production process. The recovered inks is refined through advanced synthesis technology that revives its purity and optical properties. The company will apply this technology, to its process and it is expected to save around 10 billion Won (around $7.3 million USD) each year in QD materials cost.
It turns out that even though the QD layers are inkjet printed, there is still significant waste of materials, as around 20% of the total QD ink used in the process remains in the nozzles and cannot be used. This new technology will enable SDC to make its QD-OLED panels more competitive with other large-area panel technologies.
Does it make sense for LG Display and Samsung Display to merge?
In this article, we examine the theoretical question of whether or not it makes sense for LG Display and Samsung Display to merge, into one company.
Note that we have no indications that such a merger is even considered by the two companies, but we feel this is a fascinating topic that should be explored, and is supported by several strong arguments.
We'll start with a short introduction to the two companies, then see why there are many reasons to pursue a merger, then explain the reasons against a possible merger, and finally detail the current financial situations of both companies.
Samsung Display and LG Display
Samsung Display Corporation (SDC) is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. SDC is a leader in OLED production, with a market share of over 40% in the small OLED display market (the second largest player, BOE, holds a market share of around 15%). SDC produces over 300 million AMOLED displays per year - supplying them to Apple's iPhones and tablets, Samsung Electronics Galaxy phones, and many more. The Company also produces larger-area QD-OLED panels for TVs and gaming monitors, and has a capacity of producing around a million TV panels per year. SDC no longer produces any LCDs. SDC does produce microLED displays (but on a very small scale, this is currently a strictly next-gen display technology), and the company develops OLED microdisplays (and also holds OLED microdisplay producer eMagin which it acquired in 2023 for $243 million).
OLED TVs - is there a path towards increased production capacity?
OLED TVs offer excellent image quality, outperforming LCDs with superb contrast, excellent and vivid color reproduction and fast refresh rates. In addition, OLEDs enable thin and efficient TVs. OLED TV production has been increasing up until a year ago, reaching a potential capacity of around 10 million units. This is impressive, but considering the entire global TV market that amounts to around 250 million units, OLEDs represent only around 2.5% of the total market (it is important to note that OLEDs tend to be produced in large sizes and carry a much higher average selling price compared to LCDs).
But OLED TV production capacity growth has declined in recent years. In this article we will shortly detail the history of OLED TV production, and look at potential paths towards increased penetration in the future. More details and into the future of OLED technologies and OLED TVs is included in the OLED Toolbox.
A bit of history: in 2013, both Samsung and LGD started producing OLED TV panels. Samsung chose the straightforward RGB side-by-side architecture, in which there are three sub-pixels, with red, green and blue OLED emitters. LG chose its own WRGB (or WOLED) architecture (the IP was acquired from Kodak in 2009) which uses four white OLED subpixels (made from yellow and blue OLED subpixels). Both companies released 55" FHD OLED TVs, priced at over $10,000 per unit. It soon became clear that Samsung's approach was not scalable, while LGD managed to enter mass production quickly and reduce prices dramatically within a few years to compete with the dominant LCD TV technology.
The US is looking into backlisting both BOE and Tianma as it fears that China is taking over the display industry, we look into the implications
The Chairman of the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, John Moolenaar, sent a letter to the US Secretary of Defense, saying that the US should place both BOE and Tianna on the DoD 1260H blacklist as Chinese military companies.
In his letter, Mr. Moolenaar says that by using government support, the Chinese has taken over the display industry, and are already leading both the LCD and OLED markets (which is indeed mostly true). As these two companies have close ties to the Chinese government and military, this, according to the letter, poses a big risk to US and its allies.
Samsung Display to invest $1.8 billion in a new OLED module production line in Vietnam
Samsung Display has decided to build a new OLED module production line in Vietnam, mostly to produce automotive OLED modules and IT OLED modules.
The new production line will be built in Yen Phong industrial park in Bac Ninh province east of Hanoi, close to an existing Samsung Electronics plant. It is understood that the Vietnamese government will provide support for Samsung's new line, which will cost a total of around $1.8 billion.
Reports suggest Samsung is accelerating its rollable smartphone project, aiming to launch it in 2025
According to a report from Korea, Samsung is progressing with its rollable OLED development project, and the company aims to launch its first rollable smartphone in 2025. When fully opened, the phone will sport a very large 12.4" display. Interestingly, Samsung apparently will implement an under-the-display camera solution.
Samsung's acceleration of its rollable phone project is seen as the Korean device maker's response to Huawei's tri-folding smartphone, the Mate XT. It is seen that this was an embarrassment for Samsung, that recently also to witness LG Display's leading over it with tandem OLED production. It will remain to be seen whether Samsung's acceleration will lead to problems in quality and reliability - which happened when it launched the world's first foldable phone back in 2019.
Apple looks to adopt a TFT AMOLED for its future entry-level MR headset
There's an interesting report in Korea that claims that Apple is developing an entry-level MR headset, and is looking to adopt TFT based AMOLED displays, as opposed to the currently-used OLED microdisplays. It is reported that both JDI and Samsung are in talks with Apple, and have been requested to develop lower-cost TFT AMOLEDs with a pixel density of 1,500 PPI (down from 3,400 PPI high-end Sony microdisplays used in the Vision Pro).
It is understood that JDI has already developed the technology and produced 1,500 PPI samples for Apple. Interestingly it is reported that the JDI displays uses Sony's technology, although it is not stated which technology exactly. Samsung meanwhile is also developing 1,500 PPI AMOLEDs at its A2 fab. Apple's target is to release the headset at around 2026-2027 and by then it is likely that more OLED producers (such as LG Display) will develop similar displays.
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