Glass

Samsung Display is showcasing a new laptop OLED panel, that is 20% thinner compared to Samsung's currently produced laptop AMOLEDs.

The company says it has achieved this slimmer design by etching both the Thin Film Transistor (TFT) substrate glass and the encapsulation glass to reduce their thickness by more than 30%, while also using its proprietary process know-how to resolve the potential warping that can occur when panels become thinner. 

Samsung is ramping up its A6 8.6-Gen IT AMOLED line, and starting to produce 14" and 16" touch AMOLED displays for Apple's upcoming 2026 MacBook Pro laptops. Last month we reported that SDC is seeing lower demand for IT AMOLEDs displays, as expected, and is considering how to handle the fab's future.

According to the latest reports from China, Samsung Display is now considering using the A6 line to produce low-cost rigid (glass-based) OLED smartphone displays at the new fab, for Samsung's own mid-to-low-end Galaxy A series phones.

Omdia says that AMOLED smartphone display shipments are expected to decline by 7% in 2026 amid rising memory prices and increasing market uncertainty. Both flexible and rigid OLED shipments will decline.

Omdia expects 778 million smartphone panels to ship in 2026, down from 836 million in 2025. Flexible AMOLED shipments will decline for the first time in seven years. Rigid (glass-based) OLED shipments declined in 2025 as well, as smartphone vendors prefer using flexible OLEDs as production prices are dropping the technology gap is closing. 

The OLED's industry main new target, for the past several years, has been the IT display sector, mainly tablets, laptops and monitors. While we have seen OLED displays penetrate this market many years ago, the current 6-Gen AMOLED production lines are optimized for smartphone and wearable display production.

A few years ago display makers realized that OLED production lines with larger substrates will enable lower cost production, and will enable to increase the adoption of OLEDs in such devices. When this converged with technology readiness , several companies initiated new projects, all of which use 8.6-Gen (2250 x 2600 mm) substrates. In this article, we detail all four 8.6-Gen OLED production lines that are currently being built - by Samsung Display, BOE, TCL CSOT and Visionox. We also other display makers and how likely they are of launching large-scale 8.6-Gen lines as well. Finally, we see how these new lines will effect the entire OLED industry, whether it is likely we'll see new lines (do we actually need all that added capacity?) and what we expect to happen next.

Reports suggest that Samsung Electronics may acquire some of its OLED panels for the upcoming Galaxy A57 smartphone from TCL CSOT. Up until now, SDC has been the exclusive supplier of Samsung's A5 smartphone family (which is a sort of high-mid-range series). The same OLED panel will also be used on the upcoming Galaxy S FE models next year.

Samsung Display is still likely to bet he main supplier for these displays, but Samsung Electronics considers adding TCL CSOT as a supplier to reduce costs. Up until now the A5 series used rigid (glass-based) OLEDs, but next year Samsung may opt for a flexible AMOLED to enable smaller screen bezel and a lighter phone. Flexible AMOLEDs are more expensive to make, and adding TCL CSOT as a second supplier may offset some of these costs.

According to industry reports, LG Display is struggling with problems in its supply chain, and the company is not able to produce enough iPhone 17 LTPO AMOLED panels to satisfy Apple's needs. It is suggested that Apple may have to shirt some of its orders to Samsung Display. It seems as if LG Display cannot get a stable supply of glass fiber, a raw material that LG Display uses as part of the AMOLED glass carrier glass process.

LG Display is producing AMOLED displays for Apple's latest iPhone 17, 17 Pro Max, and 17 Air models. Samsung Display, meanwhile, produces AMOLED displays to all of the iPhone 17 models, including the iPhone 17 Pro. It is estimated that SDC will bring its AMOLED fab utilization to close to 100% until the end of 2025 to satisfy Apple's demand.

AP Systems announced that it has been selected to supply Visionox with 8.6-Gen ELA and LLO systems, for its upcoming V5 8.6-Gen fab. AP Systems also revealed that it has been Visionox's exclusive supplier of LLO and ELA systems for its previous OLED production lines.

ELA, or Excimer Laser Annealing, is used to turn amorphous silicon to polycrystalline silicon - an important step of depositing LTPS backplanes for OLED displays. LLO, or Laser based Lift-Off is used to separate two substrates, usually a flexible Polyimide OLED substrate from its glass carrier. 

Samsung Display announced that its latest foldable OLED panels have been tested to last for over 500,000 folding cycles, this enough for over 10 years for average use, and over 6 years for 'heavy' users that fold their devices more than 200 times a day. This is the panel that is used in the Galaxy Z Fold7 smartphone.

 SDC says that its new foldable OLED panels were tested and verified by the global testing, inspection, and certification company Bureau Veritas. SDC raised its internal durability testing standard from 200,000 to 500,000 folds.