The mass production of Samsung Display's QD Display is imminent. This product will determine the success or failure of the Samsung Group's TV and medium and large-size panel businesses. The biggest feature is the introduction of "inkjet" technology. The necessary materials for this process will be the responsibility of the Japanese supplier JSR.
Japan JSR will supply QD ink to Samsung Display. It is reported that JSR basically monopolized the first batch of supplies.
Samsung Display will begin mass production of 30,000 QD-OLEDs per month in November this year. The structure of QD-OLED is to use blue (B) organic material as the light-emitting source and place QD CF on it. CF consists of 3 grids of red, green, and blue (RGB). Because blue already exists, only red and green are required. In this process, inkjet printing technology is used.
Inkjet technology, as the name suggests, is the technology of using nozzles to eject ink. The advantage is that, unlike the deposition of materials transported by the principle of water vapor, the materials can be accurately sprayed to the desired location. Therefore, the material loss is also small. However, due to the difficulty of material ink conversion and equipment software implementation, it has been only used in the TFT manufacturing process.
JSR is the first manufacturer to successfully convert QD materials into ink form. The QD-OLED scheduled to be mass-produced by the end of the year will use JSR's red and green QD inks. Samsung SDI and Solus are also preparing advanced materials, but it will take some time to supply them.
Prior to this, Samsung SDI stated at the second quarter performance meeting of 2021: “The projects targeted to enter within one year include QD inks, OLED polarizers, etc..” Solus Advanced Materials has completed the development of green QD inks, and red products are also being developed. middle.
The inkjet equipment is supplied by Semes, a subsidiary of Samsung. However, it is reported that in the process of improving the yield (the ratio of good products in the finished product), there have been some discrepancies, so Samsung Display is discussing adding new suppliers. The vendors reported were Kateeva from the United States, who was squeezed by Semes, and the original supplier LET.