New OLED panels enter production phase

According to what we know so far, the new OLED panels use a new lamination process called liquid transparent adhesive (OCR) instead of using the age-old transparent tape (OCA) technology for the production of flexible OLED panels. The usual lamination process is time-consuming as the transparent tapes are lined up one by one and also because the material is expensive. Samsung Display is one of the largest display makers in the world and purchases more than 200 billion won of OCA material every year. With the introduction of inkjet OCT technology, Samsung Display would be able to reduce the time it takes to laminate an OLED panel and the overheads in terms of material purchase costs.

When compared to OCA, the OCR technology can create accurate and smooth lamination. This is also because it’s easy for the inkjet to reach tricky places on a display panel such as the selfie cameras and the speakers. On the other hand, OCA was not able to achieve perfection in the application of transparent tapes. This results in a reduced cost of making that will eventually trickle down to the end-users and in fact, it is ten times cheaper than an OCA method. Further, Samsung Display will be using the same tech on curved surfaces thereby solving one of the biggest issues and achieving truly zero-bezel architecture while keeping the panel thickness at a bare minimum. Samsung Display is undoubtedly one of the largest display makers in the world. It recently got a green signal from Apple to produce 80 million units for the upcoming iPhone 14 series. The South Korean giant is in talks to invest in a modular production line in its factory in Vietnam that can be used for OCR materials although more details are yet to uncover.

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