LG Display has recently succeeded in improving the yield rate of OLED TV panels to a 70-80 percent level, said its senior vice president for promotion, Choi Dong-won, in a keynote speech to the IMID Display Business Forum held at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi-do on Oct. 14. It was the first time for an executive of LG Display to officially make public yield rates of the firm’s OLED TV panels.

Choi said, “OLED displays will ultimately cost less than LCDs because they do not require backlighting. At present, OLED panels are more expensive than LCDs as their production cost includes the depreciation cost of manufacturing plants, which accounts for 40 percent of the total cost. LG Display will be able to supply OLED panels at prices lower than those of LCDs in three years (when the depreciation period ends).”

Industry observers forecast that OLEDs will replace LCDs when the ratio of manufacturing costs for the LCD and OLED reaches 1:1.2. LCDs started to substitute PDPs (plasma display panel) in full scale when their ratio arrived at 1:1.2.

According to a report on manufacturing cost for OLED, which was published by market research firm DisplaySearch recently, when the yield rate of LG Display’s 55-inch full HD resolution OLED panel reaches 96.1 percent, its production cost (including material, labor and depreciation costs) will likely fall to as low as 7.2. With the manufacturing cost of an LCD panel being 7.9, the ratio of production costs of OLED and LCD would then be 1.43: 1. This indicates that even if the OLED production yield has improved to 70-80 percent, OLEDs would be still more expensive than LCDs.

Choi further said, “We can achieve reduction in the costs for facilities and materials earlier when many display manufacturers participate in the OLED TV panel market. We want our rival, Samsung Display, to join the market as soon as possible.”

He said LG Display will be able to improve efficiency in the production of OLED panels soon, noting that the evaporation line (E4) of its new 8G OLED TV panel production plant M2, which will begin mass production around the end of this year, produces displays from one piece of substrate, rather than two pieces. The evaporation line (E3) of LG Display’s existing M1 plant cuts the substrates for 8G oxide TFTs (2200×2500㎜) into two pieces (2200×1250㎜) and separately evaporating them with organic materials, which has been an important barrier to the efficient production of large-size products over 55 inches.

LG Display will strengthen its line up next year by introducing 55- and 65-inch OLED TV panels, 55-, 65- and 77-inch curved OLED panels, and 65- and 77-inch flexible OLED panels, Choi added.