Apple’s iPad Pro will benefit from LG‘s new OLED panel etching technology that will allow for slimmer devices while lowering production costs, says a report by Korean publication The Elec.
The new hybrid OLED panel technology uses a glass substrate like a rigid OLED panel but uses thin-film encapsulation (TFE) like that of a flexible OLED panel. LG Display, together with LG Electronics’ Production Engineering Research Institute (PRI), is developing an etching technology that simultaneously etches the glass substrate and cut it into cell units.
Conventional rigid OLED panels used two glass substrates but in a hybrid OLED panel the top glass substrate is replaced with TFE. This allows the panel to be thinner and the remaining bottom glass substrate is etched even thinner from 0.5mm to 0.2mm.
While the resulting “ultra-thin glass” is more vulnerable to breaking while being moved to the next process in the production line, LG is developing a simultaneous etch-and-cut process to lessen that risk.
In March, it was reported by The Elec that LG Display is developing OLED displays for both upcoming new iPad Pro models, in both 11-inch and 13-inch sizes