LG Chem is expected surpass Dupont in OLED evaporation material this year, according to data from Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC).
This forecast by DSCC comes amid LG Chem’s winning of orders for electron blocking layer by Samsung Display for small OLED panels. Solus Advanced Materials had been the previous supplier of the layers to Samsung Display.
LG Chem has also been supplying OLED evaporation material to LG Display since late last year.
The chemical giant supplies red, green, and blue hosts (emissive layers), electron transport layers (ETL), a-ETL, and hole blocking layers.
Revenue from OLED material for LG Chem is expected to come mostly from a-ETL, green host, and p-dopant.
LG Chem is supplying a-ETL to Samsung Display for the latter’s OLED material sets M13 and M14. Samsung first applied a-ETL in OLED panels with the Galaxy Note 4 which Samsung SDI, then Solus Advanced Materials had provided before LG Chem.
Starting with the M13 material set, Samsung Display has been solely using LG Chem’s a-ETL. M13 material set is being used in OLED panels for the Galaxy S24 and iPhone 16 series.
LG Chem’s green host is also being used by LG Display for OLED panels for iPhone 16 and iPad Pro, which uses Tandem OLED.
For LG Chem, p-dopant is a new revenue source starting this year. The dominant supplier for the material so far has been Novaled, an affiliate of Samsung. Dopants are added to OLED emissive layers to boost their efficiency, color purity, and life span. For life span extension and boost in light efficiency, p-dopant plays the most critical role and it is mixed with the hole transport layer.
LG Display has been using LG Chem’s p-dopant since late last year for OLED panels on iPhone 16 and iPad Pro.
DSCC noted that with Apple applying Tandem OLED in iPads, LG Chem will gain a chance to expand its supply of p-dopant for OLED panels aimed at IT devices. The analyst firm expects Universal Display Corporation to keep its top position in the OLED evaporation material market this year, followed by LG Chem, Dupont, Samsung SDI, and Idemitsu Kosan. The revenue gap between LG Chem and Dupont is expected to widen in 2025, DSCC’s data showed.
