On June 16, the South Korean media reported that the country’s semiconductor equipment manufacturer APS Holdings is creating a production line of fine metal masks (FMM) for ultra-high definition displays. The resultant products will be installed in the Micro OLED displays of AR and VR headsets.

FMM is a major consumable in the OLED deposition process; it is mainly used for deposition of RGB organic materials and pixel structure fabrication during OLED manufacturing.

Credit: APS Holdings

APS Holdings’ subsidiary APS Materials is establishing the production line in Cheonan, South Korea. A source familiar with the matter said that APS Holdings aims to develop an FMM that can help achieve a 3000ppi (pixel per pitch) resolution for OLED display production.

Reportedly, pixel density settings between 3000ppi and 4000ppi can meet the need to produce a 1-inch Micro OLED display for AR/VR devices.

The production line will allegedly be available for Micro OLED material deposition and packaging. Beforehand, APS Materials had assigned third-party companies to perform deposition and packaging of FMMs for 1000ppi displays. Regarding production of 3000ppi-grade FMMs, the deposition and packaging processes will be conducted by APS Materials per se.

To develop FMMs supporting high-resolution Micro OLED, APS Materials might need new laser equipment. The company previously announced a plan to replace the conventional wet etching with laser-based approaches for FMM manufacturing in hopes to achieve greater resolution.

Notably, APS Holdings has partnered with Apple to develop a Micro OLED FMM. In last September, Apple requested APS Holdings to provide a 3000ppi FMM sample for VR displays, as reported by the South Korean media (edited by Irving from LEDinside).