Category Archives: Displays

Today, SEMI announced that Innovation Village at SEMICON Japan 2016 has been expanded with participation by 31 start-up companies. SEMICON Japan, held December 14-16 at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo, is already the largest and most important gathering of the electronics manufacturing supply chain in Japan. With added exhibition and programming for innovation in the expanded Innovation Village this year, attendees will gain access to early high-tech startups and strategic investors ─ the driving force for future growth of the electronics supply chain. Click here to register for SEMICON Japan exhibition and conference programs.

SEMICON Japan 2016 Innovation Village includes:

  • TechSTAGE Start-up Pitches: from 31 start-up companies including: Adawarprobotics (opensource library for telepresence robot), ArtifactNoise (environmental measurements), Inupathy (a smart communication device for dogs), Osaka University (plasma nanomanufacturing), PixieDust Technologies (ultrasonic waves to generate a sound point source in air), primesap (a smart remote nursing system), Simulatio (AI that processes both natural languages and formulas), Trybots (a penguin robot), Yamanashi Thin Film Technology Developments (zinc oxide films) and ZaaZ (a scent device for head mounted displays).
  • Tabletop exhibition area: start-ups will describe new ideas, technologies, products, and services with attendees.
  • Innovate Reception: results revealed from the pitch contest and a networking opportunity for start-up companies seeking investment capital or strategic industry partners.
  • IoT and Innovation Village Joint Session on “Manufacturing Startups Today”: with a keynote by Junichi Hasegawa of Preferred Networks on “Industrial Revolution Led by Deep Learning” and panel discussion ─ with CEO panelists from AgIC, BONX, and SORACOM ─ moderated by Ken Nishimura of AOL Online Japan.

Innovation Village attendees will gain key insights into new technologies and products, advanced research solutions, investment opportunities, as well as technology transfer and partnerships opportunities.

Osamu Nakamura, president of SEMI Japan, said, “Our industry is driven by innovation. During the four decades of SEMICON Japan history, continuous innovation has moved our industry forward. The Japan semiconductor industry has increased its diversity in processes and product portfolio as well. As we face unprecedented changes, the industry is in need of new innovations to enable us to serve the smart and creative world of today and tomorrow. This year’s Innovation Village at SEMICON Japan will help fuel our industry with new ideas.”

Register now for SEMICON Japan. For a detailed agenda ─ including keynotes, SuperTHEATER, TechSTAGE, IoT sessions, SEMI Market Forum, Sustainable Manufacturing, 200mm Market,  networking events, and standards meetings ─ please see the “SEMICON Japan Schedule-at-a-Glance.”

SEMICON Japan’s Innovation Village is sponsored by: DMM.com, Japan Venture Capital Association, JSR, Leave a Nest, Japan Research Institute, and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo.

BY PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

I’m delighted to announce that The ConFab, our premier semiconductor manufacturing conference and networking event, will be held at the iconic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego on May 14-17, 2017. For more than 12 years, The ConFab, an invitation-only executive conference, has been the destination for key industry influencers and decision-makers to connect and collab- orate on critical issues.

The ConFab is the best place to seek a deeper under- standing on these and other important issues, offering a unique blend of market insights, technology forecasts and strategic assessments of the challenges and opportu- nities facing semiconductor manufacturers. In changing times, it’s critical for people to get together in a relaxed setting, learn what’s new, connect with old friends, make new acquaintances and find new business opportunities, and that’s what The ConFab is all about.

I’m also pleased to announce the addition of David J. Mount to The ConFab team as marketing and business development manager. Mount has a rich history in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment business and will be instrumental in guiding continued growth, and expanding into new high growth areas.

Mainstream semiconductor technology will remain the central focus of The ConFab, and the conference will be expanded with additional speakers, panelists, and VIP attendees who will participate from other fast growing and emerging areas. These include biomedical, automotive, IoT, MEMS, LEDs, displays, thin film batteries, photonics and advanced packaging. From both the device maker and the equipment supplier perspective, The ConFab 2017 is a must-attend networking conference for business leaders.

The ConFab conference program is guided by a stellar Advisory Board, with high level representatives from GlobalFoundries, Texas Instruments, TSMC, Cisco, Samsung, Intel, Lam Research, KLA-Tencor, ASE, NVIDIA, the Fab Owners Association and elsewhere.

Details on the invitation-only conference are at: www. theconfab.com. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Kerry Hoffman at [email protected]. For those interested in attending as a guest or qualifying as a VIP, contact Sally Bixby at [email protected].

Kateeva, the OLED production equipment developer, today announced the appointment of Mark R. Shaw, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Human Resources (HR). Previously, Shaw worked at Lam Research and Applied Materials. He joins Kateeva at a time of rapid growth. He’ll build a comprehensive HR infrastructure to support the company’s accelerating global business, with strategic initiatives to attract, inspire and reward top talent, world-wide.

Shaw has spent 25+ years driving transformational HR programs at multi-billion-dollar capital equipment companies with global operations, multiple product lines, and thousands of employees. Over time, he has led multi-national teams in shaping and executing HR solutions to support myriad corporate transactions and significant change events. This included: establishing HR organizations for multiple joint ventures in the US, Asia and Europe; developing comprehensive executive leadership and workforce strategies for new regional markets; unifying compensation programs across multiple geographies, and driving successful M&A integrations with practical change-management protocols.

“Few candidates know the business of leveraging people-power to support a fast-growing, global hardware company as thoroughly as Mark,” said Kateeva President and COO, Conor Madigan. “At Lam Research and Applied Materials, he navigated major events and complex global interactions, offering innovative and thoughtful HR solutions to maximize success outcomes for his employer and fellow employees. With our market trajectory already presenting similar growth events for Kateeva, we’re thrilled that Mark will lead the effort to build a talent-optimization infrastructure to help us expertly harness the opportunities.”

For Shaw, the new role is a unique opportunity to apply HR best-practices that made his previous employers rewarding workplaces. “In its short life, Kateeva has already achieved the near-impossible by commercializing a disruptive OLED-enabling technology that catapulted to market leadership in under two years. The same DNA behind that success will soon propel the company into new markets. For me, that means designing and implementing agile strategies that embolden the culture without sacrificing the entrepreneurial vibe that fueled the successes. I’m excited to accept the challenge.”

Shaw joined Kateeva from Lam Research where he was Vice President of HR for sales, service and manufacturing. He led organization and talent initiatives that included succession, employee development, sales capability, and field technical resources. Following Lam’s acquisition of Novellus Systems, he helped establish new organization structures and select new leaders. He also designed and implemented employee retention programs.

Previously, Shaw spent nearly 15 years at Applied Materials. He ended his tenure there as HR VP for the international sales and marketing organization, supporting 4000 regional employees in 15 countries.

Shaw holds a B.A. degree in speech from California State University at Hayward. He earned an M.A. degree in speech communication from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. degree in speech communication from Pennsylvania State University.

By Ji-Won Cho, SEMI Korea

SEMI Korea has hosted a SEMI member event every year for its members since 2008 to provide networking opportunities and insight on the ever-changing issues in the industry. This year, over 225 SEMI members in Korea from 132 companies ─ including the chipmakers, Samsung and Dongbu Hitek ─ participated in SEMI Members Day on October 6. Almost 70 percent of the attendees were executive level. Five speakers shared their thought-provoking perspectives: global semiconductor outlook, technology trends, flexible AMOLED technology, autonomous vehicle, and robot industry.

Soo Kyum Kim, director at IDC Korea, presented “Global Semiconductor Industry Outlook.”  Kim pointed out that global semiconductor market will decrease 2.9 percent in 2016 and recover slightly 0.6 percent in 2017 while the dedicated foundry market will face a short correction. He also forecasted that the CAGR of global semiconductor market will be 2.6 percent between 2017 and 2020. This growth will be led by non-traditional areas; automotive, industrial and smart home. He believes that IoT and Intelligent system penetration will drive both MPU and MCU in processor market.

Worldwide-MCU-Opportunity

Sei Cheol Lee, principal analyst at NH Securities, presented “Semiconductor Technology Trends.” Lee discussed how the solid state drives (SSD) and UFS markets are rapidly growing and 3D NAND stack will move from 48 to 64 layers. Lee added that increasing layers will lead to more dry etch than wet etch in processes and incease in KrF patterning, PECVD/ALD,  and test. Lee forecasted that the test market will grow to $3 billion in 2017 from only $2.2 billion in 2016 due to high-end SSD and DDR4’s bus speed enhancement.

Minsu Kang, analyst at IHS Technology, spoke about the Flexible AMOLED Industry Outlook. According to his presentation, flexible displays are mainly used for smartwatch and smartphone, but set manufacturers are also trying to apply them with foldable or rollable form-factors. Flexible AMOLED has clear advantages for flexible display technology, in terms of form-factor, size, PPI and picture quality. He pointed out that flexible AMOLED was expected to increase to over 13 percent of OLED panel shipment in 2016, and it will continue to grow rapidly because more set manufacturers are adopting the technology. Apple may try to apply it to their smartphone in 2017.

Ji-won-Korea article Photo 1

Kang highlighted that many panel manufacturers have been trying to increase flexible AMOLED capacity since 2015, but need to develop experience. He added that the curved forms of flexible display will be the mainstream until 2020, but foldable forms may be the mainstream after.  It depends on how the innovation resonates with the user experience

Seyong Kim, senior manager at Renesas Electronics Korea, presented “Technology Trends of the Autonomous Vehicle.” He said it may be fully realized between 2025 and 2030. Each country is now focusing on establishing the safety standards as like ISO 26262 to gain the initiatives.

Concerning the connected car, he mentioned the most important issue was security. Kim also added that a growing autonomous vehicle industry will need more semiconductors but the market share likely will remain under 10 percent of the entire semiconductor market.

Ji-won-Korea article Photo 2

Dongkyeong Kim, head of R&D center at Future Robot, wrapped up the day with a presentation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Robots in the semiconductor industry. Kim stated that development of semiconductor technology has driven the Big Data and AI eras and it will increasingly result in strong demand for semiconductors. According to Kim, globally the robot industry has invested 1.8 billion USD and 50 percent of the amount was invested by China in 2015.

The attendees were interested in the topics and an ongoing dialogue took place during the Q&A after each presentation. In the survey, more than 92 percent of attendees responded that they were satisfied. The attendees recommended additional topics for next year’s program, including equipment and materials outlook, advanced packaging market outlook, and technology roadmap.

Jin Soo Ko, VP of Teradyne said, “SEMI Members Day was the best in terms of agenda and contents since I attended from 2007. I am very satisfied with all programs and networking opportunities provided by SEMI.”

Hyun-Dae Cho, president of SEMI Korea, said, “The SEMI Korea Members Day connects our members to peers and industry executives and gives first-hand information on the trends and technology in the industry. I hope SEMI members enjoyed the opportunities through this annual event.”

For information on becoming a SEMI member, visit www.semi.org/en/Membership.

Researchers at the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have demonstrated graphene coating protects glass from corrosion. Their research, published in ACS Nano, can contribute to solving problems related to glass corrosion in several industries. Glass has a high degree of both corrosion and chemical resistance. For this reason it is the primary packaging material to preserve medicines and chemicals. However, over time at high humidity and pH, some glass types corrode. Corroded glass loses its transparency and its strength is reduced. As a result, the corrosion of silicate glass, the most common and oldest form of glass, by water is a serious problem especially for the pharmaceutical, environmental and optical industries, and in particular in hot and humid climates.

Although there are different types of glass, ordinary glazing and containers are made of silicon dioxide (SiO2), sodium oxide (Na2O) along with minor additives. Glass corrosion begins with the adsorption of water on the glass surface. Hydrogen ions from water then diffuse into the glass and exchange with the sodium ions present on the glass surface. The pH of the water near the glass surface increases, allowing the silicate structure to dissolve.

Scientists have been looking at how to coat glass to protect it from damage. An ideal protective coating should be thin, transparent, and provide a good diffusion barrier to chemical attack. Graphene with its chemical inertness, thinness, and high transparency makes it very promising as a coating material. Moreover, owing to its excellent chemical barrier properties it blocks helium atoms from penetrating through it. The use of graphene coating is being explored as a protective layer for other materials requiring resistance to corrosion, oxidation, friction, bacterial infection, electromagnetic radiation, etc.

IBS scientists grew graphene on copper using a technique previously invented by Prof. Rodney S. Ruoff and collaborators, and transferred either one or two atom-thick layers of graphene onto both sides of rectangular pieces of glass. The effectiveness of the graphene coating was evaluated by water immersion testing and observing the differences between uncoated and coated glass. After 120 days of immersion in water at 60°C, uncoated glass samples had significantly increased in surface roughness and defects, and reduced in fracture strength. In contrast, both the single and double layer graphene-coated glasses had essentially no change in both fracture strength and surface roughness.

“The purpose of the study was to determine whether graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition on copper foils, a now established method, could be transferred onto glass, and protect the glass from corrosion. Our study shows that even one atom-thick layer of graphene does the trick,” explains Prof. Ruoff, director of the CMCM and Professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). “In the future, when it is possible to produce larger and yet higher-quality graphene sheets and to optimize the transfer on glass, it seems reasonably likely that graphene coating on glass will be used on an industrial scale.”

Less than a micrometre thin, bendable and giving all the colours that a regular LED display does, it still needs ten times less energy than a Kindle tablet. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed the basis for a new electronic “paper”. Their results were recently published in the high impact journal Advanced Materials.

Chalmers' e-paper contains gold, silver and PET plastic. The layer that produces the colours is less than a micrometre thin. Credit: Mats Tiborn

Chalmers’ e-paper contains gold, silver and PET plastic. The layer that produces the colours is less than a micrometre thin. Credit: Mats Tiborn

When Chalmers researcher Andreas Dahlin and his PhD student Kunli Xiong were working on placing conductive polymers on nanostructures, they discovered that the combination would be perfectly suited to creating electronic displays as thin as paper. A year later the results were ready for publication. A material that is less than a micrometre thin, flexible and giving all the colours that a standard LED display does.

“The ‘paper’ is similar to the Kindle tablet”, says Andreas Dahlin. “It isn’t lit up like a standard display, but rather reflects the external light which illuminates it. Therefore it works very well where there is bright light, such as out in the sun, in contrast to standard LED displays that work best in darkness. At the same time it needs only a tenth of the energy that a Kindle tablet uses, which itself uses much less energy than a tablet LED display”.

It all depends on the polymers’ ability to control how light is absorbed and reflected. The polymers that cover the whole surface lead the electric signals throughout the full display and create images in high resolution. The material is not yet ready for application, but the basis is there. The team has tested and built a few pixels. These use the same red, green and blue (RGB) colours that together can create all the colours in standard LED displays. The results so far have been positive, what remains now is to build pixels that cover an area as large as a display.

“We are working at a fundamental level but even so, the step to manufacturing a product out of it shouldn’t be too far away. What we need now are engineers”.

One obstacle today is that there is gold and silver in the display, which makes the manufacturing expensive.

“The gold surface is 20 nanometres thick so there is not that much gold in it”, says Andreas Dahlin. “But at present there is a lot of gold wasted in manufacturing it. Either we reduce the waste or we find another way to decrease the manufacturing cost”.

Andreas Dahlin thinks the best application for the displays will be well-lit places such as outside or in public places to display information. This could reduce the energy consumption and at the same time replace signs and information screens that aren’t currently electronic today with more flexible ones.

SEMICON Europa 2016, opening in less than two weeks in Grenoble, will explore the issues facing Europe’s semiconductor and electronics industries, including processes, materials, equipment and supply chain. SEMICON Europa (October 25-27) is a leading exhibition and conference dedicated to the future of electronics in Europe.

As semiconductor manufacturers target new high-growth European strength areas, SEMICON Europa connects the European ecosystem and the global manufacturing supply chain by offering new business opportunities like advanced packaging, MEMS, imaging, power electronics, flexible hybrid electronics, automotive, smart manufacturing, medtech and addressing the demands of the IoT.

Executive keynotes include:

  • GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden: “FDX and FinFET: Differentiated Technologies for Diverging Markets” presented by Dr. Rutger Wijburg, senior VP and GM
  • Intel Israel: “How Technology and Equipment March Forward Hand-in-Hand” presented by Maxine Fassberg, CEO
  • CEA-Leti: “European Chance in Industry and Technologies” presented by Marie-Noëlle Semeria, CEO

In addition, companies such as Infineon, STMicroelectronics, ABB, ASML, Applied Materials, SOITEC, imec and Fraunhofer, and hundreds more, will present the latest trends, technologies, processes and techniques in electronic applications, design and manufacturing.

This year for the first time, Iot Planet will co-locate with SEMICON Europa. The combined shows are expected to attract 7,000 professionals and more than 600 visiting companies, giving attendees the opportunity to conduct business up and down the supply chain.  New programs, like the B2B Matchmaking Event 2016, offer visitors and exhibitors an opportunity to prearrange appointments.

SEMICON Europa is co-located with 2016FLEX Europe which covers the field of large-scale electronics, with emphasis on printed, flexible and organic electronics and its convergence with conventional semiconductor manufacturing.

Register now and take advantage of our early pricing for conferences, forums, and select sessions. To register for SEMICON Europa 2016, please visit: www.semiconeuropa.org

Flat-panel display (FPD) equipment sales are expected to attain their highest sustained three-year level in the history of the industry. FPD equipment spending will rise 89 percent, hitting $12.9 billion in 2016. Increased spending levels will continue, reaching $13 billion in 2017, then declining slightly to $11.8 billion in 2018, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

fpd equipment

“Investments in new FPD factories had been trending upwards for the past several years as Chinese panel makers continue to relentlessly build new FPD factories to make the country the largest FPD producing region in the world,” said Charles Annis, senior director at IHS Markit. “In fact, China will surpass long-dominant South Korea in capacity share by the second quarter of 2017.”

According to the IHS Markit Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker, in addition to the substantial number of sixth-generation (Gen 6) and Gen 8 factories (fabs) being built in China, the two largest panel makers in the country, BOE and China Star, are rushing to construct Gen 10.5 fabs that process enormous glass substrates, targeting efficient production of 65-inch and 75-inch panels. FPD makers in South Korea and Japan have now started ceding the LCD market to producers of lower-cost displays in China. They are also starting to shutter their large-area LCD factories, to focus on active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panel production, where they still have a technology edge. Declining capacity in other regions is now balancing supply and demand, which is further encouraging Chinese makers to press their advantage and build even more factories. China will account for sixty-five percent of all FPD equipment spending, on average, between 2016 and 2018.

The FPD industry is in the midst of an unprecedented and rapid display technology shift from LCD to AMOLED for mobile applications. Samsung Display has led this change to-date with the success of its own AMOLED displays for Galaxy-based products and expansion of AMOLED panel sales to other smartphone makers looking to differentiate their products with high-end displays. Panel makers in South Korea and Japan are rushing to build new AMOLED fabs, so as not to miss out on the market shift. Chinese makers, backed by joint ventures with regional governments, are also building a large number of AMOLED factories, because they view AMOLED as a potential opportunity to upgrade from trailing-edge to leading-edge display manufacturing.

“Not only are there an extraordinary number of new FPD factories under construction, but many of the new factories are also some of the most expensive ever built,” Annis said. “Of course, the Gen 10.5 factories have much more capacity, but the capital costs are more than twice that of typical Gen 8 factories, due to the size of machines and unique facility requirements.”

Almost all of the new AMOLED factories plan to produce flexible, plastic-based displays. Most of these new factories are adopting highly complicated, high-mask-count LTPS-TFT processes that require more high-resolution exposure lines and other supporting equipment. The new flexible AMOLED lines now under construction are almost 50 percent more expensive than the rigid AMOLED factories constructed only a few years ago.

“FPD equipment makers are scrambling to ramp-up capacity to meet customer demand and take advantage of the best sales opportunity ever,” Annis said. “Even so, equipment companies know how cyclical the market is, so they need to manage the additional capacity and staff they are now putting in place, when the market eventually starts to slow down.”

The IHS Markit Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker covers metrics used to evaluate supply, demand and capital spending for all major FPD technologies and applications.

Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm) today announced that it has leased a former Qualcomm-owned manufacturing facility in Silicon Valley and will relocate its current US headquarters and NFC Innovation Center in the first quarter of 2017.

The new location will house Thinfilm’s new high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing line. Roll-based production will increase Thinfilm’s front-end production capacity to five billion NFC OpenSense and NFC SpeedTap tags per year – the equivalent of up to $680 million in annual revenue. Thinfilm intends to begin ordering line-related equipment immediately.

In the near term, the facility upgrade enables Thinfilm to scale existing sheet-based manufacturing of its NFC (Near Field Communication), EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance), and Sensor Label products. Roll-to-roll production is expected to be operational for EAS by year-end 2017 and for transistor-based products in 2018.

The building, located at 2581 Junction Avenue in San Jose, California, was formerly an operational display fab run by Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc., and was in production until the Spring of 2016. More than $80 million has been invested previously in the 93,000 square-foot facility, which sits on 5.4 acres and features a 22,000+ square foot, Class 10-10,000 cleanroom.

“We’re very excited about the new facility and the role we see it playing in scaling Thinfilm’s manufacturing capabilities, particularly for SpeedTap and OpenSense. Given the growing market demand for NFC smart packaging, it was vital that we secure a facility that enables us to ramp capacity to ultra-high volumes through roll-to-roll production,” said Davor Sutija, Thinfilm’s CEO. “Thinfilm’s NFC smart labels allow brands to address authentication and anti-tampering needs while empowering them to engage with consumers through the simple tap of an Android smartphone. As the digital marketing arena becomes more fragmented, brands see NFC as a way to eliminate intermediaries and connect directly with their customers.”

Thinfilm will immediately start working on tenant improvements within the office-space portions of the facility, and will begin equipment installation by year-end. Occupancy of the new facility is expected in March 2017.

“Advanced technology, infrastructure-rich buildings such as 2581 Junction Avenue come on the market very infrequently. It really is an excellent property,” said Brad Howe, co-CEO of Lowe Enterprises Investors. Lowe Enterprises Investors and its joint venture partner, Vista Investment Group, purchased the property and subsequently leased it to Thinfilm. “The property appears to be an ideal fit for Thinfilm’s operational and strategic needs, and should serve them well for many years to come.”

Thin Film Electronics ASA is a publicly listed Norwegian company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway; product development and production in Linköping, Sweden; product development, production, and business development in San Jose, California, USA; and sales offices in the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Due to increasing capacity from China, South Korean LCD panel makers are quickly realizing that LCD displays profitability may eventually erode, due to growing capacity and price competition from China, so they are betting their future on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. Because of lower profit margins and slowing market growth, the IT display category has become the first product line that LCD display manufacturers are quitting, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Samsung Display was the first company to do so, selling a fifth generation (Gen 5) fabrication plant (fab) to a Chinese touch and module maker last year. In the future, more fab restructuring is expected, especially the facilities dedicated to making IT panels. 

“Brands like HP and Lenovo expected notebook panels to be in a surplus situation, and they were therefore keeping their panel inventories at very low levels,” said Jason Hsu, senior principal analyst, IHS Markit. “This shift from Samsung Display could cause some brands to experience panel shortages in the third quarter of 2016.”

BOE to possibly double its panel shipments this year

Samsung Display delivered 30 million notebook panels in 2015, according to the latest information from the IHS Markit Tablet and Notebook Display Market Tracker. With the company’s latest fab reorganization plan, notebook PC LCD panel shipments could fall to 12 million units in 2016 and to 4 million in 2017. There will be an 18 million-unit gap this year, which means brands might not be able to find other sources to keep up with production needs.

When reviewing the supply chain mix in the first quarter of 2016, it is clear that HP has been affected by these changes more than other companies, with shipments from Samsung Display down from 1.1 million units in first quarter to 350,000 units in the second quarter. However, HP has shifted its orders to other panel makers to secure enough panels for its production needs, for example, Innolux.

BOE is another panel maker benefitting from the exit of Samsung Display from this market. Panel shipments from BOE increased from 4.9 million units in the first quarter to 7.2 million in the second quarter. BOE is expected to grow its notebook business to more than 36 million units in 2017. BOE first began to supply panels for notebooks in 2009, and it has now become one of the largest IT panel suppliers. Furthermore, BOE has a Gen8 fab in Chongqing, China — near the world’s largest notebook production base. In fact, notebook panel shipments from the Chongqing fab are expected to grow quickly next year, thanks to the more efficient logistics.

Chinese and Taiwanese makers to increase unit shipments of premium panels 

LG Display and Samsung Display used to supply Apple with notebook panels; however, the fab re-organization — especially the reallocation of oxide capacity — has increased Apple’s concerns about a potential panel shortage and possible low yields. For this reason, Apple is expected to add another panel supplier for its new MacBook Pro, to diversify the risk from Samsung Display business changes. For its legacy MacBook Air line of notebook PCs, Apple is considering diversifying its supply chain to Chinese makers, which is the first time Apple will use LCD panels from China.

Samsung Display’s exit from the LCD display business has also affected the supply of wide-view-angle in-plane switching (IPS) and plane-to-line switching (PLS) displays. Samsung Display has been one of the major suppliers to offer wide-view-angle panels, and its shipment volume is second only to LG Display.

In order to source IPS and PLS panels, brands must find other sources to replace Samsung Display, after the company begins to reduce production. AUO is one of the qualified candidates, and apparently it is receiving more orders from notebook PC brands. AUO, Innolux and other Taiwanese manufacturers and BOE and other Chinese suppliers are all expanding IPS panels to respond to increasing panel requirements.