Coherent sees a massive shift from LCD to OLED production, announces $300 million in new orders for laser systems

In January 2016 Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent announced large (well in excess of $150 million) orders for its Linebeam systems which are used for laser annealing (turning a-Si into LTPS) for OLED producers. Coherent also said it has a significant number of orders pending for the remainder of 2016.

In the company's latest conference call, Coherent announced that the recent OLED capacity expansions generated more than $300 million of orders for Linebeam 1000, Linebeam 1500, and UV Blade systems in Q2 2016. The UV Blade is used for laser lift-off in flexible OLEDs. These systems will be delivered to end customers in South Korea, Japan and China.

Coherent says that it sees a large buildup of OLED capacity. The company currently estimates that about 80% of LTPS mobile displays are LCDs, and 20% are AMOLEDs. But by 2019 this will be inverted as AMOLEDs will represent 80% of the production capacity. It's not clear if Coherent CEO means total capacity or new installed capacity in 2019, but in any case he is "very excited about the OLED ramp".

Source: 
Posted: Apr 30,2016 by Ron Mertens