Samsung to announce shift to jumbo-sized QD OLEDs in October

Samsung Display is expected to announce its plans to shift its LCD production lines to those for large-sized OLED displays in October involving 10 trillion won or more investment, according to industry sources on Sept. 24.

The company is likely to place orders for related equipment after the announcement, the sources added. “It’s hard to figure how much of the lines will be turned into QD OLED lines just by looking at the total amount of investment,” said one source in the local display equipment industry. “We will need to know in what phases the investment will be made.”

In a conference call announcing its second quarter earnings this year, Samsung Electronics had said that it would be pouring more money into mid-and-long-term infrastructure investment in the latter half of this year.

In preparation for such changes, Samsung Display had halted the operations of its Gen-8 LCD production lines at its Asan 1 Campus in South Chungcheong Province.

QD OLED displays are a part of Samsung’s hopes to create TVs with a quality that goes beyond LCDs.

At the end of last month, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong said the large-sized display business should be embraced at all costs, stressing that new technology is the only way to prepare for the new future.

Samsung Display plans to use the Gen-8 large-sized deposition equipment from Japan’s Canon Tokki for the initial batch of QD OLED displays. South Korean manufacturer ICD will handle the logistics chambers for the deposition equipment.

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