Samsung Display has begun the construction of the world’s first 8.6th generation organic light-emitting diode (OLED) production line. As major manufacturers such as Apple are increasing the proportion of OLED displays instead of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in the laptop and tablet markets, Samsung is once again making a huge investment to further widen its gap with China’s BOE, which is a latecomer.
Samsung Display announced on March 8 that it held an equipment receiving ceremony for the A6 line that produces 8.6th generation OLED panels at its Asan campus in South Chungcheong Province, Korea. The ceremony was attended by Samsung Display President Choi Ju-sun and representatives from its major partners, Japan’s Canon Doki and Korea’s Wonik IPS, Fine M Tech, and LOT Vacuum.
Samsung Display recently completed the construction of a new clean room and plans to start volume production in 2026, with equipment arrival and prototype production scheduled for this year. Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong announced in April 2023 that the company will invest 4.1 trillion won to build the line, emphasizing that it will “boldly pioneer a new future.”
The 8.6th generation line in which Samsung has begun making full-scale investment in earnest is characterized by 2290x2620 mm mother glass used to produce panels. The 2290x2620 mm mother glass is more than twice as wide as the previous 6th-generation (1500×1850 mm).
Major display makers including Samsung are competing in a size race in order to boost their production efficiency. In the past, Samsung mainly made small smartphone panels, so mother glass sizes were small so wasted mother glass was relatively little. It is similar to a semiconductor process that uses 8- and 12-inch wafers and does not necessarily increase wafer sizes.
However, this has changed with the proliferation of OLED panels for tablet PCs, laptops, and other IT devices. This is because producing a panel larger than a smartphone panel with current small mother glass would mean more wasted mother glass, which will lower production efficiency.
Samsung Display produces panels for the iPad Pro’s 6th generation version, which Apple will release as early as this month, on a sixth-generation (1500x1850 ㎜) line. If same-sized panels are produced on an 8.6th-generation line, the Korean display giant will be able to naturally boost its profitability.
“By 2029, five years from now, four out of 10 panels for IT products will be replaced by OLED panels, and their annual sales will grow to 12 trillion won,” said an official in the Korean display industry. “We may have lost the LCD market to Chinese display makers but we must keep the OLED display market to maintain the competitiveness of set products such as smartphones and tablets made by Korean companies.”