Rumors: Samsung giving up on direct-emission, to develop RGBW OLED TVs?

There's an interesting article in HDTV Magazine about Samsung's and LG's OLED TV program. The author says that an LG Executive old him that Samsung has given up on direct-emission OLED technology and will instead opt for LG's WOLED (RGBW) in their upcoming OLED TVs. According to the article, this is because of issues with manufacturing and scalability.

I personally find that hard to believe, but of course, like the article's author says, "anything can happen". Months ago, when we learned that LG will use a WOLED design in their TVs, it was assumed that we'll see some ugly marketing battles between those two different OLED architecture. So perhaps this is all there is to this rumor. Hopefully we'll hear something from SMD soon.

Last month it was reported that some LGD employees were arrested in Korea because of suspected OLED technology theft from SMD (all of those employees used to work for SMD). The technology is Small Mask Scanning, a Samsung developed method of scaling-up FMM, used to fabricate their direct emission panels. The tension between these two Korean rivals ain't pretty...

Posted: May 24,2012 by Ron Mertens

Comments

To the best of my (inside) knowledge, this information is correct, but to a certain extent.  It appears Samsung is indeed planning to produce its first OLED TV model using a lower-cost, higher-yield but lesser-quality white oled w/ color filter technology, in order to beat LG in the race to be the first to commercialize a large screen OLED TV.  But that does not mean they have given up on their development of the direct-emission technology.

Two quotes from the article:

"...but we’re going with the RGB-OLED technology this year"

"...it is not the time to decide which technology we will adopt in the future."

Not exactly a strong backing or the direct emitting technology I would say.

 

... a LG Executive told him ... !!! Next entry is supposed to be something like that ... a Samsung Executive told him that LG has given up on WOLED (RGBW) in their upcoming OLED TVs :-)