Samsung Display has approved the use of Wonik IPS’ dry etcher for use in the production of quantum dot (QD) displays, TheElec has learned.
The etchers can’t be used right away in Samsung Display’s existing Q1 line, but will be used in future lines if the display maker decides to expand its QD display production.
Wonik IPS’ dry etcher is designed to be used for the production of QD-OLED display.
Dry etchers are used to form the gate, source and drain during the thin-film transistor process of the display production.
Samsung Display is using etchers provided by ICD and Tokyo Electron for its existing Q1 lines.
Q1 line currently has a capacity of 30,000 Gen 8.5 (2200×2500mm) substrates per month.
UBI Research estimates that the line can manufacture a million QD-OLED panel annually.
Whether Samsung Display decides that to expand its production capacity will be dependent on the successful production of the panels as well as whether Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display (VD) business decides to order more to use more of the panels for its TVs.
Samsung Electronics’ VD business ships over 40 million units of TVs a year.
The company is planning to ship 10 million units of QLED TV this year, its premium liquid crystal display TV brand, as well as 1.8 million units of its MiniLED TV brand Neo QLED TV.
If Samsung decides to shift to quantum nanorod LED (QNED) TVs sooner rather than expand its QD-OLED production, Wonik IPS will supply its etchers much later.
The technologies are different but the thin-film transistor process is similar, which means the etchers can be used for QNED panel production as well.
Wonik IPS is also competing with ICD and Tokyo Electron in the development of dry etchers for Gen 8.5 IT OLED panel made by Samsung Display.
Samsung Display is planning to use the same red, green and blue OLED for Gen 8.5 as it did for Gen 6 (1500x1850mm).
