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Photolithography of organic semiconductors is an emerging technology that can enable high resolution OLED displays.

BY PAWEL MALINOWSKI and TUNGHUEI KE, imec, Leuven, Belgium

Modern society has grown accustomed to an overflow of visual information, with displays in the center of most user interfaces. The pace of introducing new technologies and of reducing cost of manufacturing has been impressive and does not seem to slow down. The most prominent examples are OLED displays (based on organic light emitting diodes), evolving from a curiosity only some years ago to a technology that is dominating the market position today. 2017 has seen major increase in both shipments (more than 400 million units) and revenue (around $25 billion) for AMOLED display panels (according to UBI Research and DSCC).

From the very beginning of OLED history, it was crucial to find a way to maintain efficient emission in stacks composed of very fragile materials. As most of the materials used in an OLED structure are highly sensitive to a lot of elements (e.g., air, moisture, solvents, temper- ature, radiation), protecting the device has always been crucial, both during fabrication and during operation. This has evolved into several research tracks. Firstly, great effort by material companies to synthesize new molecules and polymers resulted in many OLED families, both for thermal evaporation and solution processing. Secondly, equipment advances made it possible to uniformly deposit stacks on large substrates with indus- trial takt time. Thirdly, different encapsulations were developed to protect the OLED stack during usage to ensure enough lifetime for consumer applications. All of the above required years of research and significant investments, which makes it challenging to introduce new OLED manufacturing techniques and change the existing process flows.

At the same time, current manufacturing methods have their limitations. Two main approaches are color-by- white (WOLED) and side-by-side red-green-blue (RGB OLED), differing by the way that the colors are realized in subpixels (FIGURE 1). In WOLED, the light source is a continuous layer of a broadband (white) OLED emitter and the three basic colors are selected by passing the light through color filters (CF). The advantage is that the pixel density is limited only by the backplane resolution and the CF resolution, which is why this is the main concept used for OLED microdisplays with CMOS circuitry. The disad- vantage is that significant portion of the light is lost due to CF absorption, which impacts the display power efficiency. In RGB OLED, each subpixel is a different material stack, so each subpixel is a separate light emitter. This is typically realized by depositing each stack by thermal evaporation through a fine metal mask (FMM) and is used for most smartphone OLED displays. The advantage is that each color is optimized, so the display efficiency is much higher. At the same time, it is difficult to scale the FMM technique both in substrate size (masks tend to bend under their own weight, so the motherglass has to be cut for OLED deposition) and in resolution (standard masks are not suitable for resolutions above several hundred ppi and the cross-fading area limits the aperture ratio).

An alternative way to realize side-by-side RGB pixels is to use photolithography techniques known very well from the semiconductor industry (and used in displays for the TFT backplane fabrication). In such case, after depositing a blanket OLED stack, photoresists could be used to transfer the pattern and remove the unnec- essary material by etching (FIGURE 2). The challenge here is, again, susceptibility of OLED materials to solvents – using standard (semiconductor) photo- resist chemistry results in dissolution/removal of the stack. Still, the gains are definitely worth the extra effort, as litho can provide both very high pixel density (submicron pixel pitch) and, at the same time, very high aperture ratio (emitting area maximized thanks to minimizing pixel spacing). Over the years, some new approaches for photolithography have been proposed. One way, followed by Orthogonal Inc, is to use fluorinated materials which should not have any chemical interaction with the organic stacks (thus, orthogonal to OLED). The other approach, followed by imec together with Fujifilm, is to pattern organic stacks using a non-fluorinated, chemically amplified photoresist system.

For imec, R&D hub with long traditions of devel- oping new photolithography nodes, organic photolithography is a way to address the challenges of next- generation high resolution displays. In virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) applications, the display is very near to the eye of the user. This results in very aggressive requirements in terms of pixel density in order to avoid annoying “pixilation.” The same goes for required minimum pixel spacing, to avoid “screen door effect”. With photolithography, these two challenges can be addressed simultaneously. The OSR photoresist system from Fujifilm can deliver lines and spaces with 1 μm pitch, which fits in the roadmap towards several thousand ppi resolution for the OLED frontplane. We have realized a dot pattern transfer to OLED emission layer with 3 μm pitch, which corresponds to 8400 ppi resolution in a monochrome array. After stripping off the photoresist, the EML remains on the substrate, as verified by photolumines- cence (FIGURE 3).

On the device level, we have fabricated OLED arrays with 10 μm pixel pitch (FIGURE 4), corresponding to 2500 ppi. In this case, an important parameter is the alignment accuracy, which defines how much of the total display area can be used for emission. Another limitation is the resolution of the PDL (pixel definition layer), a dielectric layer separating the OLED stack from the bottom contact level. The resolution of this layer limits the maximum opening that can be achieved, which translates to the aperture ratio of the pixel – or the percentage of the area that is used for OLED emission. In this example, the “photo- luminescence aperture ratio”, or the relation of the OLED island to the pixel area is around 50%, which is enabled by small spacing (<3 μm). However, the “electroluminescence aperture ratio”, of the relation of the area emitting light, is 25% because of the PDL area and the necessary overlap of the OLED island. Assuming minimum line spacing of 1 μm, one can envision PL ratio of 81% (9 x 9 μm) and EL ratio of 64% (8 x 8 μm) for a subpixel of 10 x 10 μm. With such scaling, the usable area of the array can be enlarged, which results in longer device lifetime (since we can reduce the driving current density) and in reduction or elimi- nation of the screen-door effects.

Obviously, interrupting the optimum deposition process in ultra-high vacuum and exposing the OLED stack to photolithography materials has an impact on the device performance. Just breaking the vacuum results in a hit on lifetime performance. Additionally, our initial process flow includes exposure of the stack to ambient atmosphere (air and humidity), as we have been using standard cleanroom equipment. In the beginning, such “worst case scenario” resulted in proof-of-concept of emitting OLEDs after patterning, but, unsurprisingly, with device lifetime of only few minutes. In the course of the development, we have introduced improvements on three fronts. Firstly, there have been continuous upgrades of the photoresist system to make it more compatible with the organic stack. Secondly, the process flow has been optimized to reduce the impact of process parameters on device performance. Thirdly, the OLED stacks have been tuned for robustness, for example by introducing additional protection layers for the most critical interfaces. All these actions resulted in device lifetimes of several hundred hours at 1000 nit luminance. As the lifetime is the major concern when it comes to the readiness of this technology, this is an ongoing effort to bring all the parameters to a level acceptable by the industry.

In parallel to performance improvement, we have been developing a route for patterning of multicolor arrays with photolithography. The main challenge in this case is to protect the previous “color” (OLED stack) while patterning the next one. Once this condition is satisfied, side-by-side arrays with several stacks can be realized – and, this is not limited to light emitters. Next to red-green-blue OLEDs, for example an organic photo- detector subpixel could be fabricated to add functionality to the display. In terms of manufacturing, each “color” of the frontplane would be fabricated in a similar way as it is done for each layer of the backplane.

In our recent work, we fabricated a 2-color passive OLED display and this prototype was demonstrated at the Touch Taiwan 2017 exhibition (FIGURE 5). The 1400 x 1400 pixel array has a subpixel pitch of 10 μm, resulting in a resolution of 1250 ppi. The stacks are phosphorescent red and green small molecule OLEDs, deposited by thermal evaporation. The display is designed for top emission and uses glass encapsulation. Thanks to the separate driving of two groups of subpixels, the two colors can be displayed independently. The prototype has been in operation for tens of hours with all pixels turned on, with no visible degradation. This indicates that the process flow for multicolor patterning proves basic functionality and already ensures stability for reasonable working time. A similar frontplane can be integrated with a TFT or CMOS backplane, enabling then video mode of operation, with individual driving of each subpixel. In a separate demonstration, we have also verified that the fabrication process is compatible with a FPD backplane process using IGZO TFT and flexible substrate.

Taking everything into account, photolithography of organic semiconductors is an emerging technology that can enable high resolution OLED displays. Many technology milestones have been already cleared – we know that we can achieve patterns of few microns, realize side-by-side multicolor pixels, integrate the pixelated frontplane on different backplanes, and get encouraging efficiency and lifetime performance. Currently, optimization of OLED performance after patterning is still the top priority. At the same time, we are addressing the complete integration flow and manufacturability aspects. To have this technology fully incorporated in a fab process flow, material and equipment developments are required. Still, the prospect of ultra-high resolution with simultaneous high aperture ratio in a process flow based on standard semiconductor techniques remains very attractive and justifies going the extra mile to tackle the pending engineering challenges.

Despite the low seasonality factor and brands turning their focus away from volume growth, the demand for large display panels showed better-than-expected results in the first quarter of 2018, albeit still weak, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

First quarter of each year is typically a slow season for the display market as set brands try to clear out carried inventories before they launch new models in a new year. In addition, particularly this year, top-tier brands were expected to stop focusing on volume growth, which lowered market expectation on the panel demand.

However, shipments of large display panels posted better-than-expected results in the first quarter of 2018, according to Large Area Display Market Tracker by IHS Markit. Compared to a year ago, shipments of large displays — larger than 9 inches — increased by 6 percent in unit and by 10 percent in area.

LG Display retained its lead in the large display panel market in terms of area shipments with a stake of 22 percent, followed by Samsung Display with 17 percent, while, in terms of unit shipments, BOE led the market with a 22 percent share.

“In area shipments, South Korean panel makers keep their leading position in the large display market as they are strong in the TV display market,” said Robin Wu, principal analyst at IHS Markit.

Shipments of TV displays increased by 12 percent in unit and by 11 percent in area in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a year ago, leading to the better-than-expected trend. In particular, unit shipments of 55-inch and larger TV panels jumped 20 percent year on year in the first quarter. 4K TV display unit shipment also increased by 19 percent during the same period to 24.6 million units, and OLED TV display shipments reached some 600,000 units with 110 percent year-on-year growth.

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“Increases in large display panel production capacity, particularly in China, helped the year-on-year shipment growth, which was somewhat expected,” Wu said. “But, if you look at the shipment growth in a quarter-on-quarter term, it is quite interesting.”

For the past three years from 2015 to 2017, on average, unit shipments of large display declined 10 percent in the first quarters compared to the previous quarter, and area shipments were down 8 percent.

“This year also shows declines in the first quarter with a 4 percent drop in unit shipments and 7 percent down in area shipments, but the contraction is narrower than the previous years,” Wu said. “This indicates the shipment trend in first quarter 2018 was better than expected.”

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Wu noted, however, that shipments dropped 10 percent in value due to continued erosion in panel price, which began in mid- 2017.

“The major concerns to the panel makers is how to achieve a turnaround in panel prices and when,” Wu said. “Trends in TV display panels that are shifting to larger sizes and heading to higher-end products can be the key to overcome the challenge.”Wu noted, however, that shipments dropped 10 percent in value due to continued erosion in panel price, which began in mid- 2017.

The Large Area Display Market Tracker by IHS Markit provides information about the entire range of large display panels shipped worldwide and regionally, including monthly and quarterly revenues and shipments by display area, application, size and aspect ratio for each supplier.

With demand growing for active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) TV panels, shipments of overall AMOLED panels by area is forecast to more than quadruple to 22.4 million square meters by 2024 from 5.0 million square meters in 2017, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Shipments of AMOLED TV panels had doubled to 1.6 million square meters in 2017 from about 800,000 square meters in 2016, resulting in total AMOLED panel shipments to grow more than 30 percent to 5.0 million square meters in 2017 from 3.8 million square meters in 2016. Share of TV panels in the total AMOLED panel shipments increased to 32 percent from 21 percent in 2016.

“Demand growth in AMOLED TV panels has accelerated since 2016 due to the increasing demand for wide color gamut TV,” said Jerry Kang, senior principal analyst of display research at IHS Markit. “Most TV brands have been promoting AMOLED TV as their super premium product, which has differentiated optical performance from LCD TV.”

While 10 global TV brands shipped OLED TVs in 2017, 15 are planning to launch them in 2018. TV brands are trying to expand share of OLED TVs in their portfolio to rebound their total TV revenues.

“In terms of unit shipments, the TV market has seen declines for three consecutive years since 2015,” Kang said. “Now, major TV brands are prioritizing their focus on revenues rather than just the growth in unit shipments, with the added value that AMOLED TV offering higher-resolution and wide color-gamut display.”

According to the AMOLED & Flexible Display Intelligence Service by IHS Markit, shipments of AMOLED TV panels will reach 12.5 million units by 2024. “Many panel makers are trying to develop various technology to manufacture OLED TV panels — not only with white OLED but also with ink-jet process or quantum-dot materials,” Kang said.

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The AMOLED & Flexible Display Intelligence Service covers the latest market trend and forecast of AMOLED display industries (including shadow mask and  polyimide substrate), technology and capacity analysis, and panel suppliers’ business strategies by region.

Demand for panels – both thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) and active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) – using oxide backplane technology doubled in 2017, in terms of area, compared to a year ago, according to a latest report from business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). The market is forecast to grow 30 percent in 2018 to 5.3 billion square meters from 2017.

Oxide backplane technology offers the benefit of higher resolution while consuming lower power, which are better suited to IT consumer products that require high mobility. With Apple’s increasing adoption of oxide TFT LCD panels for its tablet and notebook products in 2017, the demand surged 98 percent in 2017 year on year. Area demand for OLED TV panels using the oxide backplane technology also increased by 106 percent during the same period, according to the latest Display long term demand forecast tracker by IHS Markit.

“Demand for oxide panels will continue to grow in 2018 as demand particularly for OLED TV, with 55 inch or larger screens, increases,” said Linda Lin, principal analyst of display research at IHS Markit. “Increasing demand from IT products and rising penetration of OLED panels to major applications will help growing demand for LCD and OLED panels using oxide backplane technology in 2018, respectively.”

04.18.18_Oxide_backplane_demand_in_OLED_and_LCD

Panels using oxide backplane technology are mainly supplied by Sharp and LG Display. While Sharp is focusing on the oxide backplane for TFT LCD for IT applications, LG Display is more targeting the oxide backplane for OLED panels for TVs. Both are planning to expand their oxide capacity in 2018.

Sharp’s Gen 6 fab in Kameyama, Japan, is solely dedicated to producing low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) panels. To grab more orders for the Apple iPad, the company is going to change 40 percent of its LTPS capacity to oxide at the end of 2018.

Its Gen 8 fab in Kameyama is also planning to gradually increase the oxide capacity beginning the first quarter of 2018, from 50 percent of its all capacity in the last quarter of 2017 to 75 percent by the end of 2018. On the other hand, oxide panel price would be a key point to increase Oxide panel’s market share and decide that Sharp can enlarge Oxide capacity continuously or not in the future.

LG Display also plans to increase oxide panel capacity to prepare for the OLED TV panel business in future. Its Gen 8.5 OLED fab in Guangzhou, China, plans to start mass production of oxide backplane using OLED panels in the second half of 2019, with a capacity of 60,000 units per month. In Paju of South Korea, the company is also working to build Gen 10.5 fabs for both a-Si and oxide backplane panels.

Flexible televisions, tablets and phones as well as ‘truly wearable’ smart tech are a step closer thanks to a nanoscale transistor created by researchers at The University of Manchester and Shandong University in China.

The international team has developed an ultrafast, nanoscale transistor – known as a thin film transistor, or TFT, – made out of an oxide semiconductor. The TFT is the first oxide-semiconductor based transistor that is capable of operating at a benchmark speed of 1 GHz. This could make the next generation electronic gadgets even faster, brighter and more flexible than ever before.

A TFT is a type of transistor usually used in a liquid crystal display (LCD). These can be found in most modern gadgets with LCD screens such as smart phones, tablets and high-definition televisions.

How do they work? LCD features a TFT behind each individual pixel and they act as individual switches that allow the pixels to change state rapidly, making them turn on and off much more quickly.

But most current TFTs are silicon-based which are opaque, rigid and expensive in comparison to the oxide semiconductor family of transistors which the team from the UK and China are developing. Whilst oxide TFTs will improve picture on LCD displays, it is their flexibility that is even more impressive.

Aimin Song, Professor of Nanoelectronics in the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, explains: “TVs can already be made extremely thin and bright. Our work may help make TV more mechanically flexible and even cheaper to produce.

“But, perhaps even more importantly, our GHz transistors may enable medium or even high performance flexible electronic circuits, such as truly wearable electronics. Wearable electronics requires flexibility and in many cases transparency, too. This would be the perfect application for our research.

“Plus, there is a trend in developing smart homes, smart hospitals and smart cities – in all of which oxide semiconductor TFTs will play a key role.”

Oxide-based technology has seen rapid development when compared to its silicon counterpart which is increasingly close to some fundamental limitations. Prof Song says there has been fast progress in oxide-semiconductors in recent years and extensive efforts have been made in order to improve the speed of oxide-semiconductor-based TFTs.

So much so some oxide-based technology has already started replacing amorphous silicon in some gadgets. Prof Song thinks these latest developments have brought commercialisation much closer.

He added: “To commercialise oxide-based electronics there is still a range of research and development that has to be carried out on materials, lithography, device design, testing, and last but not the least, large-area manufacturing. It took many decades for silicon technology to get this far, and oxides are progressing at a much faster pace.

“Making a high performance device, like our GHz IGZO transistor, is challenging because not only do materials need to be optimised, a range of issues regarding device design, fabrication and tests also have to be investigated. In 2015, we were able to demonstrate the fastest flexible diodes using oxide semiconductors, reaching 6.3 GHz, and it is still the world record to date. So we’re confident in oxide-semiconductor based technologies. ”

 

Although flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panel shipments for smartphones are expected to continue growing in 2018, the pace will be much slower than expected, according to a latest report from business information provider IHS Markit(Nasdaq: INFO).

With the adoption by Apple’s iPhone X, shipments of film-based, flexible AMOLED panels for smartphones more than tripled in 2017 to 125 million units from 40 million units in 2016, and it was expected to see continued strong growth in 2018. However, sales of the iPhone X have not met market expectations, mainly because of the $1,000-plus price tag, which is partially attributed by a more pricey display panel.

“The weak demand for the iPhone X has made smartphone brands revisit their AMOLED panel purchasing plans,” said Hiroshi Hayase, senior director at IHS Markit. Now, flexible AMOLED panel shipments for smartphones are expected to reach 167 million units in 2018, up 34 percent from 2017, much slower than the expected almost double growth.

Apple seems to reexamine the percentage of its iPhone models using AMOLED panels and those using low-temperature-poly-silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) panels for 2018. Major Chinese smartphone brands, such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, also appear to continue applying LTPS TFT LCD panels instead of switching to AMOLED for their 2018 models, while Samsung Electronics plans to keep using flexible AMOLED panels for the Galaxy S9 this year.

As a result, demand for AMOLED smartphone panels by switching from TFT LCD panels is expected to slow down. According to the latest Smartphone Display Intelligent Service report by IHS Markit, shipments of total AMOLED panel shipments for smartphones are forecast to grow 14 percent to 453 million units in 2018, from 397 million units in 2017. Glass-based, rigid AMOLED panel shipments are expected to grow at a single digit pace to 285 million units in 2018.

On the other hand, as demand for high-resolution smartphone displays is increasing in the mid-to-high-end smartphone market, demand for LTPS TFT LCD panels is forecast to keep growing in 2018 to 785 million units, up 19 percent from 656 million units in 2017. Shipments of LTPS TFT LCD panels are expected to grow stronger than AMOLED panels in the mid-high-end smartphone panel market in 2018.

Shipments of amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT LCD panels used for low-end smartphones and feature phones are forecast to reach 807 million units in 2018, down 16 percent form 965 million units in 2017, offsetting the growth in AMOLED and LTPS TFT LCD panel demand.

Total shipments of mobile phone displays, including both TFT LCD and AMOLED panels, are forecast to increase by 1 percent to 2.02 billion units in 2018 compared to the previous year.

“As AMOLED panels allow more options in terms of form factors, demand for AMOLED for smartphones will continue to grow. However, it will start to outpace LTPS TFT LCD only after 2020,” Hayase said. “In order to compete with LTPS TFT LCD, production cost of both rigid and flexible AMOLED panels still need to be slashed, to close the price gap with LTPS TFT LCD.”

 If we did not know before, now we are all aware: microLEDs for display applications is a very hot topic and Apple is strongly commited to the development of its own technology. Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (1) and now Bloomberg, the high tech planet is revolving around microLED technologies. Indeed, last week, the financial news media giant published an article highlighting microLED which generated substantial interest and debate from Wall Street . According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg (2), despite some ups and downs since it acquired the microLED start up Luxvue in 2014, Apple is still committed to the technology and hoping to begin mass production within the next few years.

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The recent report, “MicroLED Displays: Intellectual Property Landscape” released by Yole Développement (Yole) and its partner, Knowmade beginning of 2018, confirms substantial microLED IP development has been underway at Apple. In this patent landscape analysis, Apple ranks first in term of the size, strength and depth of its portfolio with more than 60 patent families.

“Apple has been working on IP development to master all key elements of a new microLED display technology”, asserts Dr. Eric Virey, Technology & Market Analyst from Yole. And he adds “If successful, the expectation is that they will rapidly move on to establish a supply chain, possibly handling some aspects of design and manufacturing internally”

Apple’s portfolio covers many thrust areas and shows a strong commitment to tackle all the major technology bottlenecks that have so far prevented the technology from reaching the market.
The bulk of the development effort, however, is focused on transfer, assembly and interconnects, with more than 40 patents. The emphasis is on the company’s MEMS-based microchip transfer technology that was at the core of Luxvue effort.

Other key patents cover multiple aspects of microLED technologies such as improving the efficiency of microLED chips, another challenge that has been vexing companies trying to leverage the large efficiency gains that microLED display could offers. Color conversion, light management, pixel and display architectures, testing, and integration of sensors are other key aspects which Apple is addressing in its portfolio.

“A detailed analysis of Apple’s portfolio is a good indication of its technology advancement”, explains Dr. Nicolas Baron, CEO & Founder of Knowmade, partner of Yole.“Because of its strong and broad patent portfolio, Apple is showing a clear positioning in this domain and announces its strategy to become a leader in this up and coming industry”.

However, it’s not enough to guaranty exclusivity and full freedom of exploitation.. While the bulk of the microLED display research effort started around 2010, digging deeper into the global microLED IP landscape reveals some important patents filed by companies like Sony, Sharp and various research organizations all the way back to the early 2000’s.

Enabling microLED displays requires bringing together three major levels of expertise: LED, transistor backplanes (glass or Si-CMOS based) and chip transfer. The supply chain is complex and lengthy compared to that of traditional displays. Each process is critical and managing every aspect effectively will be challenging. No one company appears today positioned to execute across these multiple technologies and be able to vertically integrate all of the components. Today the IP landscape reflects those challenges through the variety of players involved. Only a few companies including Apple, have a broad microLED IP portfolio, but enough have patents on key technology bricks to predict that complex licensing and legal battles will arise if and when microLED displays enter volume manufacturing.

MicroLED technology could be the holy grail of display companies. Therefore, it could represent an opportunity to strongly differentiate from the crowded LCD and soon-to-be-crowded OLED display industries. Recent investments by Facebook, Sharp/Foxconn, Google, Intel and Samsung confirm the growing interest and point toward a challenging but exciting future for microLEDs.

“It remains to be seen who will be first to market”, asks Dr. Eric Virey from Yole. “With more than 120 companies involved and the efforts accelerating at all major companies, there is no doubt that the buzz will keep increasing and the industry landscape evolve at an accelerating pace.”

Yole Group of Companies including Yole and Knowmade keeps its fingers on the pulse of this promising technology. The full article is available on i-micronews.com.
And the Group will keep delivering up to date analysis. Dr Virey and Pars Mukish from Yole is also part of the key microLEDs conferences all year long. Next presentations will take place during the following conferences:

CS International Conference (April 10-11, Brussels, Belgium)
• “Revolutionising displays with MicroLEDs” on April 11 at 9:20AM
Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager, Solid State Lighting & Displays

Display Week (May 21-25 – Los Angeles, CA, USA):
•  “Economic Health of the Display Supply Chain/Where Is the Growth and Profits/Best Investment Outlook”on May 21 at 8:10AM
•  “Status and Prospects of microLED Displays” on May 24 at 9:00AM
Dr. Eric Virey, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, MicroLED

The market for organic materials used to manufacture organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels jumped during the second half of 2017, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions. The market, as measured by revenue, was estimated to be $355 million in the second half of 2017, up 20 percent from the first half of the year.

According to the OLED Materials Market Tracker by IHS Markit, in 2016 and the first half of 2017, the OLED materials market seemed saturated, posting revenues at almost the same level. However, the sudden spike in growth was observed in the second half of 2017.

“The growth of OLED materials demand has been offset by price reduction, resulting in the market saturation until mid-2017.” said Jimmy Kim, Ph.D. and senior principal analyst at IHS Markit. “However, the launch of the iPhone X as well as the expansion of OLED panel manufacturing capacity boosted the demand in the second half.”

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The iPhone X, Apple’s first OLED panel-using smartphone, was launched in the third quarter of 2017 and it brought a huge additional demand for OLED materials. At the same time, LG Display has set up a new E4-2 fab for OLED TV panels.

“Apple is expected to apply OLED panels to more of its products and OLED TV is also one of the most emerging products in the TV market,” Kim said. “Considering demand growth and current investment plans regarding OLED manufacturing capacities, the OLED materials market is expected to continue to grow until 2020, reaching $824 million by the second half of 2020.

The OLED Material Market Tracker by IHS Markit includes market analysis and forecasts for organic light-emitting materials, consumption of the materials by AMOLED panel makers, and the status of organic light-emitting materials suppliers.

By Jay Chittooran, SEMI Public Policy

Following through on his 2016 campaign promise, President Trump is implementing trade policies that buck conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C. and among U.S. businesses. Stiff tariffs and the dismantling of longstanding trade agreements – cornerstones of these new actions – will ripple through the semiconductor industry with particularly damaging effect. China, a chief target of criticism from President Trump, has again found itself in the crosshairs of the administration, with trade tensions rising to a fever pitch.

The Trump Administration has long criticized China for what it considers unfair trade practices, often zeroing in on intellectual property. In August 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), charged with developing and recommending U.S trade policy to the president, launched a Section 301 investigation into whether China’s practice of forced technology transfer has discriminated against U.S. firms. As the probe continues, it is becoming increasingly clear that the United States will impose tariffs on China based on its current findings. Reports suggest that the tariffs could come soon, hitting a range of products from consumer electronics to toys. Other measures could include tightening restrictions on the trade of dual-use goods – those with both commercial and military applications – curbing Chinese investment in the United States, and imposing strict limits on the number of visas issued to Chinese citizens.

With China a major and intensifying force in the semiconductor supply chain, raising tariffs hangs like the Sword of Damocles over the U.S. and global economies. A tariff-ignited trade war with China could stifle innovation, undermine the long-term health of the semiconductor industry, and lead to unintended consequences such as higher consumer prices, lower productivity, job losses and, on a global scale, a brake on economic growth.

Other recently announced U.S. trade actions could also cloud the future for semiconductor companies. The Trump administration, based on two separate Section 232 investigations claiming that overproduction of both steel and aluminum are a threat to U.S. national security, recently levied a series of tariffs and quotas on every country except Canada and Mexico. While these tariffs have yet to take effect, the mere prospect has angered U.S. trading partners – most notably Korea, the European Union and China. Several countries have threatened retaliatory action and others have taken their case to the World Trade Organization.

Trade is oxygen to the semiconductor industry, which grew by nearly 30 percent last year and is expected to be valued at an estimated $1 trillion by 2030. Make no mistake: SEMI fully supports efforts to buttress intellectual property protections. However, the Trump administration’s unfolding trade policy could antagonize U.S. trade partners.

For its part, SEMI is weighing in with USTR on these issues, underscoring the critical importance of trade to the semiconductor industry as we educate policymakers on trade barriers to industry growth and encourage unobstructed cross-border commerce to advance semiconductors and the emerging technologies they enable. On behalf of our members, we continue our work to increase global market access and lessen the regulatory burden on global trade. If you are interested in more information on trade, or how to be involved in SEMI’s public policy program, please contact Jay Chittooran, Public Policy Manager, at [email protected].

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

The ConFab — an executive invitation-only conference now in its 14th year — brings together influential decision-makers from all parts of the semiconductor supply chain for three days of thought-provoking talks and panel discussions, networking events and select, pre-arranged breakout business meetings.

In the 2018 program, we will take a close look at the new applications driving the semiconductor industry, the technology that will be required at the device and process level to meet new demands, and the kind of strategic collaboration that will be required. It is this combination of business, technology and social interactions that make the conference so unique and so valuable. Browse this slideshow for a look at this year’s speakers, keynotes, panel discussions, and special guests.

Visit The ConFab’s website for a look at the full, three-day agenda for this year’s event.

KEYNOTE: How AI is Driving the New Semiconductor Era

Rama Divakaruni_June_2014presented by Rama Divakaruni, Advanced Process Technology Research Lead, IBM

The exciting results of AI have been fueled by the exponential growth in data, the widespread availability of increased compute power, and advances in algorithms. Continued progress in AI – now in its infancy – will require major innovation across the computing stack, dramatically affecting logic, memory, storage, and communication. Already the influence of AI is apparent at the system-level by trends such as heterogeneous processing with GPUs and accelerators, and memories with very high bandwidth connectivity to the processor. The next stages will involve elements which exploit characteristics that benefit AI workloads, such as reduced precision and in-memory computation. Further in time, analog devices that can combine memory and computation, and thus minimize the latency and energy expenditure of data movement, offer the promise of orders of magnitude power-performance improvements for AI workloads. Thus, the future of AI will depend instrumentally on advances in devices and packaging, which in turn will rely fundamentally on materials innovations.

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