- Samsung Display is developing more efficient OLED pixel tech to rival LG's FLiPP tech
- It could start production very soon, but the prototype is only 7 inches
- The tech seems to target watch and phone screens over larger panels
As we reported last week, LG Display is moving forward with next-gen Fine Metal Mask-free OLED pixels that could mean brighter, more efficient and maybe more affordable OLED panels. And it looks like Samsung Display is thinking along very similar lines.
A new report by trade site The Elec says that Samsung Display has been working on a prototype seven-inch FMM-free OLED panel using its proprietary Micro Patterned OLED technology, or MPO for short.
The Elec has been speaking to unnamed industry sources, who said that Samsung has been working on MPO product development since March 2026 with a target date at the end of 2026, although that may slip into early 2027.
As with LG's FLiPP technology, the plan is to focus on a particular screen size at first. Samsung is aiming at phone or watch-sized displays, while LG is aiming at laptop or monitor-sized displays. (Neither is aiming at TVs in the near future, alas.)
But while the two companies are taking slightly different approaches to FMM-free manufacturing, the result is likely to be the same: brighter, more efficient and more affordable OLED panels.
What is Samsung Display's MPO technology, and how does it differ from LG Display's FLiPP?
First, why do these companies want to drop 'Fine Metal Mask' tech? This is currently how the material for OLED pixels is deposited into each pixel, and while the tech is useful and mature, it makes for pixels that aren't very efficient.
The primary goal of moving to a more efficient tech is make it so that more of the area of each pixel is filled with light-emitting elements, which means the panel will be brighter, or can be the same brightness but uses less power to do it, which great for battery life and longevity of devices. FMM-free pixels could also be cheaper to make, long-term.
LG's FLiPP technology (FMM-Less innovative Pixel Patterning) essentially covers the panel with organic materials and then removes the bits it doesn't want via etching and photolithography. MPO does things slightly differently, creating microscopic structures that fence in the organic materials so they're only laid where they need to go. Those structures are then removed. That means less waste and simpler manufacturing, which will ultimately mean lower manufacturing costs, in theory.
The most important difference may not be technical, however: as The Elec points out, there are various active patents regarding FMM-free technologies, and MPO may enable Samsung Display to avoid them.
What we don't know yet is how well the technology will scale. As one of the unnamed industry insiders explained, "MPO is being developed in a direction better suited to high-resolution OLED displays than medium- and large-sized panels. Once a 7-inch-class sample is available, it will be possible to assess how effectively MPO’s technical advantages can be realized at an actual product size."
The big problems for OLED screens, and the thing that keeps them more expensive than LCD panels, is yield rates — that means how many panels you produce are actually usable. The new FMM-free technologies might work perfectly and be cheaper in terms of the material used, but if only 50% of the panels you make are good enough to ship, you haven't actually saved anything.
That's why the production test runs of both technologies will be the make-or-break moment — though both are behind the roll-out of inkjet-printed OLED, arriving in monitors now, which hopes to deliver all the same advantages.
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