Samsung Display plans to transition to Quantum Dot OLED (aka QD-OLED), the display technology rival to the likes of high-end LED LCD and WRGB OLED, by 2021 following a $10.9 billion investment in a first manufacturing line.
Located in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province, S. Korea, the Q1 line will have a production capacity of 30000 sheets once it starts operations in 2021. It will manufacture display panels measuring 65-inch or larger. According to The Investor, Samsung plans to replace current 8th generation LCD lines with QD-OLED lines by 2025 as part of a transition scheme from LCDs to QD-OLEDs for large-size devices.
QD-OLED technology involves a blue-light OLED panel acting as a backlight and a quantum dot filter overlay. Samsung says the technology offers a number of advantages over the WRG OLED approach adopted by LG, including better yields and lower material costs.
The investment comes as Samsung and LG, once the undisputed leaders of the TV world, face increasing competition from Chinese LCD makers such as BOE. Furthermore the market is already gearing up for 8K TVs in larger sizes, with all key vendors planning to show such displays at CES 2020. Content issues currently affect 8K TVs, but distribution technologies will catch up with the capabilities of upcoming displays sooner, not later.
Go Samsung Display Announces Transition Plan from LCDs to QD-OLEDs