OLED-A sees 7X flexible OLED capacity expansion from 2015 to 2017

The OLED Association published an interesting chart today showing their forecast for flexible OLED capacity at Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD) from 2014 to 2018. The OLED-A sees rapid growth ahead, with SDC's and LGD's combined capacity growing from 800K sq. m in 2015 to 5,600K sq. m by 2017.

As you can see from the chart, SDC will continue to have a much larger flexible OLED capacity than LG. SDC is constructing a 6-Gen flexible OLED line - with aims to start production in Q1 2015.

LG recently released their flexible OLED roadmap for the next few years. In 2015-2016 the company sees flexible OLEDs being adopted in tablets and bendable phones and from 2017, LGD sees flexible OLEDs being used to produce foldable and rollable devices - including rollable TVs. If LGD actually intends to start producing flexible TVs in 2017 it will require a massive capacity expansion and I do not think the OLED Association is taking that into account (or else they think LG will not be able to actually produce such displays commercially so soon).

JDI flexible OLED prototype

I also expect other companies besides LG and Samsung to start flexible OLED production in the next few years. In past months we've seen several companies showcasing new flexible OLED prototypes, including SEL/Nokia, Japan Display, AU Optronics, CPT and others.

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Posted: Nov 13,2014 by Ron Mertens