Printing OLEDs has been a goal for display manufacturers for what seems like decades. Cost benefits would be substantial, and production would rates would be beneficial. The challenge, of course, is to actually successfully mass produce printed displays. With the first product shipment of its OLEDIO^TM OLED displays, JOLED Inc. has successfully completed the first mass production of OLED displays by printing.

“We are so delighted to ship our brand-new OLED display OLEDIO from the world’s first printed OLED mass production line, which is full of our technology and expertise,” Tadashi Ishibashi, representative director and president of JOLED, said in announcing the launch of OLEDIO. “I am filled with deep emotion when I reflect upon our journey from the establishment as a R&D company to today, overcoming several challenges, and finally reaching mass production. We will produce high-performance and high-quality OLED displays using the groundbreaking printing method and will provide innovations to the medium-sized category in the world OLED market.”

JOLED Inc. combined the OLED display development divisions of Sony Corporation and Panasonic Corporation, with the goal of accelerating mass production development and commercialization of OLED displays. JOLED Inc. is a leader in research, development, manufacturing and sales activities for OLED displays, their parts, materials, manufacturing equipment and associated products.

JOLED has been working on printing OLED displays since its beginnings in January 2015, carrying out R&D of printed OLED and starting production in the pilot line in 2017. It started operation of mass production in 2019, and has been making trial products. JOLED now will move from trial to mass production and aim at expansion of sales.

With OLEDIO, JOLED will manufacture 10- to 32-inch, medium-sized high-performance and high-quality OLED displays, for high-end monitors, medical monitors, automotive displays and other markets.

JOLED Inc. spokesperson Megumi Sakuma noted that JOLED has been producing OLED displays soon after its beginnings.

“Soon after its establishment, JOLED achieved development of 12.2 inch FHD OLED, 19.3 inch 4K OLED, and 12.2 inch FHD flexible OLED,” Sakuma noted. “JOLED started product shipment of 21.6 inch 4K OLED, which is the world’s first product shipment of 4K printed OLED, in December 2017, produced in the pilot line. Then JOLED started the construction of mass production line, and finally started product shipment from the new line in March 2021.”

JOLED is producing OLED displays using its proprietary TRIPRINTTM technology that forms an EL layer by printing RGB EL materials. While printing requires advanced technical capabilities, the production process is simple and efficient, and it is adapted for medium- to large-sized OLED production.

“Our proprietary TRIPRINT technology, which forms RGB subpixels by printing, enables to produce superior performance displays in efficient production process,” Sakuma noted. “It is processed under atmospheric pressure without vacuum chamber nor metal mask. There is no material waste because it puts necessary quantity of materials onto target points by printing. The technology has also scalability merit because panels in variety of sizes can be manufactured with the same print head.”

There have been challenges to printing OLEDs, and JOLED’s team has worked hard to overcome these obstacles.

“Controlling every aspect of printing is very challenging,” Sakuma observed. “We need to control the quantity and the size of ink drop, position of drop, and the status of ink (liquid viscosity to print and after drying up). The drying process is also very important to make a uniform EL layer.

“JOLED conducts R&D for EL material, manufacturing process, manufacturing equipment, and device design and structure, by working together with our partners,” added Sakuma. “By doing so, we accumulated our knowledge and expertise and found the way to achieve commercial production of printed OLED.”

Now that OLEDIO is on the market, Sakuma said that JOLED’s display customers are looking forward to the future.

“We commercialized 21.6 inch in 2017, and gathered much attention from expected customers,” Sakuma concluded. “Now we introduced OLEDIO with more variety in size and with higher brightness. Now we are in talks with existing customers and expected customers, and the first product with OLED display panel will be introduced within 2021 from one of our customers.”