'Dream Display'
AMOLED Era Unfurls

Samsung SDI jumpstarts the AMOLED industry

Samsung SDI, one of the world's pioneers in the production of next-generation displays, is accelerating its bid to jumpstart activity in the Active Matrix-Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (AMOLED) sector.
AMOLED is dubbed as a "pie-in-the-sky"display with a response time in the microsecond area, 1,000 times faster than the conventional LCD. It has a super-thin (thickness: one-third of LCD) and consumes less power (half of the conventional LCD) since it does not require a backlight.
Mobile products, furnished with AMOLEDs, ranging from deluxe handsets, DMB phones to WiBro phones that have the potential for explosive growth and personal multimedia players (PMPs), most likely will be recognized as premium-class versions.
The company is building an AMOLED line at its Cheonan Plant employing Low Temperature Poly-Silicon (LTPS) technology for the first time in the world on a plot of 13,800 pyeong (45,500 sq. meters). This line is capable of churning out an equivalent of 20 million AMOLEDs for cellular phones per annum and is expected to mass-produce the next-generation displays in the fourth quarter of the year.
In particular, the planned line will use the fourth-generation (4-G)-size glass substrate (730mmx920mm), the industry's largest one,
employing the super-largest evaporator, the first of its kind.
Last November, Samsung SDI announced a plan to embark on the next-generation display project with an investment of 465.5 billion won.
Samsung SDI plans to enter the global AMOLED market with the production of AMOLEDs for mobile phones ranging from a QVGA-class 2.0-inch to a 2.6-inch in size before expanding its presence to the AMOLEDs for personal multimedia players (PMPs) and game gadgets in a step-by-step manner with a goal of raising its annual production to 100 million units starting in 2008.
The AMOLED Samsung SDI plans to mass-produce is considered to be excellent in terms of lifespan and resolution thank to modern LTPS technology instead of the conventional a-Si. The state-of-the art display also adopts the System on Panel (SOP) technology that reduces production costs due to the insertion of circuits and parts inside the panel.
Samsung SDI has acquired its own technologies through strenuous R&D activities to take the initiative in the global AMOLED market.
The company recently announced the development of the so-called "Dream Display"Dual-Slim 2.0-inch AMOLED, the thinnest one in the world and the world-highest resolution 3D display. The Dual-Slim AMOLED with a brightness of 250 cd/㎡ and QVGA-class (240x320) high-resolution is thinner than the 1.61 mm thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD).
Samsung SDI's feat of developing such AMOLED products with unlimited potential by its 20-member research team with 5 billion won in R&D outlays was made possible with such technologies as Top Emission technology and super-slim design technology that the company acquired in advance of major progress.
Samsung SDI's 3D display measuring 4.3 inches size is WQVA-class (480x272), the highest resolution of its kind in the world. Adopting its own time division technology, the 3D AMOLED panel has succeeded in raising the speed with which both eyes can realize moving images on each glass substrate to 120Hz, twice as fast as the conventional one.
The AMOLED 3D display panel has superb response time compared to the conventional LCD and allows natural color and uninterrupted 3D moving pictures. The latest 3D display panel can be compatible with 2D displays so that mobile gadgets can realize 2D contents.
Such global players as Sanyo of Japan and Philips are fervently working on the development of the 3D display - the advanced technology with which each eye views a different image to realize distance and dimension.
Samsung SDI aims to commercialize the 3D AMOLED technology by 2007 as mobile phones are prospected to be equipped with 3D displays, thus contributing to make handsets premium ones and improving profitability.
The company is shifting into high gear to apply the 3D display technology to not just mobile videophones, but also to notebook PC monitors and TVs in the future.
The 3D AMOLED panel, which was unveiled during the 44th SID (Society for Information Display) International Symposium in San Francisco June 6-9, was given a good reception.
A recent survey of consumers on AMOLEDs, conducted by the consumer survey organization TNS Korea between April and May, indicated that an average of 88.3 percent of those polled favored the advanced display panel. About 1,000 consumers from five countries - Korea, China, UK, Italy and Germany - participated in the survey. Chinese participants showed the highest rate of 96.0 percent, followed by Koreans (94.5 percent), British (93.2 percent), Italians (86.0 percent) and Germans (72.0 percent).
The survey showed that the AMOLED panel got an approval rating of more than 85 percent in nearly all categories, including clear color, in-depth color expression, wider viewing angle, perfect moving image viewing, brightness and resolution, an indication most consumers tend to recognize AMOLED panels as being at a premium-class level compared to the existing LCD.
Samsung SDI ranked first in terms of the number of patent applications relating to the AMOLED panel, made during 2005 by applying for 607 patents, beating out the United States and Japan. LG Electronics placed third with 235 patent applications, followed by LPL with 225 patent applications.
Korean companies have been latecomers as it comes to such panels as CRTs, LCDs and PDPs; they have been trailing companies from the United States and Japan who had pioneered the panel markets. It is the first time that Samsung SDI has jumpstarted in the AMOLED market, taking the initiative in exploring a global market.
Such display makers from Japan and Taiwan are placing a watchful eye on Samsung SDI's AMOLED mass production line buildup to determine the timing of their bid to join the market.
Samsung SDI President Kim Sun-taek, said, "samsung SDI will establish itself as the world's top display maker by grafting its feat in the PMOLED category into the AMOLED sector. Samsung SDI will become the strongest global OLED powerhouse as it has made strenuous efforts to build up a mass production system."Figures given by the survey agency Display Research showed that the size of the AMOLED market is expected to surge from $831 million this year to $2.04 billion in 2007 and $5.35 billion in 2009 to maintain remarkable strides. nw

Samsung SDI President Kim Soon-taek

Samsung SDI promises to be a frontrunner in the Active Matrix-Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (AMOLED) sector.

Many spectators crowd Samsung SDI's booth during the 44th SID (Society for International Display) International Symposium where the company's 3D AMOLED panel was unveiled.