Samsung Display begins mass producing QD OLED

Samsung Display hosted a ceremony to celebrate mass-production of Quantum Dot (QD) display OLED panels on Tuesday, two years after the company’s Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong announced an investment plan in production of QD OLED panels. With Samsung Display looking to expand its production of QD OLED, where LG Display has long been a leader, the speed at which QD OLED panels are produced is expected to become faster.

Since early last month, Samsung Display has begun in earnest mass producing QD display at Q1 Line at Asan Campus in South Chungcheong Province. The company’s vice chairman announced back in October 2019 a plan to invest a total of 13.1 trillion won in the establishment and R&D of the production facility by 2025 to convert the large-sized LCD production line to QD, and in July 2020, QD facilities were introduced in the production line to be ready for mass production of QD.

Samsung Display has a production capacity of 30,000 sheets (8.5 generations) of the relevant QD display per month, the amount capable of producing approximately one million 55-inch and 65-inch TVs. So far, LG Display has monopolized the large-sized OLED panel market in the world, but thanks to the new line starting production, Samsung Display has become also capable of producing the relevant display panels.

QD displays are expected to be installed in products produced by Samsung Electronics and Sony. Samsung Electronics plans to present QD OLED Tv at CES 2022, the world’s biggest tech conference, which will take place in January 2022 in Las Vegas, the U.S.


Hyun-Seok Lim lhs@donga.com