OTI Lumionics, a leading company in the development of advanced materials for consumer electronics, recently announced that it has received a new strategic investment from LG Technology Ventures (the venture capital arm of LG Group). This investment will be used to help accelerate the mass production of OTI materials, including its ConducTorrTM CPM solution for under-screen cameras.
According to the Display Daily report, just earlier this month, OTI Lumionics announced that its latest version of the ConducTorrTM cathode pattern material (CPM) is ready and is now ready for mass production. They plan to start shipping to the market in the fourth quarter of 2020. These materials are mainly used for OLED displays for next-generation mobile devices and other applications.
"We are very pleased to introduce LG Technology Ventures as our partner in material development," said Michael Helander, co-founder and CEO of OTI Lumionics. "The ability to have a leading brand partner like LG is ours. It can provide examples of the most advanced display solutions for the OLED industry."
In the current market, many display application manufacturers are looking for more innovative solutions, and they hope to accelerate the development and optimization of their transparent displays through the adoption of these solutions. In fact, OTI Lumionics has been focusing on cathode material patterning technology. This technology can open up and realize some more novel display applications of OLED, including transparent cameras, under-screen cameras and sensors, foldable displays, and automotive displays. .
LG Technology Ventures, as an investment company under LG, has been paying close attention to the technological progress of OTI Lumionics, and is also very willing to cooperate with it at the right time to become its investor. "We are very looking forward to cooperating with OTI Lumionics and applying its technology to more display applications in the future," said Michael Falcon, investment director of LG Technology Ventures.
In fact, LG Technology Ventures’ investment is only part of OTI Lumionics’ larger round of strategic financing, which also includes the participation of another leading consumer electronics brand and existing investors Anzu Partners and Draper Dragon.
OTI CPM material technology helps realize functions such as under-screen cameras and flexible OLED
David Barnes gave a speech at the SID Business Conference. From an economist’s point of view, the LCD business looks more like a material resale business. In addition, it needs to spend billions of dollars to build such a store". South Korean panel manufacturers are trying to change this situation. One of the structural changes they have made is to shift from the traditional dominance of materials and cost to the current dominance of process and manufacturing technology. However, although these manufacturers have done a lot of work in this direction, materials are still very important and are also important innovations.
A major trend discussed at the recent SID business conference is the innovation, optimization and promotion of under-screen cameras. During this period, Dr. Chen Jianping of Visionox was showing the development of smart phone display screens, and emphasized the concept of "hidden" under-screen cameras.
However, from the current point of view, there are still too many challenges to be overcome by adding this concept to the existing mobile phone design.
Michael Helander is the CEO of OTI Lumionics in Toronto, Canada. He talked about OLED cathode material patterning technology (CPM, Cathode Patterning Method) at the same meeting for OLED panels. According to reports, this company's technology, combined with some of the company's innovative materials, can realize the production of larger-sized panels and the realization of higher transparency of OLED panels. As a start-up company, they use the design method of Computational Materials to achieve material customization and rapid innovation. In terms of manufacturing, the company also cooperates with existing partners. Helander said they use quantum computing (or Quantum-inspired Algorithm) to develop materials.
In addition, Helander also explained the importance and significance of cathode material patterning. According to his description, the traditional cathode materials generally use very thin metal materials, and basically cover the entire OLED. This solution has remained unchanged in the nearly 30 years of OLED development. However, for some new applications (such as the design of the sensor under the panel), the selection of this metal material has become a key. The resulting Notch, bangs, or water drop screen designs continue to appear in the consumer market. As a result, OTI Lumionics' CPM material and technology came into being. It can leave some holes in the cathode material, which can improve the transparency of the OLED panel and avoid the aforementioned glass cut problem (Notch screen).
Taking into account technical or cost issues, conventional methods such as photolithography, IJP, FMM or laser etching are no longer the best solution for OLED panel production under the OTI solution. So how does OTI produce regular holes in the cathode material? The answer is that this kind of cathode material forms the cathode of the required pattern through a "self-assembly" method. This method is compatible with all OLED layers, and it can also realize the patterning of micron to centimeter-level patterns on the same substrate.
First, OTI used FMM to deposit CPM basic materials to generate patterns, and then they used Open Mask (as a simple layer) to deposit metal materials for the cathode. The CPM reacts with the metal material to form a nano-scale cathode, and the area where no CPM material is deposited will form the cathode. Helander announced that their latest CPM material can be used in conjunction with MgAg cathode alloy material. In fact, MgAg alloy is currently the most commonly used metal in OLED panels. Before this, their technology could only be used in conjunction with other cathode materials. Finally, he also demonstrated the process of making patterns with different feature sizes on the same substrate based on this technology.
These materials are manufactured by PPG (the world's leading supplier of coatings and specialty materials, also made for UDC foundry materials), and have been certified by many OLED panel manufacturers, and can be used in the 6th generation line. At present, its corresponding AMOLED modules have passed the certification of first-level equipment manufacturers, and this batch of products will be available to ordinary consumers for the first time in 2021.
The key applications of this material and technology include the following:
Under-screen camera and face unlocking solution
Transparent display panel for AR equipment
Longer battery life and higher brightness
Larger size foldable and QD-OLED panel
At the SID meeting. The company also published a paper on the application of CPM materials to under-screen cameras. In addition to eliminating the notch problem associated with the traditional Notch screen, the under-screen camera solution supported by this technology can also better ensure the alignment of the human eye and the camera, which is very important for the video conference experience. In addition, this solution is also helpful to the design of notebook computers and smart phones, because CPM materials are also very helpful in improving image quality.
In the traditional design, the cathode without pattern design will prevent the transmission of near-infrared (NIR) light, so when the NIR passes through the panel twice, the image information contained in it will be lost a lot, and finally it becomes very difficult to unlock the face. OTI Lumionics' CPM materials and technical solutions can make OLED panels highly transparent to both visible light and near-infrared light. OTI Lumionics compared the test results of the iPhone with and without CPM, and found that it is easier to use the OTI Luminics solution to achieve the face unlock function.
Let's talk about AR devices. In fact, the user's experience directly depends on the transparency of the display. Helander said that his company had cooperated with the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute to produce a display with a transmittance of more than 65% (when the AR film is used, the transparency can reach 75%). This value is getting closer and closer to the level of transparency that the traffic bureau hopes to meet. In addition, this panel sample also greatly improves the clarity of the transmitted image by reducing cathode optical artifacts.
Due to the difference in the emission layer, the thickness of each color is optimized for the traditional OLED stack. Since blue is the "weakest link", general panel manufacturers will make certain optimizations for blue luminescent materials when designing cathodes. In fact, CPM materials and technology can achieve such optimization. During operation, designers will add CPM on top of the blue pixels to shield the cathode. Compared to traditional solutions, this design can reduce power consumption by 20% to 40%. In a test, the company also found that the brightness of red light increased by 150% to 180%. If calculated linearly, switching from the current backplane to an LTPO backplane, the power consumption of the corresponding OLED products can only be reduced by 10% to 15%. In addition, the cost of this switch is very high.
As the market begins to shift to larger foldable displays and the use of 5G modems with higher power consumption, the aforementioned drastic reduction in power consumption becomes particularly important.
Finally, the technology also contributes to the marketization of foldable displays. We know that the design of larger size OLED panels requires a lower resistance cathode because it can improve the voltage distribution and avoid uniformity problems. The square resistance of the cathode of QD-OLED needs to be less than 1Ω/sq. In addition, according to Helander, the square resistance of the OLED cathode for general smartphones is about 10-20Ω/sq. Considering that the size of the foldable OLED device is larger than that of the ordinary OLED device, the square resistance of the cathode is required to be smaller, generally less than 2Ω/sqr. In response to these needs, CPM materials and technology are a very good solution, which can achieve thin-layer square resistance less than 1Ω/sqr.
About OTI Lumionics
OTI Lumionics has been working with the world's largest mobile device and display manufacturers to develop more advanced materials for the production of first-class OLED displays. This company uses quantum simulation, machine learning and other technologies in the design and manufacturing of its advanced materials. Of course, it also includes internal product testing and testing. This company was the first to apply quantum computing to commercial-scale material design problems. OTI Lumionics is currently focusing on the development of cathode pattern materials for OLED displays. This material can be used in next-generation consumer electronics and automotive displays, which is critical to the realization of its technology and vision.
About LG Technology Ventures
LG Technology Ventures was established in 2018 and is a venture capital company under the LG Group in South Korea. The LG Technology Ventures team consists of many experienced investors, entrepreneurs, technical personnel and industry experts. At present, LG Technology Ventures manages more than US$400 million in fund assets. These funds are mainly invested in information technology, automotive, manufacturing, life sciences, energy and advanced materials companies in the early stage. The company has been committed to creating value for its portfolio companies by helping them establish strategic partnerships with various LG companies.