An AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display consists of pixels that generate light on their own. This enables manufacturers to produce displays which are much thinner than those made with LCDs or LEDs and is the reason why an OLED TV is called “A dream TV.”
Key display panel production technology of Samsung and LG’s has been leaked overseas through a subcontractor, presumably to a Chinese display giant, prosecutors said Wednesday. The lost technologies were for Samsung’s AMOLED and LG’s White-OLED (WOLED) displays, including circuit diagrams.
According to industry sources, whether to develop technologies used to produce AMOLED displays depends on how light-emitting diodes are utilized.
An LG official said: “The competitiveness of OLED TV depends on how many light-emitting diodes are installed and how to prolong their life span.”
Workers of the subcontractor allegedly stole the technology, including that for 55-inch television production, by saving it on USBs that looked like credit cards on several occasions between November 2011 and January this year.
Once foreign competitors look at the circuit diagrams for the 55-inch televisions, they could develop reverse engineer the technology, industry sources said.
A Samsung official said the circuit diagrams leaked were top secret. “If someone working on production and design of OLED TVs acquires the circuit diagrams, it would not be difficult for them to figure out the technologies possessed by Korean makers.”
Samsung and LG currently have a combined 95 percent share or more in the international AMOLED market. Goldman Sachs forecast that global demand will skyrocket from 230,000 this year to 68 million in 2020.
The two companies have invested some 1.3 trillion won and 1.2 trillion won, respectively in developing the technology in question, according to reports. They expect the damage will be in the tens of trillions of won, considering the losses they would incur through losing market share.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office arrested and indicted three Korean workers at the Korean branch of Orbotech, an Israel-based company supplying display testing equipment on charges of stealing the technologies.
The leaked information is the two firms’ confidential material and the nation’s core technology. Prosecutors plan to continue investigating workers from Orbotech’s headquarters and other overseas branches to prevent further leaks, Yonhap news agency reported.