LG Developing New Etching Technology for OLED Panels That Will Be Supplied to Apple

LG is developing a new etching technology for OLED panels that will be supplied to Apple, reports The Elec. The technology will purportedly be used for a 'hybrid OLED' panel that uses a glass substrate like a rigid OLED panel, but a thin-film encapsulation (TFE) like a flexible OLED panel.

Conventional rigid OLED panels used two glass substrates but in a hybrid OLED panel the top glass substrate is replaced with TFE. This means the panel is thinner and the remaining bottom glass substrate is etched even thinner from 0.5mm to 0.2mm.

The thinner glass is vulnerable to breaking when moved to the next production line process, so LG is aiming to etch and cut the glass in one step.


The new technology will be applied starting with LG's first Gen 8 OLED line; however, LG is not expected to use it for next year's iPad; rather, it will stick with the current Gen 6 OLED line and use Avatec to handle the etching process.

Notably, The Elec says Samsung Display has already developed its own new etching technology and will begin applying it immediately to OLED panels manufactured with its Gen 6 OLED line.

Finally, the site notes that Apple is planning to use OLED panels for iPad with two emission layers (two stack tandem) and low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistors (TFT).

More details in the full report linked below...


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