CSOT AIMS FOR THE HIGH‐END TV MARKET WITH JOLED INVESTMENT

Abstract

CHINESE DISPLAY MAKER CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY (CSOT), a subsidiary of the electronics conglomerate TCL Technology, has invested $187 million in the Japanese OLED manufacturer JOLED. The move allows CSOT to make inkjet-printed (IJP) OLED TV panels using JOLED's technology. As part of the deal, CSOT received newly issued shares in JOLED and entered into a three-year partnership and patent cooperation agreement. The arrangement provides a much-needed financial boost to JOLED, which was formed in July 2014 by the Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) in combination with Japan Display, Sony, and Panasonic. JOLED began its research and development on IJP OLEDs in 2015. It started shipping low volumes of 21-inch 4K OLEDs for medical monitors in 2017 but still needed $900 million in additional capital to expand production and target new markets. In August 2018, it raised $420 million from the Japanese companies Denso, Toyota, Sumitomo Chemical, and Screen Finetech, and in April 2019, it raised an additional $229 million from INCJ, Sony, and Nishaa. Still, that left it $251 million short, which is where CSOT comes in. CSOT and BOE Display have a commanding lead in the manufacture of LCD panels, which has forced Korean companies LG Display and Samsung Display to largely exit the LCD market. But neither firm has an OLED solution for high-end TVs, a segment that has been dominated by LG's white OLED (WOLED) technology, notes Eric Virey, principal analyst for Yole Développement. To solve that problem, CSOT and BOE can try to catch up by duplicating LG's WOLED technology, or the newer quantum dot (QD)-OLED (“blue OLED”) technology in which Samsung Display is investing $11 billion. Or, Virey says, the Chinese firms can try to “jump to the next generation of OLED” with IJP RGB OLEDs. Licensing JOLED's inkjet technology for TV panel production, as CSOT has done, is a big step toward that. CSOT had already invested in IJP OLEDs through Guangdong Juhua Printed Display Technology, a venture it formed with Tianma. At CES 2020, they showed a jointly developed 31-inch flexible full high-definition IJP OLED display. “They've been very active, developing all of the technology bricks to make it happen,” Virey says. He expects that the CSOT/JOLED partnership will jumpstart inkjet RGB as a legitimate competitor to other large-screen OLED display technologies, with mass production perhaps by 2023. CSOT has already said that it will start production at two inkjet fabs in China that year. —G.D.