LG Display has introduced a new manufacturing methodology for OLED screens, called FLiPP (FMM-Less innovative Pixel Patterning), which promises to decrease production costs and improve panel performance.
This technology eliminates the need to use the thin metal masks currently employed to shape the pixels in this type of screen. The announcement was made this Wednesday, August 19th, during the IMID 2026 fair, focused on new panel and screen technologies, held in Busan, South Korea.
According to LG Display, panels manufactured using FLiPP can show improvements in both brightness and durability compared to panels made by the conventional method.
LG Display indicates that FLiPP is applicable to screens ranging from 1 to 100 inches, although it has not yet released commercial products incorporating this innovation. In the Brazilian context, the expectation is that the new technology may initially appear in televisions, given that the company has ended its notebook sales in the country and withdrawn from the global smartphone market.
The traditional process for manufacturing OLED screens depends on FMM (thin metal mask), where organic materials in red, green, and blue are evaporated and deposited onto the panel through micro-holes present in metal sheets. The company draws an analogy between this procedure and the use of stencils in works of art.
Despite being an industry standard, LG points out limitations in the FMM method that result in high manufacturing costs. One of these limitations is the requirement to create new masks whenever there is a change in the size or resolution of the panel. Additionally, these masks can suffer deformation in the center due to their own weight, causing pixel misalignment.
Another challenge lies in utilizing the glass substrate used as the base of the panels. In production lines with large components, the FMM process often requires the glass to be cut in half before the material evaporation phase.
For the production of OLED panels intended for notebooks, LG claims that keeping the glass whole can increase utilization efficiency by up to 64% compared to methods that use divided substrates.
The concept of FLiPP aims to replace the current process with one that more closely resembles semiconductor manufacturing, employing photolithography. Instead of directing organic materials through a metal mask, LG deposits the RGB layers directly onto the panel and uses ultraviolet light to remove unwanted areas.
With this, LG expects to eliminate the dependence on a distinct physical piece for each screen format or resolution, which simplifies adaptation to various sizes. Furthermore, LG states that FLiPP enhances screen performance because it increases the panel opening rate—the proportion of the screen surface effectively covered by light-emitting pixels—raising this rate by approximately 55% according to the company, generating significant benefits.
