Merck, a leading science and technology company, presents a new protective film material that is more flexible, more stable and has a longer lifetime for OLED devices, offering significantly improved protective film properties with 100 times the reliability effect and 20 times thinner protective film compared to existing solutions. The performance of this product has been recognized by the Society for Information Display (SID).

Merck announced on the 31st that its recently developed innovative ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) material won the 'Display Component of the Year' award from the Society for Information Display (SID), the world's largest display society, last week.

This award-winning ALD material significantly improves the thin film encapsulation characteristics of flexible OLED devices by developing a new protective film material technology formed using low-temperature plasma-enhanced ALD technology, leveraging the experience in developing thin film encapsulation materials for the semiconductor industry accumulated over the past 30 years.

In particular, this new material significantly increases the product life of OLED devices, satisfying even the most stringent automotive display requirements.

Merck's low-temperature ALD silicone material, first introduced for automotive OLED applications in 2022, is expected to become a thin-film encapsulation technology that will enable flexible IT OLED displays to emerge in the future.

Freeform devices featuring fully flexible OLED displays are one of the fastest growing trends in the data-driven electronics industry.

Devices that can be folded, bent, stretched, and twisted (foldable, rollable, stretchable) must have a display module that is approximately 60% thinner than a standard display.

On the other hand, OLEDs are very vulnerable to deterioration caused by moisture or oxygen. Therefore, to prevent damage, a conformal, flexible, yet durable thin film encapsulation or protective film is required.

“As a pioneer in display materials, we are committed to providing our customers with solutions that enable new form factors,” said Damien Tuleu, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Electronics Display Solutions. “Our low-temperature ALD silicon material represents the most advanced thin-film deposition technology available and significantly improves passivation properties, making it up to 100 times more reliable and effective than existing solutions. At the same time, the passivation layer thickness is reduced to 20 times thinner than existing solutions. As a result, it offers unprecedented levels of shape conformability, flexibility and durability.”

As display products with new form factors enabled by OLED technology continue to enter the market, Merck is well positioned as a leading global materials company providing this technology.

With over 30 years of research experience, Merck is increasing its OLED production capacity to meet the growing industry demand for high-purity OLED materials.

As part of this effort, we have completed the first phase of expansion of our OLED production capacity in Korea and China in 2022 through an investment of 30 million euros.

Merck’s continued expansion of local OLED production capabilities provides Asian customers with more reliable and flexible access to the OLED materials supply chain.