The rollable TV market heats up?
LG Display (LPL) and parent LG Electronics (066570.KS) have been the dominant force in the OLED TV market, with capacity, production expertise, and a rather broad product line for what is still a niche product. They sell large OLED panels to other OLED TV producers and obviously have a well-known OLED TV line under the LG brand, and face very little competition, particularly from Samsung Display (pvt) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), who years ago were developing a large panel OLED TV that competed directly with LGE.
There was significant difference between the two rivals at that early stage, with Samsung Display using an RGB process while LG Display used a white OLED with a color filter. Samsung eventually decided that developing an OLED TV using RGB was not a viable process for large panel TVs and abandon the project but continued to develop, quite successfully, the RGB process for small panel displays (smartphones, tablets, laptops). LG Display continued to develop the WOLED process, which is a simpler manufacturing process that does not pattern the OLED material like an RGB based display but uses a color filter to create individual colored pixels and sub-pixels.
In reality, the Samsung RGB large panel process had a significant limitation, the metal mask that was used to pattern the OLED RGB material was limited in size due to physical characteristics that limited panel production to Gen 6 substrates, while the LG process did not have that limitation, but the color filter used by LGD reduced the light output of the display and was an additional cost. Both companies have perfected their respective technologies, with the small panel OLED market a highly competitive one, while the large panel OLED market essentially owned by LG, until now.
Sharp (6753.JP) has developed a 30” rollable 4K OLED panel using the same RGB method that Samsung uses for small panel OLED displays, which we assume will eventually compete with LG’s methodology. The Sharp OLED panel therefore has no color filter and should be brighter (no color filter to reduce overall output) and less expensive (eventually) to produce. That said, there is still the limitations of FMM (Fine Metal Mask) which include mask deformation, mask alignment, and dimensional accuracy, with such limitations increasing as the mask size increases, which has typically limited RGB OLED displays to a maximum size of ~24” (Sony (SNE) produces such a display). Sharp seems to have found a way to increase the size of the mask without issues, especially when producing such a display on a flexible substrate.
The questions that such an announcement incurs are whether Sharp has developed a process that allows for larger RGB OLED displays or whether this is just a minor extension of existing FMM RGB OLED displays, and whether Sharp intends to develop an OLED product line of flexible OLED displays in a smaller size than is currently available. Given Sharp’s well telegraphed plans to expand its TV brand, we have to assume the latter, but producing such displays cost-effectively and at a price point that is attractive to consumers remains an open question. Panel sizes in the 30” range would tend to be more oriented toward monitors, so the market for a rollable 30” OLED TV is an unknown, but again, if Sharp can produce such a device at a reasonable price point, perhaps they can open the OLED market to a wider swath of consumers who don’t desire a huge TV. For reference an open cell (bare panel without frame or electronics) sells for ~$31 in quantity, and while the cost of an automatic rollable system would add significant cost to such a device, that would be a very hard price to compete against.
Sharp’s promo video: https://youtu.be/Jzr7208A-os
There was significant difference between the two rivals at that early stage, with Samsung Display using an RGB process while LG Display used a white OLED with a color filter. Samsung eventually decided that developing an OLED TV using RGB was not a viable process for large panel TVs and abandon the project but continued to develop, quite successfully, the RGB process for small panel displays (smartphones, tablets, laptops). LG Display continued to develop the WOLED process, which is a simpler manufacturing process that does not pattern the OLED material like an RGB based display but uses a color filter to create individual colored pixels and sub-pixels.
In reality, the Samsung RGB large panel process had a significant limitation, the metal mask that was used to pattern the OLED RGB material was limited in size due to physical characteristics that limited panel production to Gen 6 substrates, while the LG process did not have that limitation, but the color filter used by LGD reduced the light output of the display and was an additional cost. Both companies have perfected their respective technologies, with the small panel OLED market a highly competitive one, while the large panel OLED market essentially owned by LG, until now.
Sharp (6753.JP) has developed a 30” rollable 4K OLED panel using the same RGB method that Samsung uses for small panel OLED displays, which we assume will eventually compete with LG’s methodology. The Sharp OLED panel therefore has no color filter and should be brighter (no color filter to reduce overall output) and less expensive (eventually) to produce. That said, there is still the limitations of FMM (Fine Metal Mask) which include mask deformation, mask alignment, and dimensional accuracy, with such limitations increasing as the mask size increases, which has typically limited RGB OLED displays to a maximum size of ~24” (Sony (SNE) produces such a display). Sharp seems to have found a way to increase the size of the mask without issues, especially when producing such a display on a flexible substrate.
The questions that such an announcement incurs are whether Sharp has developed a process that allows for larger RGB OLED displays or whether this is just a minor extension of existing FMM RGB OLED displays, and whether Sharp intends to develop an OLED product line of flexible OLED displays in a smaller size than is currently available. Given Sharp’s well telegraphed plans to expand its TV brand, we have to assume the latter, but producing such displays cost-effectively and at a price point that is attractive to consumers remains an open question. Panel sizes in the 30” range would tend to be more oriented toward monitors, so the market for a rollable 30” OLED TV is an unknown, but again, if Sharp can produce such a device at a reasonable price point, perhaps they can open the OLED market to a wider swath of consumers who don’t desire a huge TV. For reference an open cell (bare panel without frame or electronics) sells for ~$31 in quantity, and while the cost of an automatic rollable system would add significant cost to such a device, that would be a very hard price to compete against.
Sharp’s promo video: https://youtu.be/Jzr7208A-os
Figure 1 - Sharp Rollable 30" RGB Display - Source: Sharp
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