Back in September 2022, Patently Apple posted a report 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." Today we're learning that Samsung Display has purchased the patent needed to produce red (R), green (G), and blue (B) organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) without using a fine metal mask (FMM) from Orthogonal of the United States. It is a patent belonging to the non-FMM type RGB OLED technology group known as eLEAP. The technology offers OLED displays with triple the lifespan and double the brightness

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Although non-FMM RGB OLED has not yet been commercialized, it is a technology that is evaluated as having the potential to create a niche market in the mid-sized OLED market in the future. There are several companies developing non-FMM RGB OLED technology. Samsung Display's purchase of related patents from Osagonal appears to be intended to reduce the risk of patent disputes that may arise at the time of commercialization of this technology in the future.

According to the industry on the 14th, Samsung Display purchased five US patents from Osagonal on the 10th (local time). The title of the invention in 4 out of 5 patents is 'Photolithographic Patterning of Organic Electronic Devices'. The name of the remaining invention is ‘Color OLED Display with a Larger Aperture Ratio’. The Korean family patent holders of these five US patents have not yet changed.

The patent that Samsung Display recently purchased from Osagonal is non-FMM RGB OLED technology. This technology uses a semiconductor exposure process instead of FMM when forming RGB subpixels. Through the exposure process, each R, G, and B emitting layer and a common layer are formed. For this reason, it is possible to implement a high-resolution display compared to the existing FMM method, and the aperture ratio can also be increased. The composition of the material sets for R, G, and B may also be different.

The report from The Elec further notes that "Samsung Display's purchase of patents from Osagonal appears to be intended to prepare for patent disputes that may arise if the market blooms in the future. An official in the patent industry said, 'The purpose of purchasing patents in areas where the market is not fully developed is divided into direct use, defense, or attack on potential competitors.' Another official evaluated, 'It is possible that Osagonal’s patent purchased by Samsung Display is a Gilmok patent (an improved patent related to the original patent), and it may also be the background technology for a patent currently under continuous development.'"  

This is likely a technology that Samsung Display is seriously considering to bring to the small and mid-size display market (iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro/HMDs) in the future. With Chinese display makers catching up in OLED displays, Samsung is trying to add as much value as possible to OLED displays to stay ahead of their  competition.