Industry Trends

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.

On June 16 2022, 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.