Updates from Taiwan's AMOLED makers

Taiwan has a large display industry, but in recent years it seems that it is lagging behind Korea, Japan and China in AMOLED technologies. We asked a local industry expert to check out the three main Taiwanese AMOLED companies (AUO, Innolux and RiTDisplay), and now we post on his updates.

AUO

As we reported already, AUO started producing AMOLEDs in their 4.5-Gen fab in Singapore after years of delays. According to our source, AUO is actually only producing samples. Those 5" 720p (295 ppi) panel samples have been been submitted to a company based in China. Earlier reports suggested AUO is going to supply HTC and Sony but it appears these two companies will keep using LCDs for now.

AUO 4.4-inch AMOLED prototypeAUO 4.4-inch AMOLED prototype

AUO's yield is still low at around 40%, but they do plan to start mass production soon. Capacity will only be 5,000 substrates per month. AUO also has a 3.5-Gen fab in Taiwan, but they have given up on mass production and only use this line for R&D. AUO's technology for small displays is similar to Samsung's (LTPS, FMM, direct-emission).

AUO 65-inch AMOLED panel prototypeAUO 65-inch AMOLED panel prototype

AUO's OLED TV team has been downsized. The company is skeptical about the OLED TV market (this isn't really news). AUO is using IGZO, WRGB and top-emission technologies for large OLED TV panels.

Innolux

Innolux has been promising small scale OLED production back in 2012, but this never materialized, and the company shifted focus to 4K technologies later that year. Our source now reveals that the company isn't ready to start mass production soon. The 3.5-Gen IGZO fab in Tainan is used for R&D only. The company's 2nd 3.5-Gen LTPS fab in Junan has developed a 4.3" QHD (257 PPI) AMOLED (these were on display back at SID 2012), but still has issues with encapsulation reliability. They are using WRGB architecture in those panels.

RitDisplay

Finally, we have RiTDisplay. The company is producing PMOLEDs, but due to financial issues they have scaled back production. Back in 2011 RiT collaborated with Ignis to develop a-Si based AMOLEDs, but this never materialized and our source confirms that we shouldn't expect RiT AMOLEDs any time soon.

Posted: Nov 14,2013 by Ron Mertens