Samsung to stop LCD production - Focuses on quantum dot OLEDs

In the future, Samsung Display will no longer manufacture LCD panels for monitors, production will be discontinued from the end of 2020. There are currently two LCD factories in China and two plants in South Korea for such panels, according to Reuters, one of the latter two is to be converted into a Fab for displays with quantum dot OLEDs.

The output of LC sheets, which are then separated into panels, has already been reduced, reports Golem; According to Samsung Display, however, the demand is met: "All customers will have the LCDs they ordered delivered by the end of the year without any problems," said the manufacturer. Samsung Display is currently primarily producing LC panels with a quantum dot coating; the South Koreans speak of QLED. This technology is used in our own TVs and PC monitors.

What sounds like OLED is full-area LED backlighting with a quantum dot layer, i.e. a liquid crystal display (LCD). Samsung was therefore criticized for the QLED marketing term because it is not an electroluminescent emitting quantum dot. In the future, however, the focus will be on QDOLEDs: With quantum dot OLEDs, organic instead of inorganic light-emitting diodes are used for the backlighting, usually the blue variants. More than one stack is conceivable for a higher light density, Samsung Display has not commented on this.

The quantum dot layer, also referred to as QDCC (Quantum Dot Color Converter), then serves as an RGB filter. Unlike an LED, an OLED backlight can be controlled more precisely, which results in better colors and black levels. In order to be able to produce enough QDOLEDs, Samsung Display announced in October 2019 that it would invest almost $ 11 billion in corresponding production lines.