According to South Korean media reports, Samsung Display has officially stepped into the FMM-free RGB OLED segment. The company has selected the inkjet printing route and is in discussions with equipment partners to build a pilot production line.

For those unfamiliar with FMM: Put simply, all mass-produced RGB OLED panels today rely on an ultra-thin Fine Metal Mask (FMM). During the evaporation of light-emitting materials, tiny apertures on the mask precisely deposit red, green and blue pixels onto the substrate.

Nevertheless, this approach comes with inherent drawbacks. The FMM is a consumable that requires periodic replacement, driving up costs. It is also technically challenging to manufacture large-format masks, making conventional FMM-based OLED poorly suited for medium-to-large-sized panels such as notebooks and monitors. This process also generates substantial waste of light-emitting materials. The industry has long been exploring alternatives, collectively known as FMM-free technologies

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Two primary FMM-free technical routes have emerged:

- Photo Patterning route: Adopted by LGD’s FLiPP and Visionox’s ViP technologies. Pixels are formed using photolithography processes similar to those used in semiconductor manufacturing.

- Inkjet printing route: RGB light-emitting inks are jetted directly onto the substrate to form pixels, eliminating the metal mask and drastically cutting material waste. If stable yield is achieved, manufacturing costs can theoretically drop by more than 30%. This route is inherently well-suited for IT panels (notebooks and monitors).

Samsung has researched both routes over the past few years. Its internal name for the photolithography path is MPO (Micro-Patterned OLED), while inkjet printing is the solution it prioritizes now. Samsung’s decision to bet on inkjet printing and prepare a pilot line marks the project’s transition from laboratory R&D to engineering validation.

One common question: Why is Samsung confident about inkjet printing?

Samsung is not starting from scratch. Its current QD-OLED TV panels already deploy inkjet processes to deposit quantum dot color conversion layers. The firm has accumulated extensive practical know-how covering inkjet equipment, ink formulation control and pixel formation. It is repurposing this inkjet expertise to print RGB light-emitting pixels directly.

Industry Landscape: Three-Way Race Heats Up in the IT OLED Market

- TCL CSOT: The first domestic player to commercialize inkjet OLED. Its Gen 5.5 line has achieved mass production of notebook and monitor panels, while a Gen 8.6 inkjet line is under construction. It is currently the front-runner on the inkjet track.

- LGD + Visionox: Pursuing the photolithography patterning route with FLiPP and ViP respectively, and continuing investment in production equipment.

- Samsung Display: New entrant to the inkjet camp with its pilot line development, focusing on IT panels.

Photolithography and inkjet printing advance in parallel. Panel makers from China and South Korea are backing different technical paths, all targeting the notebook and monitor OLED market to resolve the pain points of high cost and limited scalability of traditional FMM processes.

Samsung’s entry into inkjet printing signals that this panel technology competition has officially entered a full-scale showdown!