Patents

OLED patents

Three former senior researchers from LG Display are accused of sealing OLED trade secrerts

According to reports from Korea, three former senior researchers at LG Display are accused of passing OLED trade secrets to a Chinese panel maker. The Seoul District Prosecutor office says that the there researchers took photos of designs at LGD's Guangzhou factor in 2021 and 2022, related to large-area WOLED panel production processes.

One of the suspects started working for a large China-based display company in 2021, and he allegedly colluded with a former LG Display employee to steal large-scale OLED panel mass production technology.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 20,2024 - 2 comments

A senior researcher formerly working at Samsung Display sentenced for 6 years in prison for OLED trade secrets

In 2021, we reported that two researchers working at Samsung Display were convicted of handing over OLED technology to other companies, and are being sent to prison for two years. There was another employee, the main organizer of the outfit, who was also facing trial - and now it is reported that he was sentenced for 6 years in prison.

The researcher was accused of illegally acquiring trade secrets - technologies related to OLED ELA (Excimer Laser Annealing, used to process a-Si into LTPS backplanes) and OCR used in OLED inkjet printing processes. The researcher has acquired these technologies and intended to sell them to Chinese companies in in 2018 - 2020.  The prosecution said that the trade secrets' worth was at least $250 million USD. 

Read the full story Posted: Jul 20,2024

Samsung purchases Orthogonal's mask-less OLED production IP

Reports from Korea suggested that Samsung Display acquired 5 patents from US-based Orthogonal, that contains the company's mask-less OLED production process. With this purchase, SDC has a path towards developing its own maskless OLED production.

Maskless OLED production is of high interest lately, as these technology could offer higher pixel aperture ratio leading to higher efficiency, brightness and lifetime and brighter OLEDs, compared to FMM-based production processes. JDI for example claims its eLEAP technology enables an 2X increase in brightness and a 3X increase in lifetime, coupled with reduced production costs.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 15,2024

IPValue buys 200 OLED patents from Seiko Epson

IPValue Management announced that it has acquired around 200 OLED patents from Seiko Epson. We do not know the nature of these patents, and whether IPValue bought all of Seiko Epson's OLED IP portfolio or just a part of it. IPValue says that the patents will be owned by its subsidiary Lumitek Display Technology.

Espon 14-inch Inkjet processed OLED
Espon 14-inch Inkjet processed OLED prototype (2009)

 

Seiko Epson has been working on OLED technologies for many years - and it has been involved mostly with soluble OLED materials, ink-jet printing and OLED microdisplays. In 2013 Samsung Display bought several OLED patents from Seiko Epson

Read the full story Posted: Dec 19,2023

Kyulux raises $28.6 million, is on track to achieve full-scale mass production of its HF/TADF emitter system by 2025

Kyulux announced that it has raised $28.6 million USD in its Series C funding round, led by El Camino Capital and the MCP Group. This brings Kyulux total funding so far to $86 million USD.

A part of the Kyulux team based in Fukuoka, Japan

Kyulxu says that it will use the newly raised funds to further accelerate its product development, strengthen its IP portfolio and achieve full-scale mass production of its emitter system by 2025, with its affiliated chemical companies.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 01,2023

Samsung Display files another complaint in the US trade comission against BOE

Samsung Display filed a new complaint in the US trade commission (ITC) against BOE, claiming that the Chinese OLED producer is infringing on SDC's OLED patents and IP, and is using unfair methods of competition. 

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE photo

In January 2023 Samsung filed a motion with the US ITC to halt the import of aftermarket AMOLED displays produced by BOE. A group of OLED makers in China, which includes BOE, answered with a motion of their own, to dismiss an SDC AMOLED patent. This legal battle continues, and the tension between Samsung and BOE is on the rise.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 03,2023

A senior researcher formerly working at Samsung Display, accused of stealing OLED trade secrets with an aim to sell them to Chinese display makers, returns to Korea to face chargers

In 2021, we reported that two researchers working at Samsung Display were convicted of handing over OLED technology to other companies, and are being sent to prison for two years. Representative and directors of the company that bought the technology was also sent to prison and the company was fined. The technology in question relates to Optical Adhesive Materials used in OLED production processes. The arrest of these employees was reported earlier in 2020.

It is now reported that another employee of Samsung Display, also involved in that case (seems to be he was the main organizer of the outfit) fled Korea following his indictment, but has now returned voluntarily to Korea and has been arrested and is now bring charged with violating unfair competition laws in Korea. 

Read the full story Posted: Oct 10,2023

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung Display is interested in acquiring SEL's mask-less OLED production technology

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display is interested in acquiring OLED IP and patents from Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL). These patents detail an OLED production process that does not require the use of fine metal mask (FMM) evaporation.

SEL 8.3-inch 8K OLED prototype (Dec 2018)

The use of FMM to deposit and pattern OLED displays is seen as a major setback towards higher density OLED displays, and it also limits the aperture ratio. It is no wonder that Samsung is interested in such technology, as other display makers have developed similar technologies that offer massive performance boost over the standard FMM process.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 26,2023

Samsung Electronics stops its BOE OLED review process as the tension between the two companies rises

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Electronics considered adopting AMOLED display produced by BOE for its next flagship smartphone, but the company has halted the review process as the two companies are in the midst of an IP dispute.

A few months ago Samsung filed a motion with the US ITC to halt the import of aftermarket AMOLED displays produced by BOE. A group of OLED makers in China, which includes BOE, answered with a motion of their own, to dismiss an SDC AMOLED patent. This legal battle continues, and the tension between Samsung and BOE is on the rise.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 11,2023

Chinese OLED makers file a motion to dismiss a major SDC OLED patent in the US as the dispute of AMOLED imports to the US continues

Earlier this year, we reported that Samsung filed a request at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban BOE's aftermarket AMOLED panels in the US, as they infringe on Samsung's OLED patent. Following the request, the ITC started a formal investigation.

Xiaomi 13 Pro smartphone

According to a new report from China, several OED makers in China (BOE, Tianma, TCL CSoT and Visionox) have joined forces and filed a motion to invalidate one of Samsung's main OLED patents in the US. This is a response to SDC's request to halt BOE's US aftermarket AMOLED panel sales.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 19,2023