Merck favors Samsung SUHD TV technology

By Kim Yoo-chul

Walter Galinat, CEO of Merck’s performance materials business

Samsung Electronics is expected to boost its TV business, further, as one of its key materials clients vowed to support the TV manufacturer’s so-called “quantum dot-initiated” TV strategy.

German science technology company Merck signed a licensing agreement with UK-based nanomaterials manufacturer Nanoco Group calling for Merck to “immediately” start marketing Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum dots and establish its own production facilities to meet growing market demand, Merck announced in a statement Wednesday

“The agreement is in line with Merck’s strategy to sustainably secure its position as the global market and technology leader in display materials. With cadmium-free quantum dots, a remarkable increase in the color range and a significant reduction in power consumption can be achieved,” Walter Galinat, head of Merck’s performance materials division, said in the statement.

“This agreement with Merck is another major endorsement of the world-class quality of our cadmium-free quantum dot technology,” Nanoco CEO Michael Edelman said in the statement. “We are convinced that Merck can leverage its position in the display industry with these innovative materials.”

Financial details of the agreement were unknown.

Nanoco will receive a licensing fee and royalties on Merck’s sales of the Nanoco cadmium-free quantum dots Merck manufactures.

Analysts say the latest agreement between Nanoco and Merck will have far-reaching benefits, as Merck could supply higher-quality cadmium-free products to major TV manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics.

Samsung is locked in a race with its rival LG Electronics for the next dominant display technology.

Samsung is sharpening the viewing quality of its TVs using cadmium-free quantum dot materials based on its existing LCD infrastructure. In contrast, LG Electronics has been aggressively promoting TVs using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

LG Group’s technology affiliates are now being united to lift OLED technology into the mainstream of the display industry, led by the group’s display affiliate LG Display.

LG Display Vice Chairman and CEO Han Sang-beom recently asked Samsung to join ongoing collective moves with Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese companies to promote the OLED industry.

But Samsung’s answer was no, as the company remained doubtful over the profitability of the OLED TV business due to higher manufacturing costs and non-that-impressive production yields and defect rates.

Samsung believes OLED displays could be nicely installed in portable devices such as smartphones and in-vehicle parts. All Samsung Electronics’ flagship mobile products currently use OLEDs supplied by Samsung Display.

“Samsung favors quantum dot, a nano-crystal evolution of LCD technology, given its quantum dot-owned advantage to minimize costs for LCD display manufacturing lines with a few and cost-effective adjustments, the Merck-Nanoco partnership will be helpful to Samsung,” said an industry executive by phone.

A Samsung Electronics spokesman in Seoul declined to comment on the expected benefits that it will get from the Merck-Nanoco partnership.

Quantum materials offer substantial additional benefits when they are used as color converters in the light source of LCDs.

In conventional displays, the colors red, green and blue are filtered out of the original white light of the LED light source. A great deal of light is lost in this process. Absorption is reduced because a blue LED in combination with red and green quantum materials only generates the blue, green and red light that is perfectly transmitted through the filters, said the statement.