The Korean company Philoptics has established a "Fine Metal Mask (FMM)" mass production line for the sixth generation of substrates, laying the foundation for the localization of FMM. In the FMM market dominated by Japanese companies, it uses its own plating technology to increase productivity and price competitiveness, thereby accelerating the localization process.
Philoptics announced on October 19 that it has recently established a sixth-generation FMM production plant in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province and will start operations. It acquired the core production line that can be mass-produced in the future for the first time among Korean companies, and manufactured a prototype with the sixth-generation FMM size, and guaranteed the thermal expansion quality.
The electroplated FMM manufacturing technology developed by Philoptics can be manufactured to be thinner than the thickness of 20 to 30 microns manufactured by traditional rolling methods. The company explained that this facilitates the production of high-resolution patterns.
An official of Philopticss said: "We have successfully ensured that our core technology is to minimize the alloy ratio and manufacturing method of thermal deformation." This is a challenge in the second half of last year in expanding R&D personnel and continuous investment in facilities.
FMM uses Invar material, which is an alloy of iron and nickel, and is a key material used in the OLED process. It is a pattern mask for deposition, with tens of millions of fine holes drilled in about 20um thick metal. When the powdery organic material evaporates by applying high temperature, it adheres to the substrate through FMM to form pixels.
Philoptics has been committed to the development of the sixth-generation or higher version of FMM product localization technology in the FMM market. In the past, this technology was exclusively owned by Japan DNP. In May of this year, Philoptics was selected as the leading company to develop the sixth and eighth generation FMM manufacturing technologies for high-resolution OLEDs, which is a national project for the development of material parts.
In addition to simple product development goals, Philoptics has formed alliances with companies related to the overall technology of FMM manufacturing. Philoptics is rapidly developing mass production technology that can be used immediately at the display manufacturing site.
An executive of Philoptics emphasized: "In order to directly compete with the products monopolized by Japanese DNP, we have to consider mass production and cost competitiveness."