Samsung Display recently announced on its internal bulletin board that qD-OLED panel yield has reached 75 percent, and stressed that it will achieve more than 90 percent yield soon, according to display industry sources on Thursday.
Five months have passed since mass production began last November. Considering that the yield rate was less than 50 percent at the beginning of production, the target rate for the year was 70 percent at the beginning of this year, and 75 percent can be considered a quantum leap.
Qd-oled is the world's first internalized quantum dot, no backlight self-luminous display. The blue element is used as the light source, and the QD layer of red, green and blue (RGB) is added. It only use R
Pixels realize colors, even when RGB colors are expressed, the brightness does not decrease, and thus more vibrant colors can be expressed. This is a different approach to mass production from LG Display's white OLED (WOLED), which uses white OLED as a light source.
Based on the 8.5-generation (2200x2500mm) ledger, Samsung Display's QD-OLED production capacity is 30,000 units per month. The 8.5 generation is large enough to produce three 65-inch panels and two 55-inch panels, making 1.8 million panels a year.
A simple 75% yield is enough to make 1.35 million TVS. That means it can supply more panels to its customers, Samsung Electronics Co. and SONY Corp., while reducing losses.
However, the yield improvement is not expected to be a "turning point" for the expansion of QD-OLED panel production lines. "Another reason is that the price of large-size OLED is too low to be profitable even if the yield rate increases rapidly," said a display industry official.
Samsung Electronics began selling 65-inch and 55-inch QD-OLED TVS (S95B) through its U.S. website in March. The 65-inch retails for $2,999.99 and the 55-inch retails for $2,199.99. Cheaper than predicted. Industry experts say Samsung's lower-than-expected price is intended to minimize the impact of QD-OLED while maintaining its existing premium lineup such as Neo QLED.
It is yet to be determined whether Samsung Display, which has achieved 75 percent yield of QD-OLED, will make additional investment within this year. In the short term, it will be difficult for executives including CEO Choi Joo-Sun to actively invest in QD-OLED, which will adversely affect the company's profits.
However, the transition to a future technology called quantum nanoluminescent diode (QNED) is premature. "It is expected that QD-OLED will focus on stabilizing the circuit rather than making additional investment," said a display industry official.
