Lee Jae-yong’s 13 yuan investment that President Wen said “thank you”… Next-generation display first mass production this year

Input 2021.01.26 15:03

Vice Chairman Lee, invested 13 yen for next-generation displays in 2019
Mass production of QD display, the first result of investment this year
Mass production observation in the first half as early as… Possibility of early mass production

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, will see the first fruits of investing 13 trillion won for the production of next-generation displays in 2019. This year’s quantum dot (QD) display has finished its test operation and is about to start mass production. There were concerns that the pace of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) could be slowed down due to the prolonged outbreak, but Samsung Display continued to invest as scheduled. QD Display is a business that Vice Chairman Lee has taken as food for the future, but he was unable to watch it directly as he was imprisoned.

According to Asan City, Chungnam and Samsung Display on the 26th, mass production of QD displays will begin at the Asan plant this year. The panel line has been in trial operation since last year, and it is expected to proceed with mass production as early as the first half. This is because it takes about 6 months to stabilize the production yield after securing the process conditions after the test operation.

The mass production of QD displays is the first result of an investment of 1.3 trillion won, announced by Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong in October 2019. At the time, Vice Chairman Lee announced plans to invest a total of 1.3 trillion won, including 10 trillion won for facilities and 3,100 trillion won for R&D, by 2025. President Moon Jae-in also attended the event and expressed his gratitude to Samsung officials, including Vice Chairman Lee.

QD displays are considered as products that can realize high-purity colors, wide viewing angles, and high resolution by using ultra-fine semiconductor particles. This is expected to replace Samsung Display’s 8th-generation liquid crystal display (LDC), and this is a project that Vice Chairman Lee took as food for the future.

Vice-Chairman Lee visited Samsung Display’s Asan plant in August 2019, before the announcement of the 13 trillion won investment, and said, “You should not give up large displays just because the LCD business is difficult now.” He said, “We have to spur the development of new technologies to lead a new future.” Afterwards, in March of last year, they visited the Asan plant and held meetings with key management to discuss business strategies. At this meeting, he ordered, “It will be difficult due to unexpected variables, but you should not stop for a while,” and “Let’s go beyond the existing frame carefully but boldly.”

Some of the industry were concerned that the prolonged Corona 19 crisis last year would disrupt Samsung Display’s investment plans, but the company has made investments as scheduled. An official from Asan City, located in Samsung Display’s production facility, said, “It is true that there were concerns about whether the investment speed was delayed due to Corona 19, but regardless of this, the investment has continued smoothly.”

Samsung Display is making every effort to test production in progress. As it is not a product that has been previously produced, it is reported that the process of checking and modifying each line is in progress to ensure that the installed equipment is operating properly.

There are also observations that the mass production timing of Samsung Display’s QD display may be accelerated. However, this is premised on the commercialization of QD display TVs from Samsung Electronics and Sony. It is predicted that if customers are acquired early, the production time will also be accelerated. It is reported that it has already delivered related prototypes to Sony in Japan last year.