Samsung and LG will bring their respective 55 inch OLED TVs at CES 2012, which will probably launch in time for the Olympic Games in July 2012.
Citing "sources" in the S. korean industry, etnews.com today reported that Samsung's 55-inch OLED panel will be made using the existing Fine Metal Mask (FMM) process in favour of Small Mask Scanning (SMS), while LG's prototype will use white OLED with colour filters.
Samsung has a near monopoly in the market for panels with active-matrix OLED (AMOLED), a technology which is increasingly being used in high-end smartphones and tablets and has been touted as the future of large-sized TV display.
With an increasing number of small OLEDs reaching the marketplace, their performance advantages are easy to see. Thinner, lighter and more pleasing to view, OLEDs offer much faster response times, wider viewing angles, higher contrast ratios and brighter, more saturated colors. On the other hand, OLED manufacturing is not very cost effective, althou they have fewer processing steps and are also less materials and equipment intensive than today's LCDs. As OLED manufacturing technologies mature, OLED production yields should continue to improve and larger-scale equipment be brought on line.
Last May, Samsung Mobile Display (SMD), a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI Co., ramped-up the first Gen 5.5 AMOLED fab. The new plant has the world's largest production capacity for AMOLED panels and is the first to produce so-called 5.5-generation panels (1,300 x 1,500 mm), which are three times larger than the previous 4.5 generation (730 x 920 mm).
Market research firm DisplaySearch estimates that the OLED TV market will reach the $278 million next year and up to $2.3 billion by 2015.