Samsung LTPO
LTPO (Low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) is the new kid in town. The backplane technology combines more common LTPS (Low-temperature Poly-Silicon) and IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide or ‘Oxide’) to create a backplane that drives the display using IGZO and switches using LTPS. This allows for a power savings of ~15% over LTPS alone. While we say new kid in town, Apple (AAPL) introduced the technology in 2014 in the Apple Watch Series 4, driving a larger OLED display than in previous models. Samsung Display (pvt) has been developing LTPO for Apple, who is expected to use it in the high-end model of the iPhone 13 out later this year, and has been converting part of its A3 fab (aka ‘the Apple fab’) to the technology since last year.
That said, SDC has recently announced that it is supplying LTPO OLED displays to Chinese smartphone brands, Oppo (pvt) and OnePlus (pvt), calling the LTPO driven displays ‘adaptive’, meaning they can change the refresh rate of the display from 120 Hz for high quality video or 30Hz for text, on the fly. This is key to the power saving that the technology is able to offer, which Oppo says will be reduced by 46%, although that would be quite dependent on the content be displayed. Samsung (005930.KS) itself used the technology in its Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but not on other Note flagship models. SDC is said to have already built out 30,000 sheets/month of LTPO production capacity at A3 and is expected to to have a total of 70,000 sheets/month by the end of 2Q. We note that LTPO reduces line capacity relative to LTPS by between 25% and 33% due to additional process steps.
That said, SDC has recently announced that it is supplying LTPO OLED displays to Chinese smartphone brands, Oppo (pvt) and OnePlus (pvt), calling the LTPO driven displays ‘adaptive’, meaning they can change the refresh rate of the display from 120 Hz for high quality video or 30Hz for text, on the fly. This is key to the power saving that the technology is able to offer, which Oppo says will be reduced by 46%, although that would be quite dependent on the content be displayed. Samsung (005930.KS) itself used the technology in its Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but not on other Note flagship models. SDC is said to have already built out 30,000 sheets/month of LTPO production capacity at A3 and is expected to to have a total of 70,000 sheets/month by the end of 2Q. We note that LTPO reduces line capacity relative to LTPS by between 25% and 33% due to additional process steps.
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