Solus to expand supply of aETL for OLED TV panels
Company also aims to ship more capping layers
Solus Advanced Materials will expand supply of materials for OLED TVs as well as other materials besides those that emit light, the company said in its fourth quarter conference call.
The OLED TV likely refers to Samsung Display’s quantum dot (QD)-OLED display panels.
Solus is currently developing advanced Electron Transporting Layer (aETL) for use in QD-OLED, people familiar with the matter said.
The company had supplied aETL for Samsung Display’s small to mid-sized OLED panels. It had been the exclusive supplier of the materials to the South Korean display panel maker for eight years.
The material was applied to the M11 material set that Samsung Display used for the OLED panel of the Galaxy S21 Ultra. M11 will be used again for OLED panels in new iPhones launching later this year.
aETL is used to increase the luminance efficiency of the OLED. OLED panel emits light through electron hole and electron meeting in the emission layer. aETL is used to prevent the electron hole passing through the emission layer to quickly to escape to the electron transportation layer. It is also used to increase luminance of blue OLED by 30% and for clearer colors.
Besides aETL, Solus also manufacturers cathode, hole transportation layer and electron injection layer.
The company is also aiming to increase sales from the capping layer, which is deposited on top of the cathode on OLED panels. Such materials that are not used to emit light go through little changes despite market trends, unlike emission materials that change quickly depending on the market. Materials such as capping layer can therefore be a stable revenue sources for Solus.
The capping layer is supplied to Samsung Display for the latter’s small to mid-sized OLED panels. The layer improves the refractive index which leads to less power consumption of panels.
Solus is also planing to diversify its portfolio for mobile OLED panel. It is considering green and blue OLED materials as well as thin-film encapsulation.
The company operates four main businesses __ OLED materials, elecfoil for battery cathodes, copper foils for printed circuit boards and bio.
OLED materials and bio manufactures products at Iksan in South Korea. It produces elecfoil at Hungary and copper foil at Luxembourg.
Solus is aiming for sales of 396 billion won and operating income of 43 billion won this year, which will be 36% and 41%, respectively, higher than it recorded in 2020.