Panasonic, Sony and others join forces to establish new OLED panel company to win with new technology

After the news was released that the OLED display research and development departments of Sony and Panasonic will be integrated with the new company "JOLED" funded by the Industrial Innovation Agency of Japan (INCJ) and others, a user on Twitter said, "What can we do if we bring a group of weak people together?"

It is not unreasonable to think so. Although OLED displays have excellent display performance, they are currently only used in some small and medium-sized products due to low yield rates and other reasons. With the development of the times, the display performance of liquid crystal displays continues to improve, and the technical advantages of organic EL displays are gradually disappearing. In May 2014, it was reported that Samsung Electronics, Sony and Panasonic would withdraw from the OLED TV business. In a business field where strong competitors have to give up, there is no way for a "weak alliance" to win.

Give up the TV business

However, INCJ believes that it has a winning chance. INCJ executive director, general manager and person in charge of the establishment of JOLED Koichiro Taniyama said, "After discussions with many relevant people, including technical personnel from Sony and Panasonic, we found a feasible strategy." There are roughly two possible strategies. One is to target applications where OLED displays have advantages over LCD displays. The other is to use the advantages of manufacturing technology to widen the distance from OLED display competing companies.

The strategy of targeting is specifically:It is necessary to vigorously develop tablet computers, laptops, digital signage and other fields. In this field, OLED displays win by relying on their remaining advantage - "lightweight". As for the use of TVs that Sony and Panasonic have always insisted on, Taniyama said that they "are not currently considering it." This is because low-price TV competition has reached its limit, and even for LCD TVs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to increase profits.

Lightweight with high added value

The reason why OLED panels have the advantage of being lightweight is that they do not require the backlight necessary for LCD panels. Taniyama said, "Compared with LCD panels, OLED's 10-inch panel is 130g lighter and the 13-inch panel is 220g lighter."

Applications that can take full advantage of its lightweight are tablets and laptops. In fact, in these applications, lightweight has become a high added value. Taniyama said, "In order to reduce some weight, PC manufacturers will use carbon-reinforced fiber on the casing or drill holes in the hard disk device, which costs a lot of money."

However, INCJ is not the only one who realizes this. Korean manufacturers have begun to launch tablet PC products with lightweight as a selling point on the market. For example, Samsung Electronics launched the "GALAXY Tab S" in Japan in August 2014, which uses 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch OLED panels. LG Electronics launched the adoption of heavy-duty7.12g 5.98-inch flexible OLED panel phablet.

The new technology is still “unmatched”

INCJ stated that JOLED has a powerful weapon in competing with other OLED display panel manufacturers, and that is the technology developed by Panasonic to use printing methods to manufacture OLED layers. Taniyama said, "The technical level is beyond imagination, and it is only the last step before mass production. The production equipment is also independently developed by Panasonic and has not been outsourced. This will be a major advantage."

Taniyama said that the material utilization rate of this printing method is 2 to 3 times that of the evaporation method. Moreover, no vacuum device is required, and the installation cost of manufacturing equipment is also relatively low. "Korean manufacturers use smaller production lines to manufacture OLED panels, and they use evaporation methods, which are very inefficient. In this state, they will not become our competitors."

But the current problem with the printing method is that it is difficult to achieve ultra-high definition well above 400ppi. In this regard, 12- to 13-inch tablets that can achieve 4K resolution at a resolution of only about 300ppi are the best targets. The technology developed by Panasonic was originally intended for large-size TVs, but before the technology was about to take shape, the outlet for OLED TVs was essentially blocked. Taniyama said, “By applying this high-tech technology to suitable applications, JOLED has full potential.odds of winning.