LG's new OLED manufacturing tech can make panels bigger and brighter

The FLiPP system could be used in products ranging from OLED TVs to VR headset displays.

LG has an unveiled a new OLED manufacturing breakthrough that will allow brighter, sharper and longer-lasting panels of nearly any size. Called FLiPP (FMM-less Innovative Pixel Patterning), the new system eliminates the need for the metal masks normally used in fabrication, and shows that innovation is possible even in established tech like OLED panels.

Normally, OLED panels are manufactured using metal plates with tiny holes called fine metal masks (FMMs), which allow light to pass through to stencil organic LEDs into a pixel pattern. However, these masks are tricky and expensive to fabricate, and larger ones for TV panels can be difficult to align due to sagging.

To counter that, FLiPP fabrication stencils RGB pixels directly onto panels in a precise order, then uses photolithography and UV light to "erase unnecessary areas during OLED pixel patterning," LG explains. That allows OLED panels to be 1.6 times brighter and last 2.4 times as long, while reducing power consumption 13 percent. The technique is also "free from panel size and resolution constraints," so it can be used in products ranging from big-screen TVs to VR display panels.

In tests, LG said it was able to manufacture an OLED laptop panel on a single piece of mother glass, with up to 64 percent better utilization of such glass than previous tech. "As a result, less substrate material is wasted and FLiPP directly translates into higher productivity and lower manufacturing costs," the company said.

The technology won't sit in a lab either, as LG said it will start using the tech in tablets and monitors, before expanding to "cover a range of products from 1-inch wearable devices to ultra-large TVs... tailoring products to customer needs." There's no word, though, on when we'll start to see the first FLiPP-enabled OLED products on the market.