TCL’s display making arm CSOT is slowly but surely getting closer to its goal of competing with LG Display in the market for large-sized OLED panels. The company is planning to move into small-scale production of inkjet-printed OLED displays before the end of the year, ahead of an expansion by mid-2025.
That’s according to a report by The Elec, a website that focuses on the South Korean tech industry. It’s well known that TCL CSOT has ambitions to compete in the OLED panel-making market, with its plans becoming public knowledge several years back when it said it’s looking at making inkjet-printed OLED displays for IT devices such as monitors.
The Elec says TCL CSOT will kick off with the production of a 21.6-inch 4K OLED panel before the end of the year, before expanding to other panel sizes in 2025. The company intends to produce them on its newly equipped 5.5-Gen production line.
The company is pursuing a different manufacturing method to the one used by LG Display. The South Korean company builds its OLED panels in vacuum chambers, using a process known as thermal evaporation. It involves spraying the OLED pixel materials onto the displays with a metal mask. Samsung Display uses a similar process to create its QD-OLED panels.
On the other hand, TCL CSOT’s inkjet printing method uses a more precise printer that applies the OLED materials exactly where they need to go. Such a method can significantly reduce waste, lowering production costs, but it’s more difficult to implement.
TCL CSOT said in 2020 it was working with Japan OLED to try and commercialize the inkjet printing process as a way to compete with LG Display and Samsung Display. However, Japan OLED later filed for bankruptcy, leaving the Chinese company to press on alone.
The company has previously hinted that it might be ready to start producing larger Inkjet-printed OLED panels for TVs by 2025, though it indicated that is just the earliest possible date, if everything goes as planned.
Whether that will happen remains to be seen, for TCL CSOT has not said anything about implementing inkjet-printing machinery at its Generation 8.5 factory, which is the only place where it can produce panels larger than 42-inches. As such, it would be a big surprise if we see any inkjet-printed OLED TVs arriving on the market next year.
That said, TCL CSOT has produced a number of larger OLED prototypes in the past, including a 65-inch 8K OLED panel, plus a 31-inch 4K dome-shaped OLED panel.
TCL CSOT is not the only display maker exploring the possibilities of inkject-printed OLED panels. Others, including AU Optronics, Eizo and BOE have all showcased prototype OLED panels built using the same method in the past.
