LG Display will start additional investments into its OLED factory dedicated to Apple in the first quarter of 2021, TheElec has learned.
It will be to construct the new line, called E6-3, that is expected to begin operations in 2022.
LG Display will place orders for the equipment needed in the line around February to March next year.
The company operates two lines at the Paju factory in South Korea __ the E6-1 and the E6-2.
LG Display will produce sixth-generation (1500mm x 1850mm) flexible OLED panels for Apple there.
The additional line to be built will allow the South Korean display giant to handle more orders from Cupertino.
LG Display will order back-end equipment around September next year and has a roadmap for this, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The company will spend around 1 trillion won in the new factory line, they said.
LG Display halted investment into E6-3 in 2017. Organic material deposition equipment supplied by Japan’s Canon Tokki is already placed there.
The South Korean display maker ordered encapsulation equipment last month.
Though the line is tentatively expected to go live in 2022, it could be earlier than that as E6-3 is identical in design to E6-1 and E6-2, another person knowledgeable on the matter said.
Each line will contribute 15,000 substrates per month in production capacity. LG Display will be able to handle 45,000 substrates per month with the three lines.
LG Display use the existing E6-1 and E6-2 line to supply OLED panels to Apple next year. The company is expected to supply up to 20 million panels to Cupertino this year. In 2019, it only supplied 5 million panels due to prevalence of defects at its lines that year.
Meanwhile BOE, which is competing with Samsung Display and LG Display for OLED orders from Apple, has applied again for a potential supply to the iPhone maker this month. It failed to pass Apple’s review in the first half of 2020.
