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LG and Samsung invest €25m in blue OLEDs


OLED display on the LG exhibition


pavilion at the IFA Berlin consumer


electronics show in September


Trumpf acquires US laser firm to integrate EUV lithography supply chain


Trumpf has acquired an 85 per cent stake in Seattle-based Access Laser Company, a producer of high-precision, low-power CO2 lasers used to fabricate microchips in EUV lithography. Following several years in


the development pipeline, EUV technology has now reached industrial maturity – providing the company with a considerable boost in sales during the past fiscal year. In 2015, the company invested €70 million in a new facility to house its laser technology for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The light generated by


South Korean tech giants LG Display and Samsung Ventures have invested €25 million in German OLED firm Cynora in order to support the development of a new type of organic emitting material for organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. In particular, Cynora’s material will enable the manufacturing of highly efficient blue OLEDs, the most sought-after colour by OLED display manufacturers. Based on thermally activated delayed


fluorescence (TADF) technology, Cynora’s material is designed to reduce electrical stress within OLEDs, combining the long lifetime advantages of fluorescence with the high-efficiency advantages of phosphorescence. With the technology,


“This investment confirms our materials are highly attractive for the OLED display industry”


Cynora will be able to produce stable and efficient blue emitters and commercialise blue emitting OLEDs, a highly demanded technology by OLED display makers. Replacing current blue OLED technology will enable significant reductions in power consumption and higher resolution displays.


The €25 million from LG Display and Samsung Ventures came as part of a Series-B funding round to support the German firm in the development of a portfolio of organic emitting materials for AMOLED (active matrix) displays that cover the full range of colours. The new shareholders will join existing investors


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MIG, Wecken and Cie, and KfW, which have supported Cynora’s growth in the last few years. ‘This investment confirms that our


materials are highly attractive for the OLED display industry,’ said Cynora CEO Gildas Sorin. ‘The cash injection will also be used to strengthen our worldwide presence as a supplier of high-efficiency emitting materials. We will commercialise our first blue product by the end of 2017, followed by green and red.’ The growing deployment of AMOLED panels in premium TVs and smartphones will drive the OLED panel market to reach $75 billion, with a CAGR of 31 per cent, in sales by 2021, according to market research firm UBI Research. Because of the high cost and technology


barriers associated with integrating OLEDs into television panels, however, LG Display is currently the only OLED manufacturer, according to Yole Développement, another market research firm. This means that, despite the company currently building two new OLED television manufacturing lines in South Korea and China, set to open in 2019, this global lack in production capacity will lead to the adoption of OLED televisions being limited to less than 12 million units per year until 2022. As a result, quantum dot displays, a competing wide colour gamut display technolgy, could soon capture the majority of the high-end television market.


l Read more about these displays in Matthew Dale’s article on page 14


November 2017 Electro Optics 5


Access Laser’s low-power CO2 laser serves as a beam source that is deployed together with Trumpf laser amplifiers in EUV systems. With this acquisition, Trumpf has integrated a key player in the supply chain for EUV technology. ‘Access Laser is a core


partner in our EUV business and a highly innovative laser company. Together, we will be working even closer to further improve the EUV performance, as well as serving more applications and customers looking for innovative low- power CO2 lasers,’ said Peter Leibinger, managing partner and CTO of Trumpf. Founded in 1999, Access Laser Company employs 60 people in the US and China. Its product portfolio includes precision lasers with low output powers between 100 milliwatts and 50 watts as well as lasers with peak powers as high as 1 kilowatt.


Ugis Riba/Shutterstock


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