What is the investment cost for large-area OLED that will lead the premium TV market?

■ Investment cost comparison and analysis for WRGB OLED, solution processed OLED and QD-OLED
■ Total OLED process equipment is expected to form a market of US$ 58.8 billion from 2018 to 2022, and inspection equipment market is estimated as US$ 8.4 billion

In the premium TV market, the market share of OLED TVs is steadily rising, and the number of OLED TV camps is gradually increasing. OLED TV adopts color filter to WRGB OLED, and currently LG Display only mass produces the OLED panels.

On the other hand, Samsung Display is developing QD-OLED (blue OLED + quantum dot color filter) to compete with WRGB OLED in the premium TV market. Blue OLED is a technology in which the blue light emitted from OLED passes through a quantum dot layer and a color filter to represent red and green colors.

<Expected structure of QD-OLED>

UBI Research analyzed the structure and investment amount of WRGB OLED and QD-OLED, which are the latest issues, in the‘AMOLED Manufacturing and Inspection Equipment Industry Report’ published on June 6. In addition, the investment amount of the solution process OLED, which has got the industry attention due to its possible implementation of real RGB in large-area OLED, is also analyzed and compared.

As a result of analyzing the equipment investment cost based on the 8th generation 26K, the QD-OLED investment cost is 3% higher than WRGB OLED and the investment cost of solution process OLED is 19% less than that of WRGB OLED.

In the QD-OLED investment cost, it is reflected that QD color filter is separately formed and its laminating process is added. For the analysis of solution processed OLED investment cost, color filter is excluded and ink-jet printer is applied instead of deposition equipment.

In addition, the report forecasts the overall OLED equipment market from 2018 to 2022. The total OLED overall equipment market is expected to reach US$ 106.7 billion from 2018 to 2022. The market for process equipment is projected as US$ 58.8 billion and inspection equipment market is to be US$ 8.4 billion.

Premium TV 시장을 주도할 대면적 OLED의 투자 비용은?

최근 premium TV 시장은 OLED TV의 점유율이 지속적으로 상승하고 있으며 OLED TV 진영도 꾸준히 증가하고 있는 추세다. OLED TV는 WRGB OLED에 color filter를 적용한 구조로써, 현재 LG Display만이 유일하게 OLED panel을 양산하고 있다.

이에 Samsung Display에서는 premium TV 시장에서 WRGB OLED에 대항하기 위해 blue OLED + quantum dot color filter(이하 QD-OLED)를 개발하고 있는 것으로 알려졌다. Blue OLED는 OLED에서 발광 된 청색광이 quantum dot층과 color filter를 통과해 red와 green 색을 나타내는 기술이다.

<QD-OLED 예상 구조>

유비리서치는 지난 6일 발간한 ‘AMOLED Manufacturing and Inspection Equipment Industry Report’에서 최근 이슈가 되고 있는 WRGB OLED와 QD-OLED의 구조와 투자 금액을 분석했다. 뿐만 아니라, 대면적 OLED에서 real RGB를 구현할 수 있어 주목받고 있는 solution process OLED의 투자 금액도 함께 분석하여 비교했다.

8세대 26K 기준으로 장비 신규 투자비를 분석한 결과, QD-OLED 투자비는 WRGB OLED에 비해 3%가 많고 solution process OLED는 WRGB OLED에 비해 19% 적은 것으로 조사되었다.

QD-OLED 투자비에서는 QD color filter가 따로 형성되고 이를 합착하는 공정이 추가된 내용이 반영되었으며, solution process OLED 투자비에서는 color filter가 제거되고 증착 장비 대신 ink-jet printer가 투입된 내용이 반영되었다.

이 밖에 본 보고서에서는 2018년부터 2022년까지 OLED 전체 장비 시장도 예상하였다. 2018년부터 2022년까지 OLED 전체 장비 시장은 US$ 106.7 billion을 형성할 것으로 전망되며, 공정 장비는 그 중 US$ 58.8 billion, 검사 장비는 US$ 8.4 billion의 시장을 형성할 것으로 예상된다.

<2018년~2022년 장비별 전체 시장 점유율 전망>

Solution Process OLED TV is prospected to be launched on the market in 2019, targeting the Mid-end TV Market

According to “Market Entry Analysis for Solution Process OLED -The Possibilities and Opportunities” issued on November 14 by Ubiresearch, OLED TV, produced in solution process method, is prospected to be launched on the market in 2019.

Solution process is a technology which enables producing OLED panel in RGB pixel structure without any panel division on a device higher than G8, which major AMOLED panel producers has actively engaged in developing.

However, lamp efficiency and life cycle have no option to decrease because luminescent materials have lower purity than that of evaporation materials as luminescent materials applied to solution process should be mixed with various solvents in order to make the existing evaporation materials ink. Nevertheless, why major panel producers has actively engaged in developing solution process is that production cost can be declined as the usage efficiency of luminescent materials is high without using color filters and its structure is simpler than that of OLED panel using WRGB method.

According to the report, it is said that although developing luminescent materials for solution process OLED has been fully engaged, it should be more efficient than that of WRGB methods so as to enter the premium market. However, it seems substantially difficult that the capacity of solution process OLED surpasses that of WRGB as WRGB has been developed in top emission structure to improve its efficiency by over 20% and evaporation materials have also constantly been developed. Rather, based on proper level of life cycle and efficiency, it would be competitive to replace LCD targeting the mid-end TV market, according to the report.

Issues on OLED, QLED, hybrid QD, which can be applied to solution process and possibilities to enter the market, comparative analysis on the capacity of present solution process OLED, supply chain of QD industries, and major soluble OLED material producers are included in this “Market Entry Analysis for Solution Process OLED -The Possibilities and Opportunities” and it is expected to help the relevant producers understand the solution process industry.

Meanwhile, it is predicted that the market of large-scaled solution process OLED panel over 55 inch will begin in earnest being mass-produced as of 2019 and have accounted for the entire wide OLED panel market by approximately 15% growing by approximately US$ 1,000 million by 2021.

Solution Process OLED TV 2019년 시장 출시 전망, Mid-end TV 시장 공략

유비산업리서치에서 11 14일 발간한 “Solution Process OLED 시장 진입가능성 분석 보고서”에 따르면 solution process로 제작된 OLED TV 2019년에 시장에 출시될 것으로 내다봤다.

Solution process는 대면적 OLED panel Gen8 이상의 장비에서 원장 분할 없이 RGB pixel 구조로 제조할 수 있는 기술이며 주요 AMOLED panel 업체에서 적극적으로 개발을 진행 중에 있다.

하지만 solution process에 적용되는 발광재료는 기존 증착재료를 ink화 시키기 위해 다양한solvent를 섞기 때문에 증착재료보다 순도가 낮아 발광효율이 떨어지고 수명이 낮을 수 밖에 없다. 그럼에도 불구하고 solution process를 주요 panel 업체들에서 적극적으로 개발하고 있는 이유는 color filter를 사용하지 않고 발광재료 사용효율이 높으며 WRGB방식의 OLED panel에 비해 구조가 단순하기 때문에 원가절감을 할 수 있다는 점이다.

보고서에 따르면 “Solution process OLED용 발광재료 개발이 적극적으로 이루어지고 있지만 프리미엄 시장에 진입하기 위해서는 WRGB 방식보다 효율이 좋아야 한다. 하지만 WRGB는 효율을 20%이상 높일 수 있는 top emission 구조로 개발 중이며 증착재료도 지속적으로 개발이 되고 있어 solution process OLED WRGB의 성능을 넘어서기는 상당히 어려울 것으로 예상된다. 오히려 적당한 수준의 수명과 효율을 바탕으로 mid-end TV 시장을 공략해 LCD를 대체하는 시나리오가 가장 유력할 것.” 으로 내다봤다.

이번에 발간된 Solution Process OLED 시장 진입가능성 분석 보고서에서는 solution process가 적용될 수 있는 OLED QLED, hybrid QD들의 이슈와 시장진입 가능성, 현재 solution process OLED QD 산업의 supply chain, 주요 soluble OLED material 업체들의 성능 비교 분석등을 수록하여 업체들에서 solution process 산업을 파악하는데 도움이 될 것으로 예상된다.

한편 Solution Process OLED 시장 진입가능성 분석 보고서 55inch 이상의 대면적 solution process OLED panel 시장은 2019년부터 본격적으로 양산되기 시작하여 2021년 약 US$ 1,000 million 규모로 성장하여 전체 대면적 OLED panel 시장의 약 15를 차지할 것으로 내다봤다.

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If the 600ppi Soluble process OLED is to be possible?

As a company producing ink-jet equipment for the soluble process OLED, Seiko Epson has already developed the ink-jet head which could realize up to 360ppi by arranging the 180ppi nozzles in 2 rows. Given that the resolution of the evaporation method RGB OLED is still in the 260ppi as a real RGB, it is a significantly useful technology in the development of high-resolution display.

Seiko Epson developed the technology to maintain total amount of ink in a fixed rate per pixel with the ink volume control and multiple nozzles, and also holds the technology to apply emissive layer evenly on the entire surface of HTL by making the surface of HTL and the contact angle of separation equal. In addition, the productions of the bottom emission OLED as well as the top emission OLED were succeeded in ink-jet. Top emission is possible when the HIL thin layer is applied extremely evenly using special combination of ink as the thickness of HIL layer influences greatly on the optical character.

Seiko Epson is planning to develop the 600ppi ink-jet head that arranges the 400ppi nozzles in two rows in order to develop the equipment producing hyper-resolution soluble process OLED. It is anticipated if it is possible to manufacture a hyper-resolution OLED of 600ppi, it will be the moment to replace LCD in the mobile display area for it could easily resolve the greatest weakness of OLED which is high-resolution issue.