Cowen & Co notes

Last updated on Fri 03/03/2023 - 10:24

Cowen & Co notes -

It was a 40 minute chat between the Cowen guy and Sid, VERY informative on a technical level, I highly suggest everyone listen to it. I'll highlight a few things that might be considered new.

- They started selling their new, high-performance red and green emitter in Q1, he strongly hinted one or both are in the S5 and accounted for the S5's performance improvement. The old red and green reached their low price point in Q4, ie price discounting has run its course. The new materials start at premium prices and will follow a volume discounting process as the old ones did. The new red they are selling is for mobile, they also have developed a new red emitter for TV's. The new red improves lifetime, color gamut, and most importantly energy efficiency. Patents on the new emitter(s) are through 2029.

- Their host materials are patented, but architectural host patents have long since expired. Highlighted their advantage in host is they develop it along side each new emitter.

- The new PPG facility is only using 1/3 of the building, offering significant room for expansion.

- While discussing the different TV architectures, mentioned they are selling host material to LG, but indicated the recipes for TV are still developing. Also indicated LG is using blue fluorescent, I know there has been some discussion about light blue in a TV mix, he didn't mention it.

- Said Samsung is making their 2 new tablets on their Gen 5.5 line, he expects high yields on these larger form factors, but did indicate the recipe for tablets may change versus phones, opening up the possibility of greater material usage.

- New red and green emitter are based on Fuji patents. Highlighted again the architecture patents are through 2020 and NOT 2017, went into detail that you are using at least 4 patent families in any OLED device through 2020. Also mentioned they have never sued anyone and have never been sued, and pointed out there are no issues at all in the US, where the money is.

- Said the single layer encapsulation developed at Princeton and brought in house has been tested at UDC on a 6" substrate, but they are looking for a partner to scale it up.

- LG's Gen8 TV fab equals 40% of Samsung's entire capacity at EOY 2013. Expects Samsung's A3 line to be available in 2015 and represent a 20-40% increase in their capacity, depending on details they do not yet know(mainly Gen 5.5 vs. Gen 6)

- Expects OLED production from Japan Display in 2015, with buildout starting later this year.

- Highlighted how the big jump in efficiency for red emitter usage experienced when Samsung went from their A1 line to A2 will not be seen in green, since green was first used on A2 and had those efficiencies from the start.