OLED glass equity venture pairs Corning and Samsung technology
Corning, NY--Specialty glass and ceramics maker Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) and Samsung Mobile Display (SMD; Korea) signed an agreement to establish a new equity venture for the manufacture of specialty glass substrates for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device market. The new business will be located in Korea. The venture pairs Corning's Lotus Glass substrate technology with SMD's OLED display expertise, making it well-positioned to provide product solutions for current and future OLED technologies from handheld and IT devices to large TVs and beyond. The newly formed entity will supply OLED backplane glass substrates for SMD as well as for the broader Korean market.
According to a recent NPD DisplaySearch report, estimated OLED revenues for displays will exceed $4 billion in 2011 (approximately 4% of flat panel display revenues), and will reach more than $20 billion (approximately 16% of the total display industry) by 2018.
Samsung says it is playing a leading role in this emerging market through its Galaxy mobile device products and Super OLED TV technology. Corning’s ongoing advanced glass technology development includes a strong focus on high-performance displays. Most recently, this focus has been demonstrated through Corning's new Lotus Glass substrates, which deliver the higher processing temperatures and improved dimensional stability needed to produce the new high-performance displays.
"Corning and Samsung have a long and successful partnership in the display industry, dating back nearly 40 years to the early days of television,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning's chairman, CEO, and president. "The strength of our business relationship is built on Corning's ability to develop and make high-technology glass with the key attributes that enable Samsung's next-generation displays. Together, we have led the evolution of displays--from the high-growth years of CRT, to our current successful business supplying world-leading substrates for today's high-definition LCD TVs, and now to the launch of this important new venture to advance OLED technology," Weeks added.
SMD was established in January 2009 as a core Samsung company that provides display solutions. It says it has become a global leader in visual technology and its state-of-the-art AMOLED displays widely applied to smartphones, digital cameras, gaming devices, and media players. SMD strives to advance the future with next-generation technologies including flexible, foldable, and transparent displays.
Corning makes components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications, and life sciences. Products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors, and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy, and metrology.
SOURCE: Corning; www.corning.com/news_center/news_releases/2012/2012020201.aspx
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.