Korean media: Two companies are competing for orders from LG Display’s 6th generation OLED evaporation equipment

On April 26, ETnews reported that LG Display’s recently announced 1.106 trillion won OLED investment plan includes sixth-generation OLED evaporation process equipment. The equipment is planned to be used for new technology research and development (R&D) and to enhance mobile OLED production capacity.

A person familiar with LG Display's internal situation said: "This investment is aimed at establishing a production line related to new technologies such as LTPO+. For this purpose, a sixth-generation OLED evaporation equipment is required. Although the primary purpose of this equipment is research and development, it can also be put into mass production when needed when mobile OLED is in full production."

This is LG Display's OLED investment plan released again after a lapse of one year and three months after the beginning of last year. The investment scale announced last year was 1.26 trillion won, but did not include evaporation equipment. Its main purpose is to develop COE (color film packaging technology), LTPO+ and new technologies for realizing four-side bending displays.

It is reported that the evaporation machine purchased this time is expected to be put into LG Display's Paju factory. LG Display has recently begun mass production of approximately 75 million OLED panels for mobile terminals, which has reached the production limit of existing production line equipment. Analysts believe that the company's expansion of the factory is due to the dual considerations of "developing new technologies" and "improving mobile OLED productivity in the medium to long term."

Since currently only Japan's Canon Tokki and South Korea's Sunic System have mastered the technology of fine metal mask (FMM) OLED mass production evaporation equipment, LG Display's choice of suppliers has attracted much attention from the outside world. Relevant media expect that the supplier selection process will be completed in the first half of this year.

It is reported that Canon Tokki has almost monopolized the 6th generation OLED mass production equipment market. As the display industry's recent investment focus shifts to 8.6-generation technology, Sunic System has also begun to produce more evaporation equipment. In the face of the recent decrease in orders, Canon Tokki is actively carrying out sales activities.

Given that Sunic System has successively received orders for 8.6-generation mass production equipment from Chinese display panel companies and completed technical verification, the industry generally believes that Sunic System will eventually win and become the supplier of evaporation equipment.

An industry insider pointed out: "Although LG Display jointly developed the 8.6-generation evaporation machine with Sunic System, due to delays in its own investment, it had to supply it to China first. Against this background, Sunic System may gain a certain advantage in this bidding."