It’s being reported today that there’s an increasing interest within Samsung Display for technologies that can be applied to manufacture OLED panels without the use of Fine Metal Masks (FMM).  

The Elec reports that this “interest was sparked after the Society of Information Display conference held in May this year where new production technologies of OLED panels were showcased, sources said.

FMM are commodities used to deposit the red, green, and blue OLED subpixels closely together during OLED panel production.

All OLED panels used in smartphones and smartwatches currently commercialized are made with FMM during production, and Dai Nippon Printing is the world’s largest supplier of the commodity.

FMM are made into sticks and multiple units of them are soldered into large frames so that the middle of them doesn’t sag when in use. They sag because they are incredibly thin. The sticks must also be narrow so that they can be pulled tight when put into the frame.

Because of these difficulties, there is increasing concern that FMM won’t be applicable for OLED panels exceeding 15-inch to 17-inch in size made for application in portable devices. Bigger panels require large FMMs.

Currently, FMM production yields are only around 30% for the production of 6-inch OLED panels, and larger panels will result in even lower yields.

Therefore the area of between 17-inch and 30-inch for OLED panels is a new area for display panel makers and a considerable headache for them to decide what production technologies to use.

OLED panel production without the use of FMM has been talked about for the past five years but JDI’s unveiling of its eLEAP technology last year has increased interest.” A year ago, Patently Apple posted a report on this titled “JDI's breakthrough OLED technology 'eLEAP' has caught Samsung's eye due to its longer life span, higher Peak luminance & no burn-in issues.” There’s a long video on this technology and its many applications that was posted four months ago here.

The Elec further reported that “This year, Japan’s Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) also filed patents related to OLED panel production without the use of FMM. Another source is Visionox who recently announced their own version called Visionox Intelligent Pixelisation or ViP.

Sources within Samsung Display said the company is showing interest in such technologies. However,  they’re concerned about the obstacles they face, such securing exclusive rights over them which will be difficult. Samsung Display prefers to have total control over the market when entering new markets by securing all related patents and technologies to prevent competitors from entering." 

Unless Samsung and LG Display get on board with this new wave of OLED Display processing, companies like China's BOE may be able to take advantage over their Korean competitors.