Cheil Industries has become the first Korean manufacturer to develop and produce OLED material. The Samsung affiliate announced on April 28 2014 that it will begin mass producing raw material for green phosphorescent OLED.
After developing the material for two years, the company is finally ready for mass production. It estimates a production capacity of around 5 tons per year.
“We have supplied the material to Samsung Display for Samsung Electronics’ mobile devices. We cannot, however, specify models,” a Cheil Industries official said.
Some speculate that the material could have been used in Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone that was released recently. The new model showed a significant improvement in screen brightness and power consumption.
Cheil Industries took advantage of the growing OLED industry early on, investing US $19 million in establishing an OLED plant in Gumi, South Korea in 2011. The company later acquired German manufacturer Novaled in 2013, which has over 530 patents in OLED technology.
“The development of technology for key OLED materials has upgraded the company’s business capacity. We will continue to expand our global market network in line with the growing production of large OLED panels,” Cheil Industries CEO Cho Nam-seong said in a statement.
Samsung will benefit significantly from the development of the OLED material by their affiliate. Dependent on supplies from Japanese and U.S. manufacturers, Samsung hopes to reduce reliance on imported material and lower production costs through Cheil Industry.
