South Korean manufacturing giant, Samsung, has a strong grip on the OLED display panel market. Its solution is far ahead and other manufacturers need a few years to catch up. For many years, Samsung Display has been the supplier of OLED panels to Apple. There are reports that the first batch of iPhone 12 displays will come from Samsung. Now, a recent report claims that the company is upgrading one of its OLED panel production lines. The target is to be ready for Apple’s next-generation iPhone.
According to media reports, Samsung Display upgraded its A3 OLED panel production line. When the upgrade is complete, the A3 OLED panel production line will produce OLED screens with two backplane technologies. Furthermore, part of the production capacity will produce low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) backplane OLED screens.
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LTPO is an OLED screen backplane technology developed by Apple. This technology is suitable for the production of OLED screens and LCD screens. However, this tech is more likely to be used in high-end OLED screens. It is currently used in Apple’s smartwatches and the next-generation iPhone will also use this technology.
According to media reports, Samsung Display plans to invest 75,000 substrates per month for the production of LTPO backplane technology OLED screens. There are also speculations that Samsung has its own internal backplane technology. After the upgrade, the remaining capacity of the A3 OLED panel production line may be used to produce Samsung’s own screens.
Samsung is way ahead of others in OLED manufacturing
The upgrade of Samsung’s OLED production line is very important for the company. Recall that a couple of Chinese companies are digging dip into OLED manufacturing. The likes of BOE and Visionox are top of the list. However, these companies are many years behind Samsung. Nevertheless, Samsung can not ignore the development speed of these companies. Top companies like Samsung and LG have had to close their LCD panel production. No thanks to Chinese manufacturers like BOE.
Recall that Apple also looked at BOE’s solution for the iPhone 12 series. In fact, the American manufacturer did not entirely rule out using BOE’s display. However, it is certain that it will not use BOE’s panel for the first batch of the iPhone 12 series. If there is a need to significantly reduce the price of the iPhone 12, it might just turn to BOE.
