Japan’s once-unconquerable liquid-crystal display-panel industry has long-since migrated to Taiwan and then South Korea. And South Korea, after many years of great success (if not always great profits) is now dumping it. The problem is oversupply and margins that vary between slim and none.
So LG Display (LGD) and Samsung Display Company (SDC) are moving LCD fabrication to Chinese fabs of which they are part owners or simply pulling out of some product lines and letting Chinese panel makers take over.
LGD is focusing its panel production entirely on OLED. It has 100% of the market for TV-sized OLED screens, and has a modest percentage of the OLED smart phone market. Samsung has most of the OLED smartphone market and is energetically developing its own QD-OLED technology for TV-sized panel. As is well known, QD-OLED uses three layers of unpatterned blue OLED emitters and color converts using a patterned OLED “color filter replacement.”
But as sure as Donald Trump tweets, existing display technologies will become commoditized and attractive only to Chinese makers. So there always has to be an emerging technology. Flexible has already emerged. Folding is in the process of unfolding. MicroLED seems most suitable for very small and very large displays, and EL-OLED appears to be a ways off. So what’s next?
The Next Thing
Last week, LGD announced it has been selected by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) to lead a large-scale national R&D project to develop stretchable displays. (LG Display Will Lead Korean Government’s Project To Develop Stretchable Displays) The project “is a major part of MOTIE’s push since 2019 to propel South Korea’s next-generation display industry by fostering the development of core technologies.” LGD will lead a consortium of 21 companies, research institutes, and universities, and will develop core technologies, obtain patents, and create new high value-added markets through the development of stretchable displays, LGD said.
“All the entities will work together to develop relevant materials, components, and equipment to build a robust environment for Korea’s future display technologies.”
Stretchable demonstrators aren’t new. At Display Week 2017, Samsung showed this 9.1-inch flexible OLED display with LTPS backplane. (Photo: SDC)The company plans to develop stretchable display products with a 20% elongation by 2024, said Dr. Soo-Young Yoon, Senior Vice President and Head of the LG Display Laboratory.
Stretchable displays can stretch over more degrees of freedom than can “existing commercial flexible display technologies such as bendable, foldable, and rollable panels , while not affecting the quality of displays such as through screen distortion.” I’m not sure what that means. It seems clear that stretching a display will introduce geometric distortions in the image unless there is real-time remapping of the image, but that seems unlikely. Despite such minor challenges, “stretchable displays are considered the final phase of the evolution of flexible displays,” LGD said.
I will give LGD the last word:
“The great flexibility of stretchable displays means there is vast potential in terms of applications for this technology upon completion. These include multi-foldable smart devices, wearable devices with excellent fit and no movement restrictions, and auto and aviation displays that overcome design constraints caused by curved surfaces. It is expected that the scope of application and market potential will be almost endless.”
No. I can’t give them the last word. “NO movement restrictions?” “Almost endless?” To infinity…and beyond! (KW)
Ken Werner is Principal of Nutmeg Consultants, specializing in the display industry, manufacturing, technology, and applications, including mobile devices, automotive, and television. He consults for attorneys, investment analysts, and companies re-positioning themselves within the display industry or using displays in their products. He is the 2017 recipient of the Society for Information Display’s Lewis and Beatrice Winner Award. You can reach him at [email protected] or www.nutmegconsultants.com.
