AMOLED mobile displays to cost less than LCDs within two years
According to the OLED Technology Report from NPD DisplaySearch (Santa Clara, CA), manufacturing costs for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) mobile phone displays are expected to fall below costs for liquid-crystal display (LCD) mobile phone displays within two years due to rapid improvement in AMOLED panel production yields.
Manufacturing costs for AMOLED panels are currently 10-20% higher than for TFT LCD displays; however, Early on, AMOLED panels were expected to cost less than LCD panels, because they do not require backlighting. Instead, production challenges kept AMOLED yields low, so costs remained higher than for equivalent LCDs. AMOLED became a high-end product, due to its high color gamut, good contrast, and slimness. Recent production yield improvements are expected to help AMOLED penetrate more broadly into smartphone panels.
"Until recently there have been few breakthroughs in the production of AMOLED displays, and the OLED industry seemed to be facing hard times," said Jimmy Kim, senior analyst of display materials and LED at NPD DisplaySearch. "If AMOLED costs fall below LCDs, as expected, it would lead to more opportunities for the OLED display industry, greater competition with LCD, and more choices for consumers."
For example, currently there is a 16% cost gap between 5" AMOLED and LCD 1920 × 1080 mobile phone panels, but AMOLED panel costs are expected to fall below LCD panel costs when AMOLED production yields reach 90%, which is within sight. With cost reductions for OLED materials, the yield rate can be lower and still have a similar effect.
SOURCE: NPD DisplaySearch; http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/140716_amoled_mobile_phone_panel_costs_expected_to_fall_below_lcd.asp
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.