LG has announced the launch of its next-generation OLED technology, FLiPP. Its biggest breakthrough lies in abandoning the traditional Fine Metal Mask (FMM), providing greater flexibility in mass production while enabling the manufacture of brighter, longer-lasting, and more power-efficient panels, giving it a head start in competing for the rapidly growing OLED market.
Traditional OLEDs rely on FMM to selectively deposit RGB organic materials at specified locations, but the support structure of the metal mask limits pixel pitch, and large substrates can easily cause mask sagging and alignment errors. After a year of focused R&D, LG proposed FLiPP as a new OLED manufacturing paradigm. The new process first forms organic materials of each color on the substrate, then removes excess material through photoresist coating, ultraviolet (UV) exposure, development, and etching, sequentially repeating this cycle for the three RGB colors.
This approach not only expands the effective light-emitting area but also allows flexible adjustment of pixel size and arrangement by changing the UV exposure pattern. It is perfectly compatible with full-size display products ranging from small to large, theoretically covering display panels from 1 inch to 100 inches. It is not only suitable for traditional panels but can also produce screens for VR and AR devices.
LG states that compared to panels made using traditional methods under the same conditions, FLiPP can increase display brightness by 60%, extend lifespan by 1.4 times, and reduce power consumption by 13%. This is because FLiPP eliminates the space occupied by FMM between pixels, increasing the proportion of the total display area occupied by RGB pixels by approximately 55%.
LG plans to conduct mass production verification of FLiPP at its Paju E4 production line, with construction expected to be completed as early as 2027.