OLED Material Chessboards
The stack of materials that creates an OLED display seems simple, essentially a light emitting layer between an anode and a cathode, but it is certainly not. There are a number of ‘other’ material layers that support the emitting layer (EML), including Hole Injection Layers (HIL), Hole Transport Layers (HTL), Electron Blocking Layers (EBL), Hole Blocking Layers (HBL), Electron Transport Layers (ETL), and Electron Injection Layers (EIL), a number of which are supplied by different manufacturers. In some stack designs there are multiple layers of these materials, adding to the complexity, and with a number of companies vying for each stack slot, despite the fact that there are relatively few OLED stack material suppliers, the competition is fierce.
Solus Advanced Materials (336370.KS) is one of those competitors, and after committing $25m to build a new OLED material production facility that will be available in the 2nd half of 2022, seems to have edged its way into the OLED material stack at LG Display (LPL), or at least at one LG Display OLED fab. According to Korean sources, Solus is to replace two of the four Hole Transport layers at LGD’s E3 OLED fab in Paju, South Korea, and while the amount of material involved for Solus is relatively small when looked at across the entire stack, it is important in that chemical giant Merck (MRK) has been the sole supplier of all four HTL layers to LG Display until now.
Again Solus is supplying only two of the four HTL layers at one of LG Display’s three OLED fabs, but it does mark a significant change for LG Display, who has been looking to add an additional HTL supplier, considering Merck to be both expensive and unreliable according to local sources. Using a South Korean based supplier is also a benefit, as South Korean OLED producers, Samsung Display (pvt) and LG Display are still quite dependent on materials supplied by other countries, particularly Japan, where political issues have caused some of those materials to be limited by the Japanese government. As Solus expands production next year in China, it will try to replace Merck at LG Display’s Guangzhou fab, LG Display’s largest OLED fab.
Solus is also a supplier of what is known as advanced ETL to Samsung Display, which SDC has been using in its production of small and mid-sized OLED panels for almost eight years, and is said to be developing a similar material for Samsung Display’s QD/OLED project. Solus also supplies capping material, a non-emitting material used to cover the cathode in the OLED stack. Since this material is not emissive, the development of new capping materials is much slower than other materials in the OLED stack, where new emissive and helper materials are being developed almost monthly. This gives Solus a more stable product, while developing newer and more competitive materials for Samsung and others.
As is well-known, the emissive materials market is dominated by Universal Display (OLED) who owns the IP relating to the use of metal-organic phosphorescent materials. In RGB displays, such as those produced by Samsung Display, two of the three emissive materials are phosphorescent based, while the third, blue, is fluorescent, and primarily supplied by Idemitsu Kosan (5019.JP), however LG Display’s large panel OLED displays are produced using a single phosphorescent emitter, UDC’s yellow/green and a blue fluorescent material. This leaves open competition for all of the other materials in the OLED stack and companies like DS Neolux (213420.KS), Hodogaya (4112.JP), Sumitomo (4005.JP), and JSR (4185.JP) are constantly supplying new stack materials to both South Korean and Chinese OLED producers to replace or add to existing OLED production material stacks and all OLED producers are working toward improving their displays by upgrading their stack materials. This leads to a very ‘fluid’ market that changes with every new stack implementation, and while the number of high-grade OLED material suppliers stays about the same, the chessboard of who supplies what is constantly changing.
Solus Advanced Materials (336370.KS) is one of those competitors, and after committing $25m to build a new OLED material production facility that will be available in the 2nd half of 2022, seems to have edged its way into the OLED material stack at LG Display (LPL), or at least at one LG Display OLED fab. According to Korean sources, Solus is to replace two of the four Hole Transport layers at LGD’s E3 OLED fab in Paju, South Korea, and while the amount of material involved for Solus is relatively small when looked at across the entire stack, it is important in that chemical giant Merck (MRK) has been the sole supplier of all four HTL layers to LG Display until now.
Again Solus is supplying only two of the four HTL layers at one of LG Display’s three OLED fabs, but it does mark a significant change for LG Display, who has been looking to add an additional HTL supplier, considering Merck to be both expensive and unreliable according to local sources. Using a South Korean based supplier is also a benefit, as South Korean OLED producers, Samsung Display (pvt) and LG Display are still quite dependent on materials supplied by other countries, particularly Japan, where political issues have caused some of those materials to be limited by the Japanese government. As Solus expands production next year in China, it will try to replace Merck at LG Display’s Guangzhou fab, LG Display’s largest OLED fab.
Solus is also a supplier of what is known as advanced ETL to Samsung Display, which SDC has been using in its production of small and mid-sized OLED panels for almost eight years, and is said to be developing a similar material for Samsung Display’s QD/OLED project. Solus also supplies capping material, a non-emitting material used to cover the cathode in the OLED stack. Since this material is not emissive, the development of new capping materials is much slower than other materials in the OLED stack, where new emissive and helper materials are being developed almost monthly. This gives Solus a more stable product, while developing newer and more competitive materials for Samsung and others.
As is well-known, the emissive materials market is dominated by Universal Display (OLED) who owns the IP relating to the use of metal-organic phosphorescent materials. In RGB displays, such as those produced by Samsung Display, two of the three emissive materials are phosphorescent based, while the third, blue, is fluorescent, and primarily supplied by Idemitsu Kosan (5019.JP), however LG Display’s large panel OLED displays are produced using a single phosphorescent emitter, UDC’s yellow/green and a blue fluorescent material. This leaves open competition for all of the other materials in the OLED stack and companies like DS Neolux (213420.KS), Hodogaya (4112.JP), Sumitomo (4005.JP), and JSR (4185.JP) are constantly supplying new stack materials to both South Korean and Chinese OLED producers to replace or add to existing OLED production material stacks and all OLED producers are working toward improving their displays by upgrading their stack materials. This leads to a very ‘fluid’ market that changes with every new stack implementation, and while the number of high-grade OLED material suppliers stays about the same, the chessboard of who supplies what is constantly changing.
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