IJP Politics?
Equipment bake-offs are a dangerous business, as the cost of developing and producing demos and then a working model of large display production equipment can be quite expensive, especially when it comes to a demanding customer such as Samsung Electronics. Way back in July of 2020 we noted that Samsung (005930.KS) had been evaluating the ink-jet printing tools developed by Kateeva (pvt) and SEMES (009150.KS), a Samsung owned company that had been a supplier of display equipment to its parent, and had chosen SEMES as the provider of the IJP tools that it would be using to print quantum dot material under its new QD/OLED process. This was a disruptive choice for Kateeva, pushing the company to fall back on its IJP encapsulation product development and focusing on Chinese panel producers who were expanding their OLED panel production.
Little was said concerning why Samsung made the choice, especially given that our information suggested that Kateeva’s tool had produced better results, but other factors prevailed, and while much of SEMES’s traditional display business was for sale, the IJP portion seemed to be headed for Samsung’s new QD/OLED fab, even as Kateeva’s price offer was said to be lower than SEMES’s. As the QD/OLED fab has been sampling product for a few months, the SEMES tools continue to operate however problems seem to have occurred and there have been suggestions that SEMES is blaming the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the company’s R&D development organization that was said to have been part of the software development process for the equipment’s poor performance.
It seems that Samsung is now going to use Kateeva’s IJP tools for the QD deposition process, placing an order with HB Solutions (297890.KS), who will provide additional software to the Kateeva product and will service the tools. HB Solutions is said to be developing its own IJP tools but at least for now will be the provider of the order for Kateeva. No indication was given as to whether the SEMES tools will remain or be fully replaced by the Kateeva IJP tools, which are typically used for OLED encapsulation and Samsung is considering expanding QD/OLED production if the acceptance of the new technology is strong enough. Should Samsung Display decide to expand production of the QD/OLED process, the question would then be whether they would go with Kateeva tools for the new lines or begin another bakeoff. If the current scenario proves correct, we would expect Kateeva would have a strong shot as a primary IJP supplier.
Little was said concerning why Samsung made the choice, especially given that our information suggested that Kateeva’s tool had produced better results, but other factors prevailed, and while much of SEMES’s traditional display business was for sale, the IJP portion seemed to be headed for Samsung’s new QD/OLED fab, even as Kateeva’s price offer was said to be lower than SEMES’s. As the QD/OLED fab has been sampling product for a few months, the SEMES tools continue to operate however problems seem to have occurred and there have been suggestions that SEMES is blaming the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the company’s R&D development organization that was said to have been part of the software development process for the equipment’s poor performance.
It seems that Samsung is now going to use Kateeva’s IJP tools for the QD deposition process, placing an order with HB Solutions (297890.KS), who will provide additional software to the Kateeva product and will service the tools. HB Solutions is said to be developing its own IJP tools but at least for now will be the provider of the order for Kateeva. No indication was given as to whether the SEMES tools will remain or be fully replaced by the Kateeva IJP tools, which are typically used for OLED encapsulation and Samsung is considering expanding QD/OLED production if the acceptance of the new technology is strong enough. Should Samsung Display decide to expand production of the QD/OLED process, the question would then be whether they would go with Kateeva tools for the new lines or begin another bakeoff. If the current scenario proves correct, we would expect Kateeva would have a strong shot as a primary IJP supplier.
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