Poongwon Precision is expected to aim to supply Samsung Display with fine metal masks (FMM) used in the production of smartphone OLED panels in the fourth quarter, TheElec has learned.
The company had said back in February that it is planning to supply an initial match of the material to an unnamed customer.
The customer was Samsung Display and Poongwon had supplied samples of FMM around that time, sources said.
FMM is used to deposit the organic material on the substrate and Japan’s Dai Nippon Printing is the world’s largest producer of the masks.
Poongwon’s offering to Samsung Display will need to level in quality to those supplied by Dai Nippon Printing while preferably being cheaper to be approved for use.
Poongwon had previously said it aims for 27.1 billion won in revenue this year from FMM sales, which means it will need to win a deal from Samsung Display for at least one OLED smartphone model.
Sources said Poongwon will likely aim to supply FMM aimed at the panel of a mid-tier smartphone, so the FMM will be around 25 to 30 micrometers thick, which will be easier to make than FMM that are around 20 micrometers thick used for premium OLED panels.
As of August 2, Poongwon had 41 patents in South Korea while no family patents of these were registered abroad. Dai Nippon Printing had 813 confirmed patents in South Korea with 102 of them containing the word mask in their names, while these 102 patents had family patents all over the world.
This means Poongwon will likely strictly aim at supplying FMM to Samsung Display for some time.
