What Display Daily thinks: LG’s making all the right moves in automotive because LG is the standard bearer in automotive displays. By all accounts, its ATO OLED technology gives the company a continued edge, which is essentially the same hybrid OLED model that Samsung is pursuing.
The Korean business and tech press are making noise about these developments because of the country’s highly vested interest in ensuring its OLED market dominance. This is in the face of increased competition from Chinese vendors who are benefiting from demand from local EV car makers, and smartphone brands for their flexible OLED products.
It wouldn’t be surprising if automotive displays are eventually combined with battery and electronics technology for cars, and these big companies look to package their offerings in a new way which means reorganization of display businesses. It probably isn’t enough to just see automotive displays as a line within a series of display lines, but rather as a separate component within an automotive business unit.
Note:The automotive display market data will probably need to get better and that market share statistics can be reliable from companies like Omdia, but there is a lot of noise, and speculation. The automotive market is not going to be a straightforward tracking opportunity for research companies, at least not until it develops some more and historical data is more robust.
LG Looking to ATO OLED to Solidify Automotive Market Position
LG already has a nearly unassailable position in the automotive display market, according to Omdia. The Elec has a report on LG Display’s development of hybrid OLEDs for vehicles and the differences between LG’s approach and Samsung’s approach.
Hybrid OLED refers to a technology where thin-film encapsulation (TFE) is applied to a glass substrate. This is in contrast to the current flexible OLED technology used for vehicles, where thin-film encapsulation is applied to a polyimide (PI) substrate. The hybrid OLED technology using glass substrates is expected to have a lower manufacturing cost compared to flexible OLEDs using PI substrates.
Hybrid OLEDs have an advantage in terms of manufacturing cost because they don’t require a process called laser lift-off (LLO) to remove the glass substrate for a carrier. In flexible OLEDs, the carrier glass is replaced with a polyimide substrate through the LLO process, which adds complexity and cost to the production.
LG is developing hybrid OLEDs for vehicles in sizes ranging from 24.2 inches to 7.2 inches. These are referred to as center stack displays (CSDs). The first application of these hybrid OLEDs is expected to be in electric vehicles from European automakers. LG introduced the term ATO to describe its hybrid OLED technology during CES 2023. ATO stands for advanced thin OLED, which emphasizes the use of glass substrates and a thinner design compared to traditional glass substrate OLEDs.
Samsung is also researching and developing hybrid OLEDs for vehicles. However, their approach is slightly different from LG’s. Samsung’s automotive hybrid OLED is envisioned as a higher-end product compared to their existing rigid OLED technology. The Samsung hybrid OLED technology is likely to involve etching the glass substrate to create an ultra-thin substrate, similar to what is done for iPad OLEDs. As a result, Samsung has plans to use its A3 production line instead of the A2 line for mass-producing hybrid OLEDs. The A3 line can support larger substrate sizes and longer production processes, which could lead to improved efficiency and larger display sizes.
As for Chinese manufacturers, BOE has been working on hybrid OLED technology for several years and has already started shipping hybrid OLED panels to automotive customers. BOE’s hybrid OLED panels are said to be more affordable than those of Samsung and LG, but BOE doesn’t have the ingrained relationships that LG has. CSOT has not yet started shipping hybrid OLED panels to automotive customers, but it is expected to do so in the near future. The company claims its hybrid OLED panels are thinner and lighter than those of Samsung and LG. Visionox has yet to give any firm commitment on its plans for its hybrid OLED panels for the automotive market, focusing mostly on the smartphone and wearables category, and smaller display sizes.
So, it may be that LG, and Samsung, have the automotive market upper hand for the next 2 years because of the long lead time on commitments by car OEMs. Yet, if the Chinese EV makers are successful in aggressively expanding their businesses into the EMEA region
