Spreading the Wealth – LG Invests in QDs
LG Electronics (066570.KS) (technically LG Group) owns LG Technology Ventures, the company’s VC arm. With ~40 investments and $400m in fund assets, the portfolio of early-stage start-ups are chosen in order that they might develop strategic partnerships with other LG companies in a number of strategic areas including advanced materials. Most recently LGTV made a $2.155m investment in InnoQD (pvt), along with additional investments by Wonik IPS (240810.KS), a well-known Korean supplier of display and semiconductor tools, and local VCs for a total of $4.31m, with an additional ~$1m in progress. The company had previously raised ~$4m in earlier financings.
InnoQD is a developer and producer of QD materials that specializes in resin development, a material that is mixed with quantum dots it both protects the QD material from exposure to air and water along with barrier films, and holds the quantum dots in place. One issue that faces quantum dot films is the dispersion of the quantum dots across the display film. Poorly distributed QDs cause color and light changes where QDs are bunched or thinly dispersed. By maintaining a highly uniform concentration of QDs across the film, the film can be thinner and have more consistent results across its entire area and by starting the protection of the QDs at the resin level, thinner barrier layers can be used and lifetime extended
InnoQD has purchased a factory and has production equipment on order, with expectations for mass production next year in collaboration with LG Display (LPL) and Nanosys (pvt) as the supplier of the basic QD material. While LG Display has a strong focus on OLED, parent LG Electronics is broader based with a line of Mini-LED/QD and QD only TVs based on Nanosys QD material. The investment in InnoQD will hopefully reduce the cost and increase the quality of LG’s QD products and potentially create a path toward the two goals in the quantum dot timeline, full ink-jet QD printing (Samsung Display’s (pvt) QD/OLED is using it) and self-emissive quantum dot displays in the future.
InnoQD is a developer and producer of QD materials that specializes in resin development, a material that is mixed with quantum dots it both protects the QD material from exposure to air and water along with barrier films, and holds the quantum dots in place. One issue that faces quantum dot films is the dispersion of the quantum dots across the display film. Poorly distributed QDs cause color and light changes where QDs are bunched or thinly dispersed. By maintaining a highly uniform concentration of QDs across the film, the film can be thinner and have more consistent results across its entire area and by starting the protection of the QDs at the resin level, thinner barrier layers can be used and lifetime extended
InnoQD has purchased a factory and has production equipment on order, with expectations for mass production next year in collaboration with LG Display (LPL) and Nanosys (pvt) as the supplier of the basic QD material. While LG Display has a strong focus on OLED, parent LG Electronics is broader based with a line of Mini-LED/QD and QD only TVs based on Nanosys QD material. The investment in InnoQD will hopefully reduce the cost and increase the quality of LG’s QD products and potentially create a path toward the two goals in the quantum dot timeline, full ink-jet QD printing (Samsung Display’s (pvt) QD/OLED is using it) and self-emissive quantum dot displays in the future.
Typical QD Enhancement Film - Source:InnoQD
Scanning Electron Microscope Image of quantum dot clusters - Source: InnoQD
Highly Ordered Quantum Dot Clusters in a Polymer Matrix with arranged holes - Source: Oxford Instruments
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