投稿

In-byeong Kang, CTO of LG Display, Discusses the Past, Present, and Future of Large Area OLED Panel

On January 28, Korea Display Industry Association organized the 1st OLED Frontier Forum in JW Marriott Hotel Seoul.

 

Under the title ‘OLED, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’, the forum attendees could review Korean OLED research results of the past 20 odd years, and discussed regarding future OLED industry growth strategy.

 

LG Display’s CTO In-byeong Kang gave a presentation on Large Area OLED Status and Future and talked about the current status and forecast of large area OLED which is expected to become the key area of future display.

 

Since the mass production of first 55 inch OLED panel that utilized WRGB method and oxide TFT, 3 years went past. During those 3 years, Kang revealed that many innovations were carried out in terms of TFT device, compensation algorithm, OLED device, OLED materials, and processes.

 

First, the oxide TFT structure changed to coplanar method from etch stopper method, and for compensation wiring, the internal compensation was changed to external compensation. Also, he revealed that through much effort, the existing OLED device and materials were changed to new structure and high efficiency and high color gamut OLED emitting materials. Kang added that the uniformity, which becomes the most crucial point in large area OLED panel mass production, was greatly improved in Gen8 manufacturing equipment.

 

In 2013, there was only 1 LG Electronics’ OLED TV, 55 inch FHD, but recently 77 inch and 65 inch were added, and the resolution increased to UHD. Kang emphasized that although the 2013 product was priced at 11 million KRW with 100/400 nit of brightness but recent products have brightness of 150/450 nit at the reduced price of 4.2 million KRW.

 

LG Display is going through many changes recently. OLED business department began operation from last year. Large area OLED panel, which started with 8K monthly mass production at Gen8, is now being produced at 26K in full operation. Also, additional investment of 10 trillion KRW to large area panel has been decided, and new factory is being built in Paju. Kang told the audience that he heard many positive views on large area OLED at CES, and that there was a huge response regarding the 77 inch HDR video. Kang revealed confidence in the technology reporting that rather than replacing LCD, OLED could succeed as a totally different display.

 

Regarding the next 20 years, Kang forecast that the flat will move toward transparent and flexible, and OLED is the most suitable for this. He explained that the Korean government estimated this and is carrying out national project titled ‘≥60 inch UHD level transparent flexible display and applicable IT fused infotainment system development’ for the past 4 years. LG Display is responsible for this project’s overall consortium, and is planning to reveal UHD level 60 inch transparent flexible OLED panel in 2017 summer when the project is complete.

 

At the end of the presentation, Kang summarized 3 innovation factors for large area OLED. First, the substrate materials at Gen8 has to change to PI and transparent PI. Second, even for flexible substrate, the structure has to change to top emission from bottom emission, and lastly, Kang added that much more diverse applications have to be considered for flexible panel.

 

엘지기사

Leaders Who Created Korean OLED Industry

On January 28, OLED Frontier Forum, ‘OLED, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’ was held in Seoul, Korea. With approximately 250 attendees from the industry, academia, and government organizations, experts discussed scenes from the early days of OLED development, the current market and technology competition status, and future industry development issues.

 

President of UBI Research, Choong Hoon Yi, was the first speaker of the first section, and gave a presentation titled ‘Korean OLED Industry Creating Something from Nothing’, introducing figures from the initial stages of OLED development and now. In 1996, Yi, in charge of Strategy Technology Planning of Samsung Display Devices (now Samsung SDI), calculated OLED to be the most powerful display inheriting from LCD. Asserting the need for development, Yi led the OLED research development investment.

 

Discussing the most influential people within the 20 years of OLED industry, Yi first mentioned Samsung SDI’s vice chairman Soon-taek Kim, explaining that despite the IMF crisis Kim decided on AMOLED investment and laid the foundation for Samsung’s main role within the OLED industry. On top of this baiss, Ho Kyoon Chung (then Samsung SDI’s vice president) began active development of small size AMOLED, and Samsung Display’s vice president Sung-Chul Kim is responsible for Samsung’s OLED for mobile device of now. Yi also introduced Miwon Commercial’s CEO Kyu-Ha Chung (then Samsung Electronics executive director) as the key player who suggested vision for large area OLED through world’s first development of 40 inch WRGB OLED. Within LG Display, vice chairman Sang-beom Han was mentioned as the person responsible for OLED TV’s market release through difficulty decision of large area OLED investment, and CTO In-byeong Kang for technological advances as the person in charge of OLED development. For academia, Yi discussed Seoul National University’s Professor Changhee Lee as the first person in Korea who began white OLED development and contributed to OLED standardization. Professor Jin Jang of Kyung Hee University suggested oxide TFT’s commercialization prospect and mentored many people who contributed to Korean OLED industry. Yi, together with Sung-Chul Kim and Dr. Nam-Yang Lee (then LG Philips LCD director) established OLED sector within Korea Display Industry Association. During the talk, he introduced how this formed the inter cooperative structure with OLED industry companies and contributed to Korean OLED industry success on the basis of governmental support.

 

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In the second section of the event, LG and Samsung’s CTOs presented on OLED industry’s key issues, and future innovative technology. The 2 companies both discussed current technology, products and projects that need to be solved in order to increase the competitiveness of OLED.

 

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During the last section, the speakers panel discussion handled how to respond to China’s rapid growth. The speakers all agreed on the need for acquisition and hold on experts, corporation between industry and academy, and between companies, and new application areas.

 

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