TOKYO, JAPAN: Ube Industries Ltd and Samsung Mobile Display Co Ltd (SMD) have established a joint venture to manufacture polyimide for substrates to be used in the next-generation displays which SMD plans to start mass producing.
The joint venture company will be based in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea and will be established by August 2011. Having a shareholding, SMD:Ube Industries (50:50), the company will have an initial investment of 19.4 billion Korean won (approx 1.5 billion Japanese yen). Ube Industries and SMD have not released details or terms of the joint venture agreement.
Use of polyimide resin in place of a glass substrate will help produce displays with a variety of features like flexibility (eg bendable displays). One of the major hurdles for mass production was the development of materials to minimize expansion deformation under high temperatures. Having made sufficient advances to clear this hurdle, Ube Industries and SMD decided to form a joint venture for full-scale mass production of the materials.
The joint venture opens the door to broader applications and markets for polyimide. For SMD, the joint venture will ensure the stable supply of a crucial material for mass production of its next-generation displays.
“SMD was the first company to achieve mass production of active matrix organic light emitting diodes (AMOLEDs) in 2007. Through the joint venture with Ube Industries, we will secure crucial material technology for our next-generation displays,” said Soo-in Cho, President & CEO, SMD. (C) WOC News