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APS Wins Korea’s Competition to Crack Japan’s FMM monopoly
The South Korean Ministry of Trade sponsored a Fine Metal Mask (FMM) competition pitting a number of South Korean companies against each other to find the best production methodology to develop an in-country source to break the hold Japan’s DNP and Toppan Printing had on the near $1b market.
South Korea imports nearly 100% of its FMMs and that dependence has been a cause for concern as strained relations with Japan, over a dispute going back to WWII caused the concern, with the South Korean government. Competitors were APS, Philoptics, Poongwon Precision and Olum Materials. The latter two use etching to create the FMM, while APS uses laser patterning, and Philoptics uses electro-forming, essentially a process that deposits metal on a mandrel, which is later separated from the mask material. Laser patterning uses high-powered, micro-precision lasers to form the mask ‘holes’. Poonwong and Olum use more typical etching methods adopted by DNP and Toppan, which roll the mask to the desired thickness and etch the ‘holes’ in the same way semiconductor material is etched.
APS and Poongwon were the winners in the project, which will now focus on the development of a 600ppi mask for Gen 6 OLED fabs with a 2023 target.
The South Korean Ministry of Trade sponsored a Fine Metal Mask (FMM) competition pitting a number of South Korean companies against each other to find the best production methodology to develop an in-country source to break the hold Japan’s DNP and Toppan Printing had on the near $1b market.
South Korea imports nearly 100% of its FMMs and that dependence has been a cause for concern as strained relations with Japan, over a dispute going back to WWII caused the concern, with the South Korean government. Competitors were APS, Philoptics, Poongwon Precision and Olum Materials. The latter two use etching to create the FMM, while APS uses laser patterning, and Philoptics uses electro-forming, essentially a process that deposits metal on a mandrel, which is later separated from the mask material. Laser patterning uses high-powered, micro-precision lasers to form the mask ‘holes’. Poonwong and Olum use more typical etching methods adopted by DNP and Toppan, which roll the mask to the desired thickness and etch the ‘holes’ in the same way semiconductor material is etched.
APS and Poongwon were the winners in the project, which will now focus on the development of a 600ppi mask for Gen 6 OLED fabs with a 2023 target.
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