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SDC Scores a Breakthrough in Nanorod Technology
As we reported previously, SDC switched from a three to a four-tandem stack in its QD-OLED design in order to achieve higher luminance and perhaps longer lifetime. The company had pushed back its production efforts on a backup nanorod structure by 1-2 years. They have also developed a 2nd backup, which is a high efficiency blue that could be used in smartphones as early as 2022.
Now, UBI Research reports that Samsung Display improved its nanorod LED (QNED) technology, which is essentially blue nano LEDs with multiple emitters per subpixel that can be placed in solution and printed using IJP. The issue was how to align the nanorod LEDs while they were printed. UBI says that a QNED pixel will require an active matrix with a 7T2C structure, as the LED will require more complicated driver to align and adjust it and it requires an oscillator transistor not used in any other display structure in addition to a transistor that is used to repair cases where the nanorods (placed using an inkjet printing process) are not aligned correctly.
Samsung Display will run trials for the production line of the QD-OLED displays next month. The company installed the equipment back in July. At the time, Samsung Display said it would wrap up building the line by the end of the year and begin mass production in 2021. From December, it is expected to take three months to set-up production and around six months to stabilize the yield rate. But SDC has not signed up any TV suppliers as yet, although Sony is rumored to be the first, which Samsung Visual, which is not expected to take the TV panels is planning to buy QD-OLED monitors, which means another design run for the smaller panels. The current MP date is Q420.
The likely scenario is that SDC will go live with the 4-tandem blue in Q420 and then switch to perhaps 1 or 2 high efficiency blue layers that have been demonstrated to be at least 4x the efficiency of fluorescent blue. A single high efficiency blue offers higher luminance than LG’s RGBW because of the top emission but will be more costly due to the capex for IJP of the QDs and the TFE. The 2022 timeframe should allow SDC to reduce the number of masks in the IGZO process to a more competitive number. Although UBI believes nanorods are coming, they still have significant yield and cost barriers to overcome even after the technology works.
As we reported previously, SDC switched from a three to a four-tandem stack in its QD-OLED design in order to achieve higher luminance and perhaps longer lifetime. The company had pushed back its production efforts on a backup nanorod structure by 1-2 years. They have also developed a 2nd backup, which is a high efficiency blue that could be used in smartphones as early as 2022.
Now, UBI Research reports that Samsung Display improved its nanorod LED (QNED) technology, which is essentially blue nano LEDs with multiple emitters per subpixel that can be placed in solution and printed using IJP. The issue was how to align the nanorod LEDs while they were printed. UBI says that a QNED pixel will require an active matrix with a 7T2C structure, as the LED will require more complicated driver to align and adjust it and it requires an oscillator transistor not used in any other display structure in addition to a transistor that is used to repair cases where the nanorods (placed using an inkjet printing process) are not aligned correctly.
Samsung Display will run trials for the production line of the QD-OLED displays next month. The company installed the equipment back in July. At the time, Samsung Display said it would wrap up building the line by the end of the year and begin mass production in 2021. From December, it is expected to take three months to set-up production and around six months to stabilize the yield rate. But SDC has not signed up any TV suppliers as yet, although Sony is rumored to be the first, which Samsung Visual, which is not expected to take the TV panels is planning to buy QD-OLED monitors, which means another design run for the smaller panels. The current MP date is Q420.
The likely scenario is that SDC will go live with the 4-tandem blue in Q420 and then switch to perhaps 1 or 2 high efficiency blue layers that have been demonstrated to be at least 4x the efficiency of fluorescent blue. A single high efficiency blue offers higher luminance than LG’s RGBW because of the top emission but will be more costly due to the capex for IJP of the QDs and the TFE. The 2022 timeframe should allow SDC to reduce the number of masks in the IGZO process to a more competitive number. Although UBI believes nanorods are coming, they still have significant yield and cost barriers to overcome even after the technology works.
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