We reported earlier this year that Samsung Display is co-developing the industry’s first Gen 8.5 (2200 x 2500mm) OLED deposition equipment that uses full-cut substrates to deposit organic materials vertically with Japanese firm Ulvac. This technology is more economical for producing larger OLED screens. The Korean behemoth planned to use it for making large OLED panels a few years from now. The target was to make the tech production-ready in time for Apple’s second-gen OLED iPads in late 2024. The iPhone maker reportedly planned to use the existing Gen 6 OLED (1500 x 1850mm) panels in the first-gen products. However, Apple doesn’t seem to be hurrying to make OLED iPads. Its first such product may not arrive until sometime in 2024. More importantly, the Cupertino-based company has asked its display suppliers to “develop two stack tandem OLED panels,” The Elec reports. In other words, it is asking for half-cut panels made with a horizontal deposition machine. These solutions have two RGB emission layers while the full-cut machine only deposits one RGB emission layer, i. e. makes “single stack” OLED panels. This decision from Apple means Samsung is now prioritizing half-cut solutions.
Samsung prioritizes the development of “half-cut” OLED panels
Another likely cause of Samsung’s change in plans is due to the technology not being ready for prime time. The original development began with Gen 8.5 in mind. But the company now reportedly wants to use Gen 8.7 (2290 x 2620mm) substrates. The size difference may not seem big, but it still requires major redesigning of the equipment. Moreover, full-cut vertical deposition OLED technology is still untested. Samsung surely doesn’t want to end up losing big by putting all its eggs in one basket. It may proceed cautiously to these “economical” OLED panels in the coming years. Half-cut OLED deposition tech, meanwhile, is already commercially available. Samsung is working with another Japanese firm Canon Tokki for its half-cut solutions. Since the Korean behemoth arguably makes the best OLED screens for mobile devices currently, it has a reputation to protect. However, the current economic headwinds mean the market demand will remain low in the near term. So Samsung will not hurry to make Gen 8 OLED panels just yet. It may be monitoring the market and will likely start investments when the time is right.
