AU Optronics Lands ‘Several’ Smartphone OLED Customers
AU Optronics has “several” smartphone customers for new OLED displays being produced in small quantities, President Paul Peng said in a conference call. AU, which scrapped an earlier OLED development effort in 2006, is making displays on a 3.5-generation with maximum monthly capacity for 8,000 sheets and plans to add a 4.5G line by year-end with maximum production for 15,000. AU Optronics also is working on converting a 6G LCD line to make OLED TV panels, analysts said.
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The company is manufacturing OLEDs for high-end smartphones, but will “move aggressively in developing” the technology, Peng said. AU’s smartphone OLED display uses in-cell touch technology, Peng said. In-cell touch panels use charge-sensing technology to “feel” the pressure they need to operate without requiring a finger to be applied to the display. AU Optronics is working alone on developing OLED TV panels, but is “open to working with any potential partners,” Peng said. Peng didn’t identify potential partners, but Sony is said to be among them, industry officials have said (CED April 6 p3). Sony officials have declined to comment.
It will likely be some time before AU Optronics is able to get high enough yields to support mass OLED production, said Avian Securities analyst Andrew Abrams. It can take two quarters to make minor changes in production and OLED manufacturing requires new equipment, he said.
Meanwhile, AU Optronics is ramping production of new 39-inch and 50-inch panels for LCD TVs, the latter being built along a 7.5G line and designed to be priced at a cost that’s “very competitive” with 46-inch and 47-inch, Peng said. Chimei Innolux also is producing 39-inch panels. “The response to the new panel size from our customers has been very good so far,” Peng said.
AU Optronics also is developing LCDs using oxide-based thin-film transistors for use in tablet PCs along a 5G line, Peng said. AU Optronics also will likely use oxide technology in TV panels including those with 4K resolution because the “cost reduction of using them in smaller panels is quite limited,” Peng said. The oxide material consists of indium, gallium and zinc for transistors that are used as TFT materials, instead of amorphous silicon and low-temperature polysilicon used in conventional panels. Oxide materials are known to provide better, more consistent images in large-size LCDs.
Shipments of large-size, 10-inch and up LCDs will grow in the “high single digit to low teens” percent with TVs increasing by low-to-mid-single digits, company officials said. In Q2, AU Optronics’ panel shipments decreased 4.7 percent to 3.69 million square meters as average selling prices declined to $649 from $672 in the previous quarter, $708 a year ago, AU officials said.
AU Optronics Q1 net loss narrowed slightly to $471.3 million as sales declined to $2.7 billion. Large-size panel shipments declined to 27.3 million from 28.4 million a year earlier, but were up from 26.8 million in the previous quarter, AU said. Small and medium-size panel deliveries dropped to 36.7 million from 43.5 million a year ago and 46.5 million in Q4, the company said. Despite the decrease in shipments, AU’s small and medium-size revenue grew to $374.2 million. TV panels accounted for 40 percent of shipments, down from 46 percent last year, while consumer products, which include tablets, were 17 percent, up from 14 percent.