Boe plans to build the 8.6 generation OLED production line for IT in Chengdu, and is expected to start mass production by the end of 2024, IT was announced recently. Boe responded on its investor platform that it was reviewing its strategy, market and technology. As OLED panels continue to penetrate into IT product markets such as tablets, the 8th-generation OLED production line has become a new battleground in the panel industry.
2024 May be the time for mass production of the 8th generation OLED production line
With the growth in the application of mobile phone products, OLED panel will be rapidly expanded to the application of mobile products such as IT products in the future. The 8th generation (8.5/8.6 generation) OLED technology for IT products has become a new battlefield in the panel industry.
The used in IT products for construction of 8.6 generation of OLED production line, Beijing Oriental response in investor relations activities, points out that the company of this plan is on the basis of communication with the client to advance research, project team is currently in strategy, market, technology and financial aspects of evaluation, also in the positive research.
Led by apple and other terminal manufacturers' plans to apply OLED panels to IT products such as tablets and laptops, and expected to launch products in 2024, boe's news of the proposed production line indicates that the time of mass production in 2024 is basically the same as Samsung Display and LG Display in South Korea.
Yoo Woo-sil, senior analyst at CINNO Research, pointed out that LG Display and Samsung Display both have production plans for LINE 8.5 OLED based on Oxide substrate and oriented to IT product layout in 2023 to 2025.
According to sources, Both Samsung Display and LG Display are currently planning to produce the first iPad OLED in generation 6, which is expected to launch around 2024, but OLED panels for Apple IT products will be made in Generation 8.5 after that.
In terms of technology, according to Liu Yushi's analysis, the 8.6 generation OLED production line usually needs to use Oxide substrate instead of LTPS substrate commonly used in the 6th generation OLED production line. The 8.6 generation OLED production line for IT products will still use RGB evaporation process, which is more mature than printed OLED or QD-OLED.
In terms of the choice of evaporation process, the sixth generation OLED production line for smartphones mainly uses half-cut horizontal evaporation technology, while the 8.5 generation OLED production line, which adopts full-cut vertical evaporation technology and greatly improves the economy, is the best choice. But in order to cope with the uncertainty, horizontal evaporation technology is likely to be developed at the same time.
It is reported that BOE will also choose semi-cut horizontal deposition as the 8.6 generation OF OLED deposition technology. LG Display is also developing the 8.5 generation half-cut horizontal deposition technology and Samsung Display is developing the 8.5 generation full-cut/vertical deposition technology.
The eighth generation line has stronger competitive advantage in production
In IT applications of OLED panels, the 8.5 generation line is more economical to produce than the 6 generation line. For 13.3-inch panels, 48 pieces can be made for the sixth generation (1500mm×1850mm) and 96 pieces for the 8.5 generation (2200mm×2500mm).
Boe also pointed out that the design capacity of the 8.6 generation OLED production line is definitely not 15,000 units per month as indicated by the news, which is uneconomical.
For its part, BOE said on the interactive platform that the two AMOLED production lines of JD Fangchengdu and Mianyang have reached the designed production capacity of 48,000 units per month and nearly 48,000 units per month respectively.
Take LG Display Guangzhou 85th generation OLED production line under construction as an example. The planned production capacity of the first phase is 60,000 pieces/month, and the planned product capacity of the second phase is 30,000 pieces/month. The total production capacity is nearly 90,000 pieces/month.
Therefore, sources say that boe's proposed production line capacity planning of 15,000 pieces/month is usually only the first-phase capacity level, and the complete capacity planning will usually include two or three phases. Chen Hui, general manager of Ovirivo, told reporters that according to the industry, the best economic performance should be in 60 thousand pieces/month.
In addition, some point out that the 8.5-generation OLED production line, which is currently under evaluation for construction, could be shifted to TV panel production in addition to IT production, which will help strengthen the competitiveness of large-size OLED in Korea. In this regard, Liu Yushi told reporters that the 8.6 generation line only represents the size of the glass substrate, due to the size limitations of the evaporation machine and high-precision metal mask used for IT production line is difficult to hold the production capacity of TV products. Even if the production capacity is available, large size collinear production requires frequent adjustment of equipment parameters, which is not conducive to yield improvement and equipment life.
OLED production line investment direction will change
LG Display has been evaluating the evaporation equipment for its 8.5-generation OLED production line at its partner Sunic System s Paju plant in Gyeonggi Province since December last year. Samsung Display, on the other hand, started an earlier evaluation of the 8.5-generation OLED deposition process and is working with Japanese manufacturer Ulvac to test 8.5-generation full-cut/vertical deposition equipment.
As for Chinese manufacturers, IN April 2021, TCL Huaxing plans to demonstrate the construction of an 8.5 generation flexible winding OLED panel production line (T8 project) with a monthly processing capacity of about 60,000 pieces, which is expected to become the world's first high-generation line printed OLED production line. The company mainly produces and sells 32-inch to 95-inch 4K/8K ultra-high definition large-size printing winding OLED TV, IT and high value-added commercial display products. However, due to the immature printing equipment, material system and oxide backplane technology for the 8.5 generation high generation line, there is still a lack of mass production conditions.
As a result, industry experts predict that Samsung Display and LG Display will be able to build the 8.5-generation OLED production line faster.
In a comprehensive judgment of the global panel industry's investment trend in OLED production line, Group Wisdom research believes that the pace of global panel manufacturers' investment in NEW LCD line has slowed down significantly, and the investment in OLED remains positive, but the direction of investment in OLED will change significantly.
On the one hand, the original panel manufacturers are very active in investing in small size, especially flexible OLED. In the future, the investment strategy will shift to large size, from low generation (6th generation) to medium and high generation. It is expected that there will be three 8.5 generation OLED production lines by 2025.
On the other hand, the investment direction of OLED will shift from the original Flexible OLED to diversified technologies, WOLED will continue to expand production, and QD-OLED capacity will continue to increase. Korean panel makers are the most active investors in Hybrid OLED. It is expected that the global OLED display panel production area will continue to grow by more than 10% until 2025. In particular, with the gradual mass production of high-generation OLED production line, it is expected that FROM 2023, QD-OLED and HybridOLED will play an increasingly important role in the global OLED panel market.
