Thanks Baggo for your report! A stage 3 R&D tool of production size once qualified can become a production tool IMO. It is not a free tool to Samsung I would think. Also, it is still possible that a financial partner would be involved IMO.
Aixtron made it clear at the AGM that it needs a partner that can handle big glasses. Aixtron needs a manufacturer that knows how to transport and lift a huge piece of glass and align precisely against the FMM. Aixtron's target market is high resolution displays that inkjet Printing cannot compete (Capital Markets Day OLED Presentation graph 8), and that means FMM would be required. I have said before (#37339) that FMM sagging would not be an issue in OVPD. However, you need to provide the precise alignment mechanics that Aixtron does not have the knowhow. In the Capital Markets Day OLED presentation, slide 7 shows a Gen 6H glass vs. Gen 6. Samsung cuts Gen 6 glass half to Gen 6H because of the FMM difficulties. OVPD can process Gen 6 directly without FMM sagging, and that is a big advantage among other benefits.
Samsung reportedly is developing QDOLED for TV which would require Gen 8.5 and bigger. Although that would not require FMM, OVPD has the other benefits of creating graded interfaces, tailored compositions, purer films, high uniformity on large area, higher deposition rates, lower materials consumption, less frequent chamber cleaning, fewer chambers, etc.
All OLED manufactures are going after flexible OLED. That is another area that OVPD might have a unique advantage vs VTE. A carrier glass with spin-on flexible substrate (PI) is currently used for the up side down VTE. Afterward laser lift off is used to peel off the PI flexible OLED substrate. Using OVPD I can picture that a sheet of PI can just be lying down flat and fed into the chamber for top-down deposition without the carrier glass. That could save a lot of $ it seems
technology.ihs.com/594492/...producing-flexible-amoled-panels
A Gen 2 tool is in Korea for Samsung’s development and I assume the Gen 8.5 tool in Germany could be for LG to develop OLED TV displays. LG can certainly use the clustered OVPD tool there as well. That makes sense since one cannot imagine these two companies develop OLED technologies under the same roof.