Samsung XR
As we mentioned in our12-05-22 note, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has been conspicuously absent from the AR/VR world and seems to be looking toward the necessity for an application that would drive consumers into the space before making a major step into the AR/VR hardware business. That said, Samsung has been developing and to a lesser degree marketing, Micro-LED technology, which is the use of very small LEDs as display emitting sources. While Micro-LED technology is thought to be the ultimate replacement for LCD and even OLED display technology years down the road, it is currently a work in progress, and still faces some major issues that limit its use and maintain a high cost. While that development will continue, Samsung Display (pvt) is taking its expertise in OLED display technology and moving toward another display venue.
SDC is beginning to take steps toward the mass production of Micro-OLED displays. Micro-OLED displays use existing OLED technology, that of phosphorescent and fluorescent emitter materials, but with unusually small pixels that are densely packed in a small space.. There are theoretically two ways in which Micro-OLEDs can be used, the first being with an OLED emitter (or combination of emitters) that produces a single color and is then passed through a color filter that breaks the light into red, green, and blue components, similar to the way and OLED TV works. The second is a using three OLED emitters (RGB) that are individually controllable and therefore do not need a color filter, similar to the way a smartphone OLED display works. What makes these displays different from typical OLED displays is that they are built on silicon substrates, where larger OLED displays tend to be built on glass or flexible polymer plastics.
The OLED/Color filter path for Micro-OLED is being championed by Sony (SNE), who produces such displays for camera electronic viewer, HUDs, and AR/VR devices. The display shown below measures 0.64” (Diagonal) and has 3,145,728 pixels squeezed into a display that is 0.512” x 0.384”, representing ~4,000 pixels/inch, with each pixel being spaced 0.0064mm apart (on center). While this might sound like overkill, in a VR application the display is almost touching your eye, so if the pixels were not so closely spaced, the user would see gaps between the pixels, creating what is called the ‘screen-door’ effect
SDC is beginning to take steps toward the mass production of Micro-OLED displays. Micro-OLED displays use existing OLED technology, that of phosphorescent and fluorescent emitter materials, but with unusually small pixels that are densely packed in a small space.. There are theoretically two ways in which Micro-OLEDs can be used, the first being with an OLED emitter (or combination of emitters) that produces a single color and is then passed through a color filter that breaks the light into red, green, and blue components, similar to the way and OLED TV works. The second is a using three OLED emitters (RGB) that are individually controllable and therefore do not need a color filter, similar to the way a smartphone OLED display works. What makes these displays different from typical OLED displays is that they are built on silicon substrates, where larger OLED displays tend to be built on glass or flexible polymer plastics.
The OLED/Color filter path for Micro-OLED is being championed by Sony (SNE), who produces such displays for camera electronic viewer, HUDs, and AR/VR devices. The display shown below measures 0.64” (Diagonal) and has 3,145,728 pixels squeezed into a display that is 0.512” x 0.384”, representing ~4,000 pixels/inch, with each pixel being spaced 0.0064mm apart (on center). While this might sound like overkill, in a VR application the display is almost touching your eye, so if the pixels were not so closely spaced, the user would see gaps between the pixels, creating what is called the ‘screen-door’ effect
Sony ECX342A - Micro-OLED Display - Source: Sony
The problem is however, that using a color filter to create colors means that much of the light energy is eliminated, either reflected away from the user or absorbed, reducing the overall brightness of each color and the overall display, so Samsung Display, the global leader in RGB OLED displays for smartphones, is looking toward creating RGB Micro-OL:ED displays that contain a red, green, and blue sub-pixel within each pixel, and therefore does not need a color filter. As can be expected however, these sub-pixels must all fit within the space of a pixel, which makes their deposition even more difficult and precise than that of the OLED/Color filter process. It seems that while Samsung Electronics is still trying to find a key that will unlock consumer interest in AR/VR, Samsung Display, an affiliate, is thought to be taking the Micro-OLED concept a bit further.
Samsung Display is said to be developing a Micro-LED pilot line at its A2 display fab in Asan, Korea. According to local sources, the company has ordered panel logistics systems from SFA (036540.KS) and glass encapsulation tools from AP Systems (054620.KS) for the pilot line that is expected to go into limited production toward the middle of 2023. If successful, SDC will allocate funding for the construction of a small mass production line in 2024 that would be built to handle 6,400 sheets/month at the onset. While we do not yet know the details of the intended product line, we expect the ultimate objective is to produce an RGB Micro-OLED display that will be used in commercial AR/VR applications, likely by Samsung itself, or sold to other customers, and with Apple (AAPL) expected to release an AR/VR device in 2023 or 2024, SDC is looking to develop a high volume mass production line that will feed the Apple AR/VR supply chain, especially given that Sony is expected to be the supplier for the initial Apple AR/VR product.
We note that creating OLED Micro-displays using the OLED/CF process is difficult, but the process of placing three separate OLED emitters in each pixel makes the RGB Micro-OLED process even more difficult, and SDC will face a number of challenges for which it must find solutions that can be scaled to mass production if these displays are ever to be within the cost demands of high volume consumer devices. There are only a few manufacturers that can produce OLED Micro-displays, a number of which are large enough to be recognized by investors, such as China’s BOE (200725.CH), E-Magin (EMAN) and Sony, however others are far less recognizable, especially those based in China, such as SeeYa (pvt) in Hefei, Sidtek (pvt) in Wuhu City, Olightek (pvt) in Kunming, and Microoled (pvt) in Grenoble, all of whom have at least some product in the market.
That said, this is still an evolving product segment and is driven on the technology side by higher resolution, higher brightness near-eye display improvements, leading to headsets and devices that are less bulky and cause less fatigue and stress. But while the near-eye display industry continues to develop, and the two biggest CE players have not yet participated, the need for application driven demand is the industry’s major growth stumbling block. Gaming is certainly a driver for the VR space and continues to evolve, but the metaphor of the ‘metaverse’, Meta’s (FB) hope for the future, is not enough to drive the high volumes needed for major CE companies to enter the market. Meta has been on a costly quest to convince the world that the metaverse is other than a way to sell you something and collect user information but lacks a real application driver to attract consumers. We expect the technology side of AR/VR displays to develop more rapidly in 2023 and 2024 but the application space will be the true driver for pushing AR/VR more quickly into the CE space. Without application drivers, we expect the overall development of AR/VR to progress relatively slowly, likely falling behind expectations.
We note that creating OLED Micro-displays using the OLED/CF process is difficult, but the process of placing three separate OLED emitters in each pixel makes the RGB Micro-OLED process even more difficult, and SDC will face a number of challenges for which it must find solutions that can be scaled to mass production if these displays are ever to be within the cost demands of high volume consumer devices. There are only a few manufacturers that can produce OLED Micro-displays, a number of which are large enough to be recognized by investors, such as China’s BOE (200725.CH), E-Magin (EMAN) and Sony, however others are far less recognizable, especially those based in China, such as SeeYa (pvt) in Hefei, Sidtek (pvt) in Wuhu City, Olightek (pvt) in Kunming, and Microoled (pvt) in Grenoble, all of whom have at least some product in the market.
That said, this is still an evolving product segment and is driven on the technology side by higher resolution, higher brightness near-eye display improvements, leading to headsets and devices that are less bulky and cause less fatigue and stress. But while the near-eye display industry continues to develop, and the two biggest CE players have not yet participated, the need for application driven demand is the industry’s major growth stumbling block. Gaming is certainly a driver for the VR space and continues to evolve, but the metaphor of the ‘metaverse’, Meta’s (FB) hope for the future, is not enough to drive the high volumes needed for major CE companies to enter the market. Meta has been on a costly quest to convince the world that the metaverse is other than a way to sell you something and collect user information but lacks a real application driver to attract consumers. We expect the technology side of AR/VR displays to develop more rapidly in 2023 and 2024 but the application space will be the true driver for pushing AR/VR more quickly into the CE space. Without application drivers, we expect the overall development of AR/VR to progress relatively slowly, likely falling behind expectations.
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