LG to ramp up OLED screen production in 2014
The company says it will start mass-producing its eighth-generation glass-cutting technology the second half of 2014.
LG is planning to dramatically increase its commitment to OLED screen production, the company has confirmed.
In the second half of 2014, LG will bring online its eighth-generation glass-cutting technology, a company spokesperson told Korea Times in an interview published Friday. With that, the company will be able to start mass-producing OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens for televisions.
According to LG, the facility will be capable of producing 26,000 glass sheets each month. The news comes as Samsung Display, which also has plans to mass-produce OLED TV screens, has yet to reveal plans for when it'll start its mass-production efforts.
OLED TVs have been in the works for years, but both LG and Samsung have had trouble producing the sensitive screens. That trouble has prompted error rates to rise and yields to fall well below those of comparably sized LCDs or plasmas. If LG is to be believed, some of those issues are starting to be worked out.
Still, LG is proving slower to offer its panels to certain countries than consumers would like. A company spokesman told CNET on Thursday that LG plans to release only the curved version of its high-end OLED TV to the U.S. The flat-panel options will be available in South Korea for the time being, but nowhere else.