Idemitsu Kosan

Reports from Korea suggest that BOE has decided to adopt LG Chem's blue host material in its AMOLED displays, replacing its current supplier, Idemitsu Kosan.

LG Chem has been focused on soluble OLED materials, and it acquired Dupont's soluble OLED IP in 2019. But in recent years it has started to develop evaporation OLED materials, and it has now secured the design win at BOE. It is understood that BOE chose LG Chem over Idemitsu as its materials offer longer lifetime and lower costs.

Idemitsu Kosan announced that it has developed the world's most efficient blue fluorescence OLED emitter system. Idemitsu's new system achieves an EQE of 14% (at current density of 10 mA/cm²), a lifetime of over 400 hours (LT95 @ 50 mA/cm²) and a color point of (0.14,0.08).

The new material system uses a tandem structure of two blue OLED emitter layers. Idemitsu says that by separating the region that causes charge recombination and utilizing TTF (Triplet-Triplet Fusion) it managed to achieve the high light output.

DSCC updated its AMOLED material market forecast, saying that the market will reach $1.4 billion in 2021 (up 32% from 2020), and grow at a 16% CAGR from 2019 ($927 million) to 2025, to reach $2.18 billion by 2025.

DSCC takes a look into the material cost for LG Display's WOLED TV panels. LGD will likely manage to implement incremental improvements in material utilization and price, which will enable the company to almost halve the material cost of its TV panels- from $88.14 per sqm in 2019 to $47.19 per sqm by 2025.

DSCC posted an interesting post with its latest views and forecasts on the OLED material market. The company expects AMOLED stack material sales to grow at a 18% CAGR in the next five years, from $294 million in 2019 to $2.46 billion in 2024. Compared to its previous estimate, DSCC sees higher sales as demand for OLED TVs and OLEDs in the IT market (tablets and notebooks) is increasing.

DSCC also posted an analysis of LGD's new evo OLED material stack. Compared to LGD's "standard" WOLED stack, the evo adds an emitting green layer to improve the brightness by 20%. This of course adds an extra material cost to the panel price.

Japan-based OLED materials producer Idemitsu Kosan announced that it has achieved full-scale production of OLED materials at its new factory in Chengdu, China. Material shipments from the new fab will commence in January 2021.

Idemitsu's OLED factory in Chengdu is the company's third and largest-capacity (12 ton/year) production, and Idemitsu hopes it will enable it to strengthen its OLED materials sales in China. This new fab will increase Idemitsu's total OLED materials production capacity to 22 tons / year.

Samsung Display has developed a 18.2" 2560x1440 202 PPI inkjet-printed OLED display, that features the highest current efficiency of any inkjet-printed OLED, with the brightness at 350 cd/m² (full white).

Samsung Display says that the high brightness was achieved by tuning the top-emission device structure with high performance soluble materials. The high pixel resolution was achieved by modulating the jetting waveform for ejecting ink drops and improving the drop placement accuracy by selecting the right ink formulations in terms of viscosities and surface energies.

DSCC updated its OLED material market estimates, saying that AMOLED stack material sales will grow from $951 million in 2019 to $2.69 billion in 2024 - a CAGR of 23%. These new estimates take into account DSCC's reduced input area forecast due to the slowdown in demand cased by the Covid-19 pandemic.

DSCC says that incremental improvements in material utilization and price reductions, material costs per square meters will decline in the future. The unyielded cost of producing a square meter of a WOLED TV panel will decline from $95.21 in 2019 to $56.11 in 2024.

Idemitsu Kosan and Toray Industries announced that the companies have jointly developed a red OLED device that is the world's most efficient emitter at 46 cd/A. The device uses a TADF emitter combined with red fluorescent materials (which likely means this is a HyperFluorescence device).

Idemitsu and Toray has been collaborating on OLED material development since 2017. This new device uses Idemitsu's TADF material combined with Toray's new red fluorescent material. The two companies say that this new material provides the same results as currently used red phosphorescent devices, and the plan is now to "drive forward to secure adoption of their materials" in mobile and TV applications.

The first day of the OLED Korea 2019 conference is almost over - with some interesting lectures and talks by leading OLED companies and professionals. Here are some of the things under discussion today (highlights only):

• Some believe there will be a real market for >$2,000 foldable OLED devices, and some call for cost reductions before real adoption could take place
• LG Display is optimistic regarding the future of OLED TVs
• Samsung will not commit yet to its QD-OLED technology
• Both Cynora and Kyulux are rapidly progressing towards a long lasting TADF/HF blue - but it seems there's still work to be done
• Idemitsu Kosan is increasing its fluorescent OLED emitter efficiency
• Universal Display's RGBB architecture is back on the table - and the company now highlights the architecture's low blue light emission. UDC seems more optimistic then ever regarding blue PHOLED commercialization
• Equipment maker's focus is shifting to China as Korean OLED makers will not increase capacity in the near future

In April 2018 OLED materials producer Idemitsu Kosan announced plans to establish a new OLED production subsidiary in Chengdu, China. The investment in Idemitsu's third OLED production plant will total $12.8 million USD.

Idemitsu now updates that it is starting to construct the new production plant, which will have a capacity of 12 tonnes per year. The construction will be completed by November 2019 and commercial production is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2020.