AUO ships its first AMOLED displays to Sony, HTC in June
updated 06:53 am EDT, Fri May 25, 2012
AUO starts mass production of AMOLED panels
Taiwanese display giant AU Optronics is set to ship its first AMOLED mobile display panels to Sony and HTC in June, according to Digitimes. Currently, Samsung display division dominates the manufacture of AMOLED panels. However, AU Optronics yield rates are only at 20 percent on average at this early stage in its implementation of the technology, meaning that it will still be some time before it poses a serious competitive threat to Samsung.
HTC will use the 4.3-inch AMOLED displays from AU Optronics in its One S smartphone, while Sony is expected use them in the leaked LT30i Mint 1, which will be its first quad-core smartphone. Samsung is expected to continue supplying the bulk of these displays to HTC as well as Sony, at least until AU Optronics is able to improve its yield rates.
AU Optronics is taking its investment in OLED technology seriously. Its 3.5G production facility is expected have a further $1 billion invested in it over the course of the year. This should lift its capacity from around 8,000 glass substrates to 15,000 by the end of 2012.
