iPads with OLED screens in 2024: Expect thinner screens thanks to this new technology
The first iPads with OLED screens are rumored to arrive in 2024, and now we have a new supply chain report that reveals that the tech is on its way for those fancy OLED screens to be even thinner.
Korean publication TheElec (very good track record with supply chain news) reveals that LG has started using a new, hybrid OLED manufacturing technology that allows for thinner screens.
Traditional OLED manufacturing uses two glass substrates, while this new hybrid technology replaces the top substrate with a Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE) layer, similar to what is used on foldable phones. In addition to that, the bottom substrate can be made significantly thinner, going from 0.5mm to down to just 0.2mm.
Having a much thinner display panel, however, comes with a new challenge: it can break while being transported to the next step in the production line. To address that problem, LG will skip the moving process altogether and etch and cut the glass all in one place and process.
The Korean display maker plans to use this new process in its Gen 8 OLED production line in the near future.
(Image Credit - PhoneArena)
So this is one hurdle that LG Display has had to overcome, and this report also reminds us that Samsung Display is ahead in this technology and it's ready to implement it right away in its Gen 6 OLED line.
At the end of the day, these are all hurdles that the supply chain is overcoming as Apple is allegedly preparing to release the first iPads with OLED screens in 2024. First reports about OLED iPad models coming on the market appeared in October 2022.
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