“Samsung and LG make small high-resolution OLED panels for VR headsets”

Samsung Display and LG Display are working on producing micro OLED panels, not to be confused with micro LED. It should lead to relatively small screens of roughly one inch that, due to a high pixel density, can be very suitable for VR headsets, for example.

Samsung Display is said to be in the process of setting up a micro-OLED panel production line in Asan, South Korea, and the necessary equipment has already been ordered, writes the Korean newspaper ETNews based on industry sources. It should lead to a pilot production line that should deliver a small amount in the second half of this year. The panels would be used by Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm and Google.

At the same time, competitor LG Display is also working on similar plans, reports the also Korean The Elec based on unnamed sources. LG Display works together with SK Hynix and Meta. LG Display would already have an agreement with the Facebook parent company and a contract between SK Hynix and Meta is close, the sources said. This alliance means that Meta designs the necessary chip for its VR and AR products, while SK Hynix produces the necessary wafers, after which LG Display comes into play for the final step: depositing the OLEDs on the wafer and then dividing them into micro -OLED panels.

In regular OLED panel production, the OLED materials are applied to a glass or plastic substrate, but with micro-OLEDs this is done directly on the silicon wafer. This would be necessary, because there will be a pixel size of a few tens of micrometers, making production by a semiconductor manufacturer essential. Depositing the OLED materials directly on wafers leads to the possibility of relatively small panels that still have a high resolution due to the high ppi. In addition, the panels can be kept relatively thin. These are important properties for use in VR glasses, for example.

The deposition directly on the wafer means that a semiconductor manufacturer must be involved; Samsung has the facilities for that, but LG does not. LG Display would therefore have hired SK Hynix. This company plans to deploy its M10 wafer production line, the company’s oldest fab that originally only made dram and now cmos image sensors, for this purpose. The M10 line has a capacity of 100,000 12″ wafers per month. Between 2025 and 2026, the company would like to deploy a capacity of 30,000 wafers per month for the production of micro-OLED panels, via its 28nm and 45nm processes.